Private College Student Loan

Fafsa and MBA question concerning funding of education?

(posted on higher education as well) As an undergraduate although my family is dirt poor and we live in government housing I had to take subsidized loans in order to pay for school. I graduate in May with a degree in marketing and after 4 years of college coupled with 16gs in loans I find out that the reason I didn't receive more grant money was because my high school failed to submit an official transcript and they accepted me with an unofficial one. Unfortunately looks like I can't do anything about this or can I? It is upsetting because I know people who are rich and by knowing loopholes in the system (fafsa application) get a good size of federal grants and use it for boob jobs or weekend in Las Vegas but they won't share how. I am thinking about going for my MBA and now need a way to find a way to pay for it. What programs are out there? I really don't want to take anymore loans. I know 16 thousand doesn't seem like much but its a big weight on my shoulders that seems so unnecessary. I have 3.2 gpa and the job market is tough right now. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Public Comments

1. Hmmm..You kinda jumped around a lot on this... First, unfortunately when it comes to "graduate school" my experience is that its more difficult to get money (I have $25K debt btw -- your $16 is nothing to fret about)....Anyway, this fact is probably because the primary concern of the government is that people go to school in general, not rack up several degrees which may not even be useful...But I'm with you on this -- it is important b/c a bachelors hardly cuts it anymore !! I honestly don't know how people finance medical school that don't come from wealthy families, because thats gotta be like 100K or more !!! Second, YES, people do exploit the system...I knew people with divorced parents coming out of high school that would apply for student loans, financial aid, grants, scholarships, etc. under the dead beat parent instead of the millionaire parent in order to get more money...I also knew a guy (this example was for grad school btw) that got like $25K from FASFA because the interest rate was so low at the time and he applied it towards a downpayment on a house...The rate was lower than the bank would charge him for home loan ! He simply got admitted to the easiest graduate program available, and dropped the class nearly immediately in order to get his full refund...I'm sure if anyone ever asked he'd say, "Oh I just changed my mind" since thats hard to prove and hes always been faithful making interest payments on it...Anyway, he used FASFA basically as a low cost creditor to flip property, because he did buy the house, rented it for a year or more to some other people, eventually sold it for a small profit...Its wrong but it happens ! Finally, the MBA is worth pursuit but now may not be the time...You can get an employer to pay for it often, or at least a part of it, if you attend part time in a couple years...Furthermore MBAs are more valuable when you can couple them with a bit of experience... Sorry about your hard times, keep your head up, and congrats on graduating !
2. Once you receive your bachelor's degree, you are no longer eligible for any kind of free federal or state grants like the PELL grant. It's student loans and scholarships all the way after that. You are very lucky that you got federal Subsidized loans (the government pays the interest on them while you are in school) and they do not with the standard Unsubsidized loans. Most people don't qualify for the Subsidized loans like you did. In order to get Subsidized loans (this is form of need based aid) you would of have to have a transcript turned into your college. I don't think you can do anything about you not following up with your school to find out if an official transcript was turned in. Use it as a learning experience and when you start applying to MBA programs and applying for fin aid for that, remember!!! When I was a college undergrad, all I was eligible for was the unsub loans and when I graduated with my degrees I had about 23K in loans. You are very lucky. A word of advice is to not drive yourself crazy with comparing your financial aid to someone elses... you'll be a much happier person in the end for that. I promise.
3. Your high school not sending your transcripts may have hurt getting state grants but would not have affected any federal grants such as the Pell grant. Those families that have money and receive grant money either know how to hide their money well or they lied on the FAFSA and were not selected for the verification process. I know at my institution we scrutinize files pretty well to catch folks who try this. We have had to send quite a few files to the Department of Education for a fraud investigation so I would not suggest lying on the FAFSA. Unfortunately most grad students must take loans for their grad work. The only way not to is to find a scholarship from either the institution you are going to attend or from an outside source. Try search engines like fastweb.com. You may want to try and find a full time job doing anything, even if it is cleaning toilets, at the institution you plan on attending. Many schools offer free tuition for their employees.