Is there any way I can reduce the amount I owe on my student loans.?
Well Im only a sophomore in college right now, but my school tuition is very high. about 30,000 to be exact. its a private university. I mean I really love my school, and I want to earn my degree from here, but my worry is that when i graduate im going to be paying back roughly 80 grand in loans! So are there any programs or ways that you can reduce this amount, because im really not looking forward to that.
There are a few ways to have some of your loan forgiven, but you’ll have to decide if these are things that appeal.
If you serve 12 months in the AmeriCorps after school, you’ll receive a stipend of as much as $7400, plus $4725 intended to pay down any student loans. AmeriCorps is an organization that provides social services to poor and mostly rural communities in the US.
If you serve as a volunteer in the Peace Corps, you will be eligible for a loan deferment – and you’ll have 15% of any Perkins loans forgiven for every year of service you provide, up to 70%.
If you volunteer with Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), and work with private NPOs that provide services to the homeless and hungry, you can earn up $4725 in loan payments in exchange for 1700 hours of service.
If you join the Army National Guard, you may be eligible for as much as $10,000 in the Student Loan Repayment program.
If you serve as a teacher in a public school that educates students from low-income households, you may be eligible for a number of different loan forgiveness programs. There are national programs that forgive both Perkins and Stafford Loans, when you agree to provide several years of service in these low-income inner-city and rural schools.
If your degree is one of certain health care fields, and you agree to work in hospitals or clinics that serve under-represented communities, you may be eligible for various programs that forgive part of your student loan balance. There are hosptials that offer loan forgiveness as part of the benefits programs that they use to attract physical and occupational therapists.
Certain federal agencies provide special “bonus” payments intended to pay down student loans – again, these are hiring incentives.
The only sure fire way to ensure that you don’t leave school with $80,000 in debt (which, by the way, is about four times the average debt of last year’s college graduates) is to pursue your final two years of education at a less expensive school. I understand that that is not at all what you want – but this question isn’t all that different from “Is there any way I can avoid making $80,000 in car lease payments on my Jaguar?”, and the only legitimate answer to that question is “Yes, don’t lease a Jaguar.”
I hope that info helps – you can find links to a lot of the programs I talked about – and a lot more information – here: http://www.finaid.org/loans/forgiveness.phtml
Good luck!
