Help with student loan needed..;)

Hey, guys, here is the situation. My girlfriend wants to go to Parsons and needs a student loan. We both are legal residents. She has been in the States for a year(won a green card) and has some credit history, mine a few years longer, but the credit score is around 600(young mistakes). If anybody could tell me how hard would it be to get a student loan for around 70k. I work and get 50k per year, she is getting around 20k.What is the best place to apply and so on. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!!!

 

I'm thinking some sort of "lending agency" may be a good place to start. Unless one of the good members here wishes to whip out his fat dusty checkbook and do away with this ugly debt.

 

Call the school's financial aid office. They're the ones that will help you get a loan.

 

+1 They have access to all kinda government programs that can help you a LOT.

 

Start with FAFSA and also get in contact with the school as someone else mentioned.

 

Also, outside of the loan, scrounge around for scholarships. I'm not talking about the BIG ones that everyone's vying for. There are a lot of little ones that add up. When my GF was in grad school she nailed down a bunch of $300 to $1,500 ones. Yes it's a lot of work to fill out the paperwork but because of that there are far fewer applicants that you've got to beat out. There were a couple of times where she found out she was the only person who applied for the scholarship! As I said it all adds up and every little bit helps.

 

+1 to both, and go talk to a bank, ask them about Student Loans, and they will help you sometimes better than the schools FinAid office can.

 

Yep.

Start with the financial aids department at the college. You will need to fill our the FAFSA which will help in determining what she is eligible for. There are many minority grants and scholarships available along with a host of fraternal organization grants. You will need to start early and make sure you do not go past the Fafsa deadline. If you are wanting it for this semester that is just about to begin you are too late. We stayed after the school about a scholarship for our son and it paid off with the largest scholarship in his degree field in school history. We were surprised and very pleased.

 

trust me, scholarships are definitely a GREAT thing to have, but other than that, fafsa is the first thing you have to do to go any further, but check with any financial institution, they usually offer them.

 

I saw an article stating that with the credit melt down student loans will be very tough to get. Give it a shot anyway. You may have to consider "alternative strategies" to get there i.e. work for a company that will pay for schooling. Good luck.

 

Thanks a lot!!

 

Best advise is go to your school's financial aid office.

Check out www.studentloan.com I think you can apply online. When in grad school took a student loan from Citi as a foreigner.

 

Also even if she goes to Parsons, consider telling her to take transfer credits....then she can have a easier time with a course and save money at the same time.

 

Just out of curiosity, do you have to be on financial aid to get any scholarship?

 

Scholarships are usually (always?) merit-based, where financial aid is need-based, so the answer in most (all?) cases is no.

 

Yes - these schools WANT your money and will do whatever they can to get it from you.

Kinda like an ex-wife.