Taking out STUDENT LOANS HELP!
Hi all! First I want to say I basically have basic knowledge on financial aid as I am the first person in my family to go to college, so please please be kind ❤️
I’m honestly not very knowledgeable when it comes to financial aid outside of FAFSA because for my first bachelor’s degree I pretty much just did whatever FAFSA offered and figured out how to survive/pay for school that way, so I never really had to research much outside of that until now.
I just got accepted into an advanced nursing program. The program is 1 year total and costs around 60k since I’m out of state. It’s also heavily recommended that we don’t work while in the program because it’s basically like a full time job. I already used all of my federal financial aid from my first bachelor’s degree, so I’ve capped FAFSA and only qualify for a small amount now that doesn’t even come close to covering tuition. I feel really overwhelmed on my options, and have been told not to resort to Sallie Mae.
I currently do pay for my car, insurance, gas, groceries, etc, but I’ve now run out of the personal savings that was funding those expenses, so now I need to seek outside financial help for my own living expenses PLUS help for my tuition expenses while in school.
Unfortunately my student account is now on hold because of a past due balance from first semester that ended just 1 week ago, and since this is an accelerated program, the next semester already starts next week. I passed my first semester with straight A’s and I really don’t want to jeopardize all of my hard work, efforts, and my spot in the program over finances.
I know private loans are generally discouraged, but I honestly may have no choice at this point. Any advice/resources/recommendations are genuinely appreciated. Would anyone be willing to share:
- what federal/private loans you applied for (for personal living expenses + school?)
- what interest rates you were offered
- any loan servicers/lenders you recommend or would avoid
- how you went about taking out loans for rent/groceries/living expenses while in school