Tips? Tricks? Scams to watch for? It's summer and I know a few lists members are heading off to college.

Tips? Tricks? Scams to watch for? It's summer and I know a few lists members are heading off to college.

Remember, YOU HAVE TO PAY IT BACK. If you don't you can't get that new car, new house, new wife, new kid, you get the picture.

 

That's the single biggest piece of advice I can tell you. It's so easy to sign those papers 18 years old, never being responsible to pay off anything before this. Trust me, those loans get pretty damn burdensome your first year out.

 

Also, try to be really careful on the interest rate stuff, there's a lot of debate going back and forth about whether to cancel out locking in on the low rates.

 

If you can pay a little in school on loans, it helps tremendously as well.

 

More later...

THEY BLOW NUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I swear the debt doesn't decrease no matter how much or how long I've been paying.

 

As Kap said, you gotta pay those babies back so be careful how much you take.

Did everyone work through their school's financial aid office or did it yourself?

Did everyone work through their school's financial aid office or did it yourself?

School's financial aid office. UIC had a great office and wonderful people to work with.

My advice, get rich parents.

 

My wife and I have $60,000 in college loan debt. We could be buying a house, if we hadn't have made that dumb decesion to go to college

As one who just graduated (huzzah!)--remember: $3,000 a year might not sound like much--but you'll be borrowing that much PER YEAR. Oh, it adds up. Keep that in mind. Don't plan on having nice things for a looooooong time.

 

And if you can try to get subsidized--I have those so no interest will acrue during my deferment (nor while I was in school).

THEY BLOW NUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I swear the debt doesn't decrease no matter how much or how long I've been paying.

You said it. Our loans are structured in a real slimy way where you can't really pay down the capital - anything extra you just pay is applied toward your next payment due. I'm not bright enough to really get all that money stuff, but a couple of people have told me it does indeed blow nut.

 

My wife and I strated out with $45K debt between us, and several years later we still seem to be in pretty much the same hole.