I won’t be getting financial aid.

[halen123]

All right, I just filled out my FAFSA. My parents make $80,000 a year that I had to report on it so it's likely I won’t be getting financial aid. They don’t help me pay for school and I need a loan for my tuition. I would like student loans... will the government give me a student loan if my parents make that much money and I have high credit card balances but a good credit score? Any info would be greatly appreciated.
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ever green

 

[cristo]

I'm sorry I can't give you any more advice, being a mature student in my country a university education is free or can be.

I'm not going to bother answering the offtopic hijack part of your post, but this is slightly related to the thread. Is university education free for all mature students? Seems pretty unfair if that's the case!

As for the original question, I don't know (not being from the US and all). I don't see why the government wouldn't give you a student loan, especially if you explain that whilst your parents may earn a high wage, they do not intend to assist you financially throughout your studies. Do you have an advisor at your school, or the university you are intending to go to who can help you with these questions?

 

[Vanadium 50]

Ignoring the thread hijack and returning to the original poster. Why do you have high credit card debt? And how high is high? This could be an obstacle, as lenders don't want to loan money to people who are unlikely to be able to pay them back. Student loans are among the least risky of loans, but even there, there's a limit. Note that in the vast majority of cases the government doesn't actually loan money - they guarantee to a private lender that you will pay it back.

Have you talked to your school's financial aid office? They do this for a living - you can expect them to be more adept at this than a bunch of guys on the internet.

 

[scorpa]

I don't know how it works where you are but in Canada, you would not be able to get a student loan if your parents make that amount of money. I personally can not get one, my parents are farmers and they take land ownership (assets in otherwords) into account, they seem to think my parents should sell all of their land so I can go to school haha. I have another friend whose father is in the military and just retired, and can't get one either because he made "to much" money, and she does not get support from them. I know she ended up getting a student line of credit and is looking into getting a bank loan to try to pay for school.

 

[Ronnin]

Well in answer to the first question, yes you can get subsidized student loans even if you do not qualify for a Pell Grant. The question here is how much. I wouldn't worry about credit score either. As long as no one has defaulted on any previous federal subsidized loans you should be ok. I still would recommend getting a part time job to pay any expenses the loans don't cover. It's a pretty heavy debt load to begin your professional life with.

 

[Zantra]

To answer the OP, yes you qualify for student loans- however they will likely be unsubsidized (acrues interest during school) loans. I think most people can qualify for some type of financial aid.

However, have you given any thought to how you're going to pay off your credit cards while in school? loans won't cover it, so you'll have to either get a job and pay off balances before school starts, or work part time and make your credit card payment minimums while you're in school

 

[DavidWhitbeck]

OP-- I'm sorry to hear that, it's a sad fact that the middle class doesn't qualify for a lot of financial aid. Your parents make too much to be really needs based, but not enough to make it easy for them finance your education. There is this uncomfortable hole inbetween those two extremes in which the majority of US college students end up in.

 

[Moonbear]

As has been pointed out, there are really two separate issues here. Your parents' income makes you ineligible for need-based financial aid, but that won't stop you from getting student loans.

The other issue is "high" credit card debt. How does someone not even in college already run up credit card debt? Focus on getting that credit card paid off! This is a time when you should be saving all your earnings from whatever jobs you get to start paying for college, not already heading into debt before you even get to college. So, stop buying stuff, get another job or two or three (summer's coming, no reason not to work multiple jobs), pay off that credit card and start putting the rest into savings to pay for college.

If you have a car, unless you're using it to get to an off-campus job while in college, sell it for the time you're in college. The combination of whatever you can get for the sale, plus the savings on gas, insurance, maintenance, and registration fees will give you a lot of extra income (get an inexpensive, used bike instead to get around campus or to jobs relatively close to campus). This is an expense I see a lot of students hanging onto, and it's so pointless while in college (you'd be hard-pressed to find a college campus that doesn't have some form of bus or shuttle transportation to get to grocery stores for the occasional necessity purchase).

Also, you should focus on keeping your grades high, and then look around for merit-based awards. Even if it's too late for scholarships, sometimes there are small prizes and awards available based on things like getting the top grade in a particular subject in college that come with prize money like $500 or so, which can at least help buy books.

 

[Feldoh]

No merit based scholarships? That's from where the majority of my financial aid came. You'll probably get a little in financial aid from the FAFSA.

However how do you have credit card debt before you're even out of high school? The goal was to save money for college, not spend it.