I got another admission letter today. I promptly tossed it, but it made me think I ought to check my financial aid status at Home State U. It showed I have been offered the full amount for federal loans. I did the math and tried to figure out if I can really avoid a PLUS loan. My mom called to tell me that the DoE sent a letter informing me I was approved for the PLUS loan.
I want to borrow as little as possible. If I can manage to only borrow enough for tuition and books that would be oh so much better in the long run. However, there is the issue of child care. And if my schedule does force me to have a 3/4 or full time babysitter that's a fair amount of money. The 20,050 max for Stafford should cover that. I was thinking I would borrow more than I need and just pay back what's left. Is that totally unrealistic? Will I just end up blowing it (I would like to think I'm better than that, but there could be unforeseen circumstances) and be stuck with more student loans at the end?
All of this again put doubts in my head. I sort of wish I had just done the last 33 credits of my degree so I would have a teaching degree. I could go back, but the expense at this point would be comparable to law school. Not to mention teachers in Home State don't make much, and I will have a hard time getting a job if I don't have a Master's. GRR.
I wanted to borrow as little as possible but I ended up taking out way more than I really needed in order to splurge on little things to get me through the school year. A part of me regrest spending the extra money and a part of me thinks that if I hadn't, I might have gone a little insane. But then again, I'm horrible and use shopping as therapy (bad bad habit!). Just remember, you can always take the extra loan if you really need to!
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