Yet Another Loan Question

[medcat10]

Hi,

I will be a part of the Sept 2008 class on Statia. I was very excited about getting accepted. However, now I am concerned about the current loan situation. I was told that there were loans available, but you would need to make monthly payments on it. This is IMPOSSIBLE to do as a medical student!!!!

Has anyone else heard anything regarding the loan situation? I'm a bit frustrated!!!:confused:

[kryptik]

As far as i know if you cannot go with the monthly payments you would have to go with a private loan with a bank, or private student loan with teri.

[nanagurl]

All private loans will require you to make monthly payments. Teri would be a good option as they allow you to defer till graduation, BUT Teri has pulled out their loans to all Caribbean schools as of April 22, 2008. It is to my understanding that the school is saying to take out a 50K loan and then automatically set aside 15K so that you can make your monthly payments and use the rest for tuition and living expenses. They suggest this until a new lender comes out for the caribbean. Its a really tough situation.

[kryptik]

where can we take these 50k loans from?

[gonnabemd]

i heard the same thing. but we were told you dont have to take out 50k to do this. they said to only take out what you need for the next semester or 2 because you dont want to pay the interest on a large amount since this is a short term fix. if teri or another place starts up again with defered loans, then we should pay back the short loan with part of taht one.

does this make sense?

[USF-Bull]

The lender that financial aid is offering is essentially no different that what you might get if you were to go it on your own. The rates for their lender are much higher than what 'traditional' student loan rates are (10.7%-13.95%) compared to about (5.25%), so it is an enormous risk to sign on with them.

I am not sure what the current students (1st termers or beyond) are doing to remedy this problem, but if there are any better suggestions than what is being offered by the college, please post so that we can all chose what is best for us.

[drjds]

Well the Financial Aid lady told me today that they hope to get the "traditional student loans" (e.g. TERI, Drs. Choice) back around June or July; she said wait until then, before applying for the private personal loans (which would have to be paid back after 30 days of issuance). Did anyone else get this response?

[USF-Bull]

Well that is the first whim that I have heard of those two lenders getting back into the ISL market. However, if it proves to be true...problem solved!

I will remain cautiously optimistic at best.

[drjds]

I'm remaining hopeful too!