Student loans @#%^&**!!? long... (add your woes)

The BBQ Pit
1

My life with student loans started back in 1995. I was 18, renting an apartment and living on my own. Since I still had to submit my parents tax returns and my award was based on that, I got all unsubsidized loans and had to take an extra semester before school to earn the out of pocket money. So far, I wasn’t all that annoyed I just dealt with the situation.

The next school year, my award was cut in half because I wasn’t a freshman anymore. (Meaning: we’ve sucked you in and transferring is a bitch.) That meant as a 19 year old I was supposed to find $12,000 somewhere for SUNY, non-resident tuition. Since I lived in state all year and paid my taxes, I asked if I could get in-state tuition. No, because I went to high school out of state. At this point I was annoyed and I had to take a year off and I moved to PA.

After a year in PA, I transferred and went to college there. I applied for state grants, and once again I was not a resident. This time it was because I asked the college for information before I lived in-state for a full year. WTF?! So, I asked, WHERE AM I A RESIDENT!? The answer was, nowhere. It is possible to be a resident of nowhere in this system. Once again, WTF?! So, I sucked it up yet again and worked 35 hours a week while taking 18 credit hours.

I finished my coursework and I had an extra semester of student teaching. Since student teaching does not add up to a full-time credit load, my loans went into repayment. So, my day starts at 7:30, I have meetings after school until 6:30, and I manage to work two days a week. I can’t even feed myself and the PA loan people manage to screw up my paperwork for a forbearance so many times, my checks were about to be garnished. (Thank you to the student loan ombudsman for straightening that out.) At this point, I am on the verge of an aneurysm.

Now that I have all the school stuff finished, I figure that I can find a way to straighten out my $48,987 in loans. My payments were supposed to be almost $600 a month (That’s half of what I take home a month as a teacher.) I went to the loan office got a list of my umpteen loans and consolidated them. Well, the office forgot to list the most recent loan and was sending the bills to my address in NY. (I hadn’t lived there for five years at this point.) I had no idea there was a problem until it went into collections. With over $40,000 being taken care of I was in danger of having my wages garnished because of a lousy $3,000! All I can do is laugh now, otherwise my brain will explode.

Then I decided to get a job in an inner city school with the offer that up to 60% will be forgiven. I got my application back today, rejected, because some of my loans were taken out before 1998, when the Urban Relief, blah blah law was passed. Now, I understand the concept of no ex post facto laws (college education at work) but even my loans AFTER 1998 will not be considered.

I’m moving to Canada, now.

2

Just curious, but why did you go to SUNY in the first place if you didn’t live in NY? Didn’t your home state have a public university with cheap tuition?

3

My home state was NJ. The state schools I looked at for Art Education did not have programs that fit what I wanted. Also, I admit that I really wanted to get the hell out of New Jersey.

4

I’ve told my parents many times that the nicest thing they’ve done for me so far, outside of actually having me, was paying all of my college costs so I could start my “real” life without debt.

I have great sympathy for people dealing with student loans. I’m sorry, guys; it ought to be easier to pay for an education.

5

Ick! Sorry about your situation, altoid. That totally sucks. Did the loan office at least admit they screwed up by forgetting about that last $3K loan? And I thought my situation with student loans sucked…

When I graduated in 1994, I was surprised to learn that I had more than $45K in student loans to pay back. Dad had been sticking pieces of paper in front of me to sign all throughout school, never telling me what they were for. I know it was my fault for not looking at what I was signing, but it came as a surprise that I had that much to pay back.

Here’s the real scam…In order to get to something resembling a realistic student loan payment, I had to elect to sign up for a program that stepped up payment amounts gradually over time. IMHO, this is a license for the lender to give it to you up the pooper repeatedly, as the choice is to either join the program or somehow make a $600/month payment while you’re looking for a job, apartment, etc.

I made the payments for a few years. I’m one of those people who HATES owing money, though, and I was always looking for a way to get the student loan lender paid off. Fortunately, a few years later, my employer decided to refuse to accept the resignation I had tendered, opting to make a counter-offer to get me to stay in my position for at least an additional six months. I told them a condition of my staying aboard was to have the company pay off my student loans in their entirety, which they did.

