horak

I wouldn't worry too much. As long as you have filled out the FAFSA for the upcoming year and have your mother apply for the Parent Plus and get denied (I'm assuming she has bad credit due to using your credit card), you will be eligible for an additional 5k in unsubsidized loans (7k max) since you are a junior/senior. You didn't specifically state what type of aid you are receiving (Scholarships, Pell Grants, Staffords, etc..) so it is hard to judge whether you will be maxing out your eligible amount of federal loans, but nonetheless, the student federal loans our your best/*only* option it seems.

if you haven't already, have your parent sign up for the Parent PLUS loan and if they perhaps get turned down, you are eligible for an additional *roughly* 3k in unsub loans.. that's if your parents are willing or ready to have an inquiry on there report

completely agree.... save yourself the 70k in loans and join the air force. I had some friends do the same thing. You get all the flight hours required to be a commercial pilot by joining for a specific amount of years. and, its always great to serve your country (unless you may have an ailment). plus, having all that on your resume, you are more likely to land a better job.

After you fill out the FAFSA with the school codes, the information is processed and eventually the school/s you applied for will get the information. Based on your EFC (expected family contribution) your school will grant you money accordingly. If you receive no grants or not enought "free money", you will be able to apply for the Stafford loans. Typically *99% of the time* your school will guide you on the whole process of getting the Staffords from initially accepting them to picking virtually any lender from Chase to Wells Fargo. You can borrow up to the maximum limit for your grade level each year. As for study abroad, you could request the full amount or difference (which may be unsubsidized, meaning the interest accrues while you are in school). That means, based on your classification, you could receive anywhere between roughly 5-7k in Staffords for a summer session. I am a current student and planning on doing something of the same nature next year. so to answer: they are not hard to get and every lender is pretty much the same because they all have to follow the same federal interest rates which is around 6% right now and goes down next year.

Hello all (first post), I have a question that has been eating at me this past month. I had a past due balance on an account with a college I was attending last year and after I had transferred to another school, the previous university tacked on a measly $192 fine for the Texas 3-peat rule (What pissed me off, was that they should have charged me this with the original tuition and fees; not after classes were through with). Anyways, I had no clue about it until recently when I received an e-mail last month stating from the previous school that it has been sent to a collection agency. So, I instantly paid for it directly to the school THAT DAY I received the notification. (My account says within the same day 1) sent to collections and 2) $192 payment.) It hit me though, I should contact the agency. Apparently they didn't know I had paid, as I received some mail from the agency postmarked 7 days after my payment. So, when I called the agency they had not known I paid for the amount in full the same day I was sent to collections. They said they would call them and validate if this was correct. Anyways, what I'm getting to is 1) Will this collections agency actually report this to the CRA's even if I paid the same day but didn't contact them until roughly one or two weeks later? and 2) If they do report, is there a way I could dispute this by goodwill or something? Thanks guys