Will getting a student loan affect my grant eligibility?
I get grants to pay for college and it covers tuition and books, but I was wanting to get a student loan for the summer to take a class and use the rest to get a car and maybe a computer. If I do this will I not be able to get grants again bc they may think I have enough money for tuition since I got a loan. I’ve already applied for the my grant in the fall.
Also i was wanting to get a private student loan like from chase and it says they don’t need school authorization.
No, getting a loan should not affect your grant eligibility. Loans are usually added to your financial aid package after your grants. In fact, a school is, by law, required to calculate your Pell Grant eligibility before doing anything else.
Now, in most cases, your loan will need to be certified by the school. It is possible that the Chase loan you described is one of a handful of “direct-to-consumer” loans that could be used (though they shouldn’t) for non-educational things (like the car you plan to purchase). These kinds of loans are okay, AS LONG AS you’re certain that you’re getting the best possible interest rate. In general, school certification makes a lender “comfortable” — it assures them that the students are using their educational loan for educational expenses, which makes the loan low-risk. Any time a lender doesn’t request school certification, the loan is higher-risk, which increases the interest rate substantially.
Consider contacting your school about getting a school-certified private loan that you can use to cover your summer courses and computer (not the car). Computers and classes are reasonable educational expenses and most schools will have no problem signing off on a loan to cover them. If your school can certify a loan for these things and that loan has a lower interest rate, I’d say “go for it.” IF you need it later on, you could always apply for the direct-to-consumer Chase loan to cover the car (which I would simply refer to as “transportation”). This way, at least, you’re getting SOME of your private loan at a better rate.
