Does anyone have any advice on the college loan process?  Anything I should avoid, watch out for, ask about, etc?  Did you make your college decision based on finances?  If so, any regrets?  Did you take on a tremendous amount of college debt in order to attend the best possible school?  Was it worth it?

ted wrote:

Does anyone have any advice on the college loan process?  Anything I should avoid, watch out for, ask about, etc?  Did you make your college decision based on finances?  If so, any regrets?  Did you take on a tremendous amount of college debt in order to attend the best possible school?  Was it worth it?

I choose to got to well known community college (in which mostly all classes and credit hours transfer over to well known universities) instead of a expense college, and let me tell you im so much off better for it for many reason. 1st- I'm in way less debt about 3,000 and with books about 4,000. Plus the classes of course you can get to go around your shed, and get your GPA quite high. This way when i transfer i can get a good scholarship because of my gpa.
Opposed to my friend, who decided to go to Loyola University, and was in $22,000 debt her first year. She couldn't pay that off that same year, and since she took the loan through the college she couldn't attend until she paid it off. So she went to a community college for a year, worked and payed off the loan in one year (which was amazing). Now shes gotten her gpa quite high and got a good scholarship plus financial aid and only has to pay 6,000 a year now. She opted to take the loan out of a bank this time.

So i guess the moral of the story was to never take a loan through your college, but through a bank. Compare interest rates, and other hidden charges (read the fine print). Good luck on that! I'll ask my friend how she choose her loan and get back to you on that.

I think any reasonable state university is credible enough. I think an average employer would not compare schools between candidates that in-depth.  I attended a 4-year school from the get go and could have saved a significant amount of debt by attending community college with a good amount of transferable credits and rented an apartment versus living on campus.

I only used federal aid so am not familiar with other types of loans but have seen people get burned with high interest/bad terms, etc. My suggestion would be to really dig into the terms and conditions of any loan prior to signing up.

I also decided to go to a community college for that reason. My debt is down to $7500 for the first year and $6000 for the second year, and then I'll be done. The one thing I strictly remember looking for in my loan was the deferment rules. At this point, all of my loans are defered til 6 months after I graduate. That gives me time to find a job in my field and get down the road a little ways before I have lots of big payments to be making. That was almost more important than the interest rates, because even if I had a lower interest rate to begin with there's no way I could afford to make payments right now while I'm in school, especially since I'm only working part time!

Two quick notes . . . unfortuneatly from personal experience!

1)  Even if you don't feel like you qualify, always fill out the FAFSA . . . you may be surprised.

2)  Do not charge your college education on a credit card . . .  (I'm probably the only person to do this, BUT just in case . . . the interest is killer, and despite your best intentions, you won't be able to pay it back quickly!)

Good luck!

As a former community college professor, I can attest to the savings available...and to the pitfalls you'll encounter attending community college. Yes, it's much cheaper. BUT, it's also a lot easier to coast through class without learning anything, particularly because that's what most of your classmates will be doing. If the easy A sounds appealing, you'll find that learning the material was a lot more important than that when you get to the upper division. The other major community college pitfall is the transfer rate. It's abysmally low. Most community college students never transfer to a four year university (at least in California). So if you're going to go the community college route, you need to be sure that you have the initiative to study harder than your classmates, learn the material, and excell.

Oh, and one more comment, this one more aimed at the original question. It's quite possible to take on a large student loan and go to a school that's just not as good as a more affordable school. More expensive does not necessarily equal a better school. Do your research. My wife ended up spending about twice what she needed to for law school by choosing a private school that was, in the end, probably not much better than many of the public law schools in Southern California.

That is great advice. The loan is just the to help not make the choice for you.