student loans?

[Sleazy]

you are definitely doing what your suggesting the right way but it's definitely a faster track because anyone who gets computer science also studies those things but also studies hierachical statemachine theory, calculus, calculus based physics, linear algebra, compilers, computer architecture, advanced math classes, advanced com sci electives, ect... just to name a few not to mention all the social sciences and other core classes that anyone with a 4 year degree gets. and for me i'd never be as hard core about studying all the time if i didn't get warmed up in school, but i have friends who are more sucessful than me (for now) and more well read on current technology who've taken the approach your suggesting. so it's really about the person but it definitely takes a special kind of person to do what you are talking about and do it well.

it's great to have another tech geek on the board. what technologies you into?

[rawbertson.]

you guys are making this way too hard
go to the bank and set up an appointment
or talk to your guidance counsellor if you are already in school for a year at least (college i mean)

otherwise get a job and live at mom adn dad's house like i did then you have no debt

[Sleazy]

yeah, not everyone's parents live in places with good schools. mine didn't. i worked but still had to have loans on top of grants.

[RightCoastBiased]

you guys are making this way too hard
go to the bank and set up an appointment
or talk to your guidance counsellor if you are already in school for a year at least (college i mean)

otherwise get a job and live at mom adn dad's house like i did then you have no debt

No one here is making this complicated, it just is complicated. If you go to the bank and take out a loan you are most likely going to have interest rates that are higher then what it would be if you borrowed through the processes described in this thread. Also going and getting a 10k-30k loan is not easy and you are going to have to start paying the loans back right away. It isn't likely a college kid with a full course load is going to be able to do that.

And don't you live in canada? What do you know about the way it works here?

[Prison Wallet]

Shit is complicated... You end up just signing paperwork in good faith and go numb. Same goes with buying a house; I've bought two and still don't know what the fuck happened in the mortgage office once I walked out.

Basically you want to go the financial aid office and see what options are out there. Find out which loan has the lowest interest rate and has the most opportunities for federal loan repayment. I personally would only go with a federal loan or a long standing loan program with a good reputation. Something that will let you adjust payments according to how much you make, which all the loans my wife and I have, have done.

Any of you looking at school loans know what the going rates look like?

[loophole]

i went to a meeting today and they talked about this IBR (income-based repayment) program for repaying student loans. after 25 years of repayment all the remaining balance and interest is dropped.
http://www.ibrinfo.org/

[Prison Wallet]

Very cool Loophole.

The availability/low interested/gov't repayment options make student loans a great aspect of the American education system. A few weeks ago my wife was accepted to the Health Services Corps and in two weeks we'll have 50Gs deposited in our savings account that has to go to pay off our student loans. The program is for health professionals who work with under-served populations, which is what my wife would be doing regardless of the repayment program. That money will almost cut our school debt in half.

[rawbertson.]

you guys are making this way too hard
go to the bank and set up an appointment
or talk to your guidance counsellor if you are already in school for a year at least (college i mean)

otherwise get a job and live at mom adn dad's house like i did then you have no debt

And don't you live in canada? What do you know about the way it works here?

You make a stellar point. I should have remembered going to school in the USA is like 30,000$ a year. It sucks for you guys especially because we have schools that are rated just as high as your "Ivy League" schools but they don't cost nearly as much for Canadians to attend because the government subsizes post secondary education here. So for you guys to come here to go to school, it would still cost you 30,000$, but for us its only like 4,000$.

I went to a community college it was only 2,000$ a year for tuition and its the top rated college in Ontario as far as I know also in Canada and books were maybe $1,000 during the course of the year and food and bus passes only probably cost between 500-1000$. so I should consdier myself fairly lucky. no wonder i had no debt and i was partying like every day and only working 2 days a week driving a forklift. dont take it for granted kids.

[RightCoastBiased]

you guys are making this way too hard
go to the bank and set up an appointment
or talk to your guidance counsellor if you are already in school for a year at least (college i mean)

otherwise get a job and live at mom adn dad's house like i did then you have no debt

And don't you live in canada? What do you know about the way it works here?

You make a stellar point. I should have remembered going to school in the USA is like 30,000$ a year. It sucks for you guys especially because we have schools that are rated just as high as your "Ivy League" schools but they don't cost nearly as much for Canadians to attend because the government subsizes post secondary education here. So for you guys to come here to go to school, it would still cost you 30,000$, but for us its only like 4,000$.

I went to a community college it was only 2,000$ a year for tuition and its the top rated college in Ontario as far as I know also in Canada and books were maybe $1,000 during the course of the year and food and bus passes only probably cost between 500-1000$. so I should consdier myself fairly lucky. no wonder i had no debt and i was partying like every day and only working 2 days a week driving a forklift. dont take it for granted kids.

I wish the US had a system like that. It shouldn't cost someone 200k to get a PHD.

[rawbertson.]

its cause they are trying to keep rich people rich man its bullshit. it makes it fucking impossible for average people to gain knowledge. fucking retarded thats why americans keep gettin dumber.

[oyolar]

you guys are making this way too hard
go to the bank and set up an appointment
or talk to your guidance counsellor if you are already in school for a year at least (college i mean)

otherwise get a job and live at mom adn dad's house like i did then you have no debt

And don't you live in canada? What do you know about the way it works here?

