When Kevin Lilly was in one of his last semesters at Lasell College in Massachusetts, he realized he had taken more student loan money than he needed.
The Boston resident was commuting to school from home, buying used textbooks and had scholarships that supplemented his tuition.
So he told the financial aid office to send the surplus back.
“I didn’t want to end up paying interest on that later on down the road,” he says. “I’ve seen people take that money and use it on other things, but to me I just can’t spend borrowed money and get myself deeper in a hole.”
[See how to avoid turning into a scary student loan statistic.]
Although it can be tempting to accept all the loan money offered in a school’s financial aid offer, experts say students should only take what they actually need for tuition, fees and living expenses.
“We can’t camp on their doorstep to see how they spend that, but we’re always preaching that they really should only borrow what they need,” says Dean Obenauer, assistant director of financial aid for financial literacy at Creighton University in Nebraska.
• Estimate your budget: Before blindly accepting all the money in a financial aid offer, students should take the time to figure out a budget. All universities publish an average “cost of attendance,” which in most cases includes estimates for books, transportation and personal expenses.
That can be a good initial guide to students for spending, said Jonathan Bur****, dean of admissions at the University of Rochester in New York, in an email.
“Some students will need or want to spend more, and some will find ways to spend less,” Bur**** said. “The smartest students monitor their spending and over time learn to budget according to their own lifestyle rather than relying on the ‘typical’ calculation forever.”
Continued:
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Posted By: Cheer Leader
Thursday, April 27th 2017 at 11:03AM
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