I remember the phone call well. Someone from the loan company called me after receiving my check:

“Hello, THespos. This is Betty from [loan company]. I just wanted to congratulate you on paying off your student loan.”

“FUCK YOU!!!” I screamed. Then I hung up the phone.

I know, I know. Not one of my most mature moments. And the telemarketer definitely didn’t deserve it. But I was so ticked at having had to refinance the loans through the step-up program that I simply couldn’t resist. Geez, I would have really liked to have used that money for something else, like ferinstance a nice sports car or a down payment on a house…

6

Fair enough.

7

I finally paid off my student loans in 2000. In 2001, I got laid off, and went back to school. In 2002 I was forced to take out student loans again.

sigh

I graduate in September. This time I’m paying them off ASAP. I don’t care if I have to live in my basement and rent out the upper level to a band of syphylitic crack whores, those loans’ll be paid off in two years, max.

8

Funny how these will most likely be the fairest loan terms you will get in your life and this is how people react:
No interest till you are 6 months out of school (or below 12 credits).
Chance to refinance (consolidate) once to a fixed rate.
Ability to change from a fixed amount to a step up payment.
Ability to lenghten or shorten the length of the loan for up to 30 years during consolidation.
Most offer a reduced rate after 4 years of ontime payments and also a small decrease in the rate for auto-widthdrawal.
Which goes for me too, I am sort of pissed that I still have $$$$$ to pay but I have to admit it is one heck of a loan.

9

I went to college with a lot of people from NJ. They all came down for the same reason, plus the out-of-state tuitions at NC state universities is about the same as in-state for NJ. Plus, the art education school at ECU is pretty damn good.

10

Oh yes…

My parents (divorced) make a combined $114,000 per year. Me…$1,000.

Yet they little consider that my parents and I share expenses EVENLY.

Get work? I have no car. Work on campus? All the good jobs go to people with work study (which I don’t qualify for due to the $114K). Work one of the ‘bad’ jobs? Unflexable hours. One of the coffee carts expect you to work from 12-8PM every day. Because naturally NOBODY would think of scheduling a class in the afternoon…:rolleyes: And unlike some…I’m not willing to sacrifice classtime to work.

Debt thusfar (Sophmore Year) = $12,500

11

Let me just add that I complain, but am thankful cause I know MANY that are WAY worse off than I am.

12

Man, I had trouble with instate tuition when I went to school, too. I had lived in VA for at least eight years and they wanted me to pay out of state tuition. Go figure.

Finally graduated four years ago and I still haven’t been able to pay my loan payments. I wonder if kids are still being told that you’re nothing unless you go to college? That what I had crammed down my throat.

13

Fuck you!!! :wally

I have to deal with all kinds of assholes like you all day. I really doubt the loan company called to congratulate you for paying off your damn loan, they would have to open a congratulation dept just to handle the amount of loans that are paid off each day.

The only time your loan company would contact your ass is when you fall more then 60 days behind on paying. You pay your loans on time, and you’ll never hear from them.

Telemarketer??? Was she trying to sell you fucking siding for a house? Yeah, blame her for your dumbass signing all those papers, where did you think the money was coming from, the pot of gold at the end of rainbow?

Sure, you could have a got a car or a house, but I really doubt you could get away without paying for nearly 300 days on a house, and have the lenders still try to work out payment options.

14

I used to work for PHEAA (Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Authority) in their Graduate consolidation department. Have you looked into consolidating your student loans? They lump all the individual loans together into one loan and give you a 15 or 30 year (your pick) payment schedule to pay them off. Granted you will pay a buttload of interest, but there is no penalty for overpayment if you should find yourself some extra cash here or there.
The Federal government had a similar program to ours as well as some private companies (I recommend you stick to the Federal). If I recall correctly (and you should ask to make sure) all of your forebearnce and deferment time is reset since it is considered a new loan.

Just something to think about.