Loans for the Homeless!

[LunaSea]

Since I will have little to no income while at graduate school, I need to take out loans that will also cover my housing. The financial aid office at Columbia just told me that lenders give them the tuition money directly, skipping me as the middle man, and would send Columbia my rent money and not me. To receive my rent money, I would then have to apply for a refund check from the school that I would not receive til the end of the semester. However, I need the $ on a monthly basis to pay rent. I don't have the $ to even pay September's rent, and I do not have parents who can help me. Does anyone know of a lender who will put the money in my account instead of the schools? I understand this is supposed to be safe and convenient way for banks, but I can't afford to live there without access to my loan.

[Demetrios2011]

You did not specify the type of loans in question. If the loan you are referring to is a federal Stafford loan, the money is given directly to your school, and applied first to tuition and other school fees. I believe that whatever is left over should then be given to you to use for qualified expenses, but the timing of that probably depends on the school. If you do not have sufficient savings to cover the interim, you will probably have to take out private loans. You should certainly go to the federal student aid website studentaid.ed.gov to inform yourself on how these things work, as taking out large sums of money should never be done uninformed.

[rising_star]

First of all, you really should be talking to Columbia's financial aid office about this and not posting here. We aren't going to have the specifics that you need.

1) You could seek out loans on your own.

2) It's highly unlikely that the refund money wouldn't be available to you until the end of the semester. What will probably happen is that the loan money will be applied to your tuition bill and after the drop/add period ends, you will be able to request and receive the refund check. It's worked that where at every school I've been to and for my friend who is currently at Columbia.

[LunaSea]

Thanks Demetrios for your post. I have been thoroughly digging through loan websites to investigate this and after speaking with the financial aid office, it appears that regardless of the source of my loan, their policy is that it is directly deposited to them in full.

Rising star: relax. "You should really be talking to Columbia about this and not here" Why not exhaust all my resources? Why have a forum if I can not ask a question to those who may have had a similar situation? That is the point, isn't it? If you think it is silly for me to ask for advice, then you don't have to give me any.

Furthermore, my undergraduate university also did not give refunds until the end of the semester, so it IS likely that other universities follow the same procedure. Perhaps you should be asking more questions before your berate others for posting what you consider a sub-par inquiry.

[rising_star]

Rising star: relax. "You should really be talking to Columbia about this and not here" Why not exhaust all my resources? Why have a forum if I can not ask a question to those who may have had a similar situation? That is the point, isn't it? If you think it is silly for me to ask for advice, then you don't have to give me any.

Furthermore, my undergraduate university also did not give refunds until the end of the semester, so it IS likely that other universities follow the same procedure. Perhaps you should be asking more questions before your berate others for posting what you consider a sub-par inquiry.

1) I'm pretty sure I didn't berate you.

2) I told you what happens for my friend who is a PhD student at GSAS. If that isn't applicable to your situation, then perhaps you are the one that needs to provide more details to us.

3) If you don't think you'll be able to get your refund from your loans when you need it, you should pursue private student loans, as I mentioned before.

Have a nice day!

[LunaSea]

Like I said, Columbia's policy, regardless of the source of my loans, is that they are directly deposited to them. So I was asking to see if other people had this problem and if there is some sort of loop hole or appeal I could make.

Thanks anyway.

Perhaps "berate" was a strong choice, but you were disproportionately aggressive for a simple question not directed towards you.

My day was fabulous, thanks.

[rising_star]

I'm saying get private loans because sometimes those are distributed directly to the student, rather than through the university. You'd have to call around to see if anyone will give you that option. Or maybe you could ask other students in your program how they've dealt with this issue in the past? Presumably you're not the first and only incoming Columbia grad student to wonder about this.

[LunaSea]

"Presumably you're not the first and only incoming Columbia grad student to wonder about this."

Exactly. That's why I asked.

"First of all, you really should be talking to Columbia's financial aid office about this and not posting here. We aren't going to have the specifics that you need."

Thanks.

[HisRoyalHighness]

Refunds are generally given quite quickly after all tuition and fees are paid. At NYU I was given my refund 10 days after class started. The schools realize students need that extra money on which to live so they don't hold onto it.

If you need money before your refund arrives you can talk to Columbia about an emergency loan to pay rent. Most universities offer these programs where the school will front you some cash and then add the loan onto your tuition bill.

[LunaSea]

Awesome- I never heard of uni's doing that, but it makes sense since they can just add it to my tuition bill. I will look into that today- thanks!!

[frankdux]

Refunds are generally given quite quickly after all tuition and fees are paid. At NYU I was given my refund 10 days after class started. The schools realize students need that extra money on which to live so they don't hold onto it.

If you need money before your refund arrives you can talk to Columbia about an emergency loan to pay rent. Most universities offer these programs where the school will front you some cash and then add the loan onto your tuition bill.

every school is different.

where i did my masters i didn't get my summer session refund until the FINALS week of the summer session!

[happygolucky]

going to a school where money will be that tight is brave.

i decided not to go to columbia because i didn't get non-loan funding (external or internal) and it didn't seem worth the loans, for me. This, and I wouldn't have been cutting it quite as close as you seem to be willing to do (I'd be getting an income for rent and stuff by working and I have savings).

GOOD LUCK.

[cath2024]

i decided not to go to columbia because i didn't get non-loan funding (external or internal) and it didn't seem worth the loans, for me.

Ditto. Columbia is notoriously extremely expensive. And stingy with the aid.

[happygolucky]

Ditto. Columbia is notoriously extremely expensive. And stingy with the aid.

and you know, after i posted i remembered their loan aid didn't fully cover my tuition expenses let alone any other expenses I may have needed/wanted the loans for (if I ever wanted loans. blech!).

LUNASEA- do you know that your loans even cover more than tuition?? I would think that a reimbursement depended on the loans exceeding the amount required for tuition and all those other expenses required (health care, fees, etc.). Wouldn't you only get whatever is left over?? If that's the case, you might wanna make sure you've signed up for more loans than you needed for the expense of even attending columbia (let alone living to attend columbia). But maybe you've already thought about that and signed up for lots of loans.

[kh1264]

Hey Lunasea,

I will be moving to the city to attend a PhD program in the Fall and am scrambling for rent/food/book money as well. Luckily I've worked out a Plan A,B and C for myself since my school won't disburse Stafford checks until October and most private student loan lenders will not loan directly to the student. HOWEVER, in my quest, I did come across one lender who still lends to the student. Check out Wells Fargo Bank. They have two graduate student loans, one school-certified (which is not the one that will lend to the student directly) and another direct loan. The direct loan requires that you have a co-signer, though, so you would have to secure that. You can get approved with an income over $12,000 and good credit, as I was told when I spoke with a representative. Otherwise, their school certified loan may not require a co-signer and is disbursed to the school 2 weeks before classes begin (again, as I was told by a representative over the phone). So, there's one lender that you may want to call and discuss options with.

As another poster suggested, talk not only to the financial aid office at Columbia, but to the program assistant or your future advisor to get some advice. I mean, they admitted you, which means they wanted you...so hopefully they can open your eyes to a few more options that were otherwise unknown to you. Good luck!

~kh1264

[LunaSea]

Everyone,

I can't thank you all enough for your help and insight. Between this forum and my correspondence with the Financial Aid office, I have been able to devise a few plans. I will DEFINITELY be consulting Wells Fargo as well so thank you KH1264!! Thanks everyone for your advice as it has given me more options and a gleam of hope. I really REALLY appreciate it.