Student Loans - Rant Below
No one tells you that even if you apply for 15-20 scholars, or maybe even more, that you aren't guaranteed to even get one or them.
No one ever tells you how much student loans will cost you. Especially for a low income family, in a competitive scholarship market.
No one tells you that the money the state gives you for college is money that you have to pay back.
There's so many little things that your average student getting ready for their first year of college isn't aware of. So many things that factor into if now is the right time to go to college.
Being a first generation college graduate in my family, I had no one to help me out. No one to guide me through the things that go into getting into college and paying for it. I did everything on my own. I applied for countless scholarships and only got a small handful of them. And the ones I did get, really didn't cover that much. Which left me with thousands of dollars that I still needed to pay to even get it.
My parents made barely enough to support our family. I even tried my best to help them make sure there was food on the table for my siblings. There was no way they could afford to help put me through college.
So I turned to student loans. Loans that will literally cost me way too much for the rest of my life. I'll be lucky to pay them off before I die.
Looking back, I wish I had someone, literally anyone who would have been able to tell me some of the key things about paying for college. I probably would've taken a year off to save some money for college then.
So just take it from a broke ass college graduate who literally only ever has like 7 dollars left at the end of the month, educate yourself about loans before you make the decision to take them out.
Some key tips I've picked up:
Before you take out loans, apply for as many scholarships as you can. You probably won't get all of them, but any little bit helps. And reapply for scholarships that you didn't get the next year. It never hurts to try.
If you have to take loans out, make sure to educate yourself about interest rates. And check into as many loan companies that you can. Some may offer better rates than others.
Don't fall for scams that say they can help you lower your overall loans or even consolidate them. 9 times out of 10 these are scammers just trying to get your information.
If you do take out loans be prepared to pay them. The worst thing you can do is not be ready for the payments start coming.
When the payments do finally start coming and you feel that you can't afford your monthly payment, call the company. They'll be happy to answer any questions you have. And if you can't afford them, then there are plenty of options that can make your payments lower. And they would rather lower your payments then make you struggle. Trust me, the last thing they want is for you to miss payments.
And the last thing you want, is to miss payments or not pay them at all. It puts a real damper on your credit score. And that is one of the most important things in life to keep at a good rate.
In the end, it's important to just educate yourself about every possible option. And if college is unaffordable to you in your current situation wait a year. Or two. There's no rush to go. Don't let anyone tell you that you need to go immediately. There's plenty of time to go. And no it doesn't make you stupid or a failure cuz your waited. You have to make your own smart decisions and if waiting will help you make college more affordable, then it's the right thing to do in my book.