You make a stellar point. I should have remembered going to school in the USA is like 30,000$ a year. It sucks for you guys especially because we have schools that are rated just as high as your "Ivy League" schools but they don't cost nearly as much for Canadians to attend because the government subsizes post secondary education here. So for you guys to come here to go to school, it would still cost you 30,000$, but for us its only like 4,000$.

I went to a community college it was only 2,000$ a year for tuition and its the top rated college in Ontario as far as I know also in Canada and books were maybe $1,000 during the course of the year and food and bus passes only probably cost between 500-1000$. so I should consdier myself fairly lucky. no wonder i had no debt and i was partying like every day and only working 2 days a week driving a forklift. dont take it for granted kids.

don't want to sound like a dick, but this just isn't true. plus despite what everyone wants to think, ivy leagues are not good schools (necessarily). they're just old and on the east coast.

[max power]

don't want to sound like a dick, but this just isn't true. plus despite what everyone wants to think, ivy leagues are not good schools (necessarily). they're just old and on the east coast.

what the ivy's give you are connections and a prestigious name on your degree, not necessarily the best education. sometimes those serve you better than a great education.

[Sleazy]

it's not an ivy school but rice is the closest thing we have to that in houston and i used to just think it was a bunch of hype until i worked with some rice students. the computer science program was way better and the smartest UH students would basically be average or below when compared to rice. i have no idea about whether ivy = better education but in houston, rice most certainly does. i'd hire a rice over a non-rice intern without thinking twice about it if the decision was mine.

[hekkahyphy]

i am so glad you guys posted this... figuring this crap out alone sucks donkey dung

[Commercial D]

You don't pay for an Ivy League school for the education quality. You do it for the connections and the prestige. There's nothing in Canada that even comes close. I'd rather spend $200k at Yale than $50k at McGill to get the same degree, though the quality of academic instruction would be comparable.

[tonysean]

I wouldn't have a college education without scholarships and financial aid, luckily enough I got a couple of art scholarships when I was in high school, they have helped me out a lot.

how do you get hooked up with those. i know you have to set up a portfolio but i don't know what to do with it or really what they would be looking for in it. i'm a photographer planning on art school so a scholarship would be rad for me.

[McDuff]

I wouldn't have a college education without scholarships and financial aid, luckily enough I got a couple of art scholarships when I was in high school, they have helped me out a lot.

how do you get hooked up with those. i know you have to set up a portfolio but i don't know what to do with it or really what they would be looking for in it. i'm a photographer planning on art school so a scholarship would be rad for me.

you have to apply, maybe write an essay or two... but my mother works in a library and brought home a shit ton of books about free scholarships.... im sure you can find some on the internet tho. like someone said above, they have scholarships for everything.


and thanks for bumping this thread up. im going crazy deciding on what to do about student loans/going back to school... any input would be fucking awesome....

aright. out of high school i attended a community college for a year, then moved to philly and went to a 4 year school and racked up about 20k plus in loans, and didnt finish. im glad i dipped while i did because the school was pricey as FUCK. but anyway, here i am back at home in nj, and id like to attend that same community college again... but this time im not sure i could get help through financial aid because i havent begun to pay back my $20k, and im constantly getting letters/phonecalls from them about it... i make $10 an hour, roughly $260 a week, and i guess im just not sure whether its worth it to even go back to school. 1 class for the semester is about $500. of course i have bills and shit to pay, so it will be a bit tight money wise... a lot of people on here are convincing me that going to school is pretty much a waste of time, when you can get the same education elsewhere. but in order to get a decent job, i feel like i should have AT LEAST an associates degree.... i dont know. thoughts?

[Sleazy]

obama just changed the school loan game and doubled pell grants. definitely going to be way better for you guys that get to take advantage of these than it was for me.

[art hellman]

i will never get out from under my law school loans...

...but you definitely want loans that allow you the option of throwing extra money at them when you can, so you can gradually drop the monthly payment amounts (similar to what prison wallet was saying)

[Sleazy]

sure you will, you'll be grabbing that lawyer cash

where you been homie? long time no post

[adumb]

obama just changed the school loan game and doubled pell grants. definitely going to be way better for you guys that get to take advantage of these than it was for me.

But the Loan amounts were decreased. So basically you get the same amount, you just don't have to pay back as much as long as you graduate. I think the federal government is banking on a high drop-out rate

[pugmaster]

i am so glad you guys posted this... figuring this crap out alone sucks donkey dung

ol' pugmaster has got ur back

[mattyc]

All mine were with Sally Mae.  Don't know that any of the actual banks/loan companies are all too different.  What I do know and what they don't tell you is.  Once you get out of school you need to consolidate your student loans. (It's bundling all your multiple student loans into 1 new loan).  And what they don't tell you about that is if all of your loans are with one company you legally have to give that company the opportunity to consolidate the loans.  So basically if all your loans are one company, you have to consolidate with that company.  Doesn't sound like a terrible thing, and it's not....but loan companies offer all sorts of incentives to consolidate with them.  ie...they'll offer you money to consolidate with them.  So you don't have that opportunity if all of your loans are with the same company.

-mattyc

[Siem van Woerkom]

Dont stress out to much about them, a lot of people have one, and you can pay em off easy