My student loan charges are absurd.?

After a paper work mishap my freshman year, I almost was thrown out of school because financial aid and student accounting cancelled some of my loans for my sophmore year. (Not my fault, I got to a school with over 30,000 financial aid recipeints, and this happens all the time.)

Anyway, I certainly couldnt afford the around 500$ a month to cover whatever was left unpaid, so I took out a sallie mae loan as a last resort.

Now I dont exactly know all the proper terms and such of loans but this is what I did:

I applied for an 8,000$ loan to cover the average 2,000$ a semester that was left uncovered by F.A., figuring I would be covered until my junior year, when my program put me in the work force and I could pay it out of pocket.

Sallie Mae never sent or called me to confirm my request, my mother and I signed some papers, and sent them off thinking only to get more paperwork, or more information about the process...



will be continued, im going to run out of space..

okay. 3 months later I find get a letter from my school and sallie mae saying that I: (1) was approved for the loan, and (2) recived more aid because I applied for the loan or something.

Sallie Mae & my school, with out ever contacting me, decided to give me an extra 1000$ in aid per semester, and only 1000$ in loan. The letter said that because I signed to apply for a loan, I was subjected to let them do whatever they wanted with my tuition.

I have no Idea where my well thought out and discussed thought of 8,000$ went. And alsoe, im only getting 2,000$ from sallie mae, and they're chraging me over 5,000 in finance charges.

I find this a tad ridiculous and criminal, and feel strongly that my school & sallie mae are taking advantage of my lack of knowledge on this process.

Is there any way to get out of a 5,000$ finance charge for a 2,000$ loan, which I have to begin paying as soon as my program puts me in work in less then 2 years. Im not going to be able to afford this,.

For future reference.. loans have to be reapplied for every year.. U can't take out $8000 for 4 years... they will only give u what u need for that year (or what they think u need).. Sallie Mae is NOT a good person to get a loan thru .. they refuse to let u consolidate the loans.. GL

Nexzt time., pay attention to what you signed. It was all explained in little tiny writing- you either failed to read it or failed to understand it.

Before you gripe about it, remember - this is the way of democracy and capitalism. It is not a crime to take advantage of someone else's lack of knowledge or inability to read and comprehend. Insurance companies make FORTUNES off this. So do financial institutions.

Ive got no horror story about FA, but I can tell you that I wished I never listened to my counselors... I wanted to do Crime Scene Analyst work, so I was told to take criminal justice courses. I got a degree in Criminal Justice. After I graduated, no one would hire me becuase I had no chemistry, physics or biology education.... Lesson: Dont listen to a school career counselor, they dont know squat (its how they ended up with a worthless job...) Instead, go to the people you want to work with and ask THEM how to get into it....

When you graduate, you will have to refinance like the rest of us. It is "the American Way" of education. Our (US) does not want an educated society and many of the tax paying citizens would rather gripe about the problem rather than pay to improve the education system. Look to the UK for better options. My son went to England, spent 9 months working to establish residency, and now pays $3000/year for college, and now has a soccer scholarship that pays half of that. Where else can you get a good college education for $1500/year?

I would call Sallie Mae and find out the exact amount you have borrowed for the year. You will do a loan application each year so by estimating an amount over greater than a year amount you might have borrowed more than you though per term. The school does have the final say as to how much you qualify for but if they say you can only get $2000 Sallie Mae can not charge you the remaining balance in fees.

In the future be very careful what you sign and don't expect to be clarified after you sign information. We have students who use Sallie Mae for private loans and I have never heard of a story like this but it is a big company so something might have gotted goofed up in the process. Call Sallie Mae find out how much you owe them and if it does not match up with the amount you received at the school ask the FA office what is going on.