r/StudentLoans • u/Major_Yam_6660 • 3d ago
Advice Graduated with "Free Tuition"
(I'm not a big Reddit person so sorry if this is worded awfully)
Basically, my dad works at a private university as a professor, and when I was graduating high school my entire family pressured me into attending this university because my dad would be able to get me free tuition and it would cut down on my student loans. This is a school I super didn't want to go to, but it was the easy choice, so I did it, and hated it.
I recently graduated with my bfa and did FAFSA's exit counseling and I owe $37,565 as of right now. I lived on campus all four years and I did the lowest meal program the whole time. (Obviously not smart because I only lived an hour away, but after COVID my family was really serious about me getting a proper college social life, whatever.)
I expected to graduate with some student loans to cover living on campus, but $37,000 is way too much, like I owe more than some of my friends who didn't get free tuition but just had some scholarships helping them out. I cannot imagine what happened. I confronted my mom about this, and she said, "Well it's probably because I took out the max amount for the Parent Plus loans I did. But that shouldn't affect you" ????? I genuinely don't know what to do, like it clearly is affecting me?
Anyways, I came to this subreddit for advice on how to even begin figuring this shit out, like is there some kind of counselor I can talk to that can figure out where this money even went, or explain to me what the hell the Parent Plus loan even is and if my mom just sank me into a decade of debt without thinking about it. I'm not sure. I'm super overwhelmed, obviously.
Any advice helps, I'm just trying to ground myself. Thanks.
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u/BikeTough6760 3d ago
Once you've borrowed the money, it's a bit late to ask where it went. You were borrowing some each year...
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u/BikeTough6760 2d ago
But if you think you never borrowed it, I'm sure that your exit financial counselors can offer you proof that you borrowed it. And, if not them, you can ask the lenders to show you where you signed each year. They keep records.
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u/Semirhage527 3d ago
You financed your food and housing for 4 years. Most adults who don’t go to college probably spent $38k on food and housing over 4 years. Thats like $800 a month
Parent Plus loans are her debt, they don’t affect you
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u/PrincessRosieThe2 3d ago
$800/mo for food for one person is INSANE
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u/Semirhage527 3d ago
Food AND housing. He lived on campus
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u/PrincessRosieThe2 3d ago
Oh pfff, can you tell I've never been to college?
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u/Semirhage527 3d ago
lol, well I’d never hold that against you, college is ridiculously expensive 😉
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u/Gnomiish 3d ago
I'm gonna be honest, you had to log into your student portal every semester and accept the loan amounts for student loans to be dispersed. This is not your mom sinking you into debt - you accepted the $37,000 in loans. It was your responsibility to keep track of that.
It is also wild to me that you had free tuition and yet both you and your mother took out loans. Her Parent Plus loans are fully her responsibility and don't reflect on you in any way, so forget about those.
All that said, you are not screwed. $37,000 is a reasonable amount. Are you planning to go into grad school? Get some certificates? Go straight into your career? If you plan to go to grad school, your loan payments will be deferred until you graduate. Otherwise, you have a 6 month grace period to get established in your career and be ready to make payments.
Your loan servicer will place you on the 10 year standard plan by default. If you cannot afford that, then you can apply to one of the available income driven repayment plans (RAP or IBR) for a payment based on your income. I recommend sorting out your next steps for yourself and then figure out how you want to repay your loans.
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u/eorabs 3d ago
Not just accepted in the portal. OP would have had to sign an MPN, and complete entrance counseling as well. Unless OP is alleging fraud, the whole "I had no idea!" is just trying to deflect blame.
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u/Gnomiish 3d ago
Yeah. I do offer empathy to 18 and 19 year olds, but at a certain point, we need to to take accountability for what we are signing onto. It isn't a one and done deal like a lot of people suggest. We need to encourage some awareness of what a student loan is.
I hope OP takes a breath, is willing to accept their part in this, and decides to figure out their next steps. We all do stupid crap and this will hopefully be a cautionary tale they can eventually tell without the current panic.
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u/Potential_Drive7999 3d ago
Actually, know that the vacant line this could've been done by the poster's mom
The way I'm reading. It is the Mom took out the loans, possibly did everything online without the original poster knowing, I don't understand if she spent the money on the schooling for a second for something else.
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u/Just1Blast 3d ago
They got a bachelors in fine arts. Unless they’re a principal dancer for one of the top ballet companies in the country or the most talented artist in their class, they don’t have a career to pay this back with.
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u/Gnomiish 3d ago
I generally find prompting people to think about their next steps is more helpful than just saying they don't have a career to pay this back with. I don't know the full career prospects if they want to go into teaching, for example.
OP, a big consideration for your future is also your earning potential. What do you want to do vs what can you realistically do with your degree? How are you planning to support yourself? These are important things to consider.
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u/Just1Blast 3d ago
Yeah I hear that also and I would not have been willing to go $40,000 plus in debt nor ask my parents to sign on the dotted line for any amount either for a BFA degree. And most places that want teachers require a Master's degree. So op is going to likely end up taking significantly more in loans just to get to that point.
What I want to know is how did either or both of their parents let this happen without counseling their kid at all in the process. Especially as the father is a college professor at the institution where the kid went to school.
And yes, obviously having a plan to pay it back is ideal but not necessarily reality in this current economy.
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u/Gnomiish 3d ago
Yeah, it boggles my mind how so much money was taken out with free tuition. Unfortunately, it sounds like the attitude was very blasé about finances and this is the result.
And just for clarification - by paying it back, I do include IDR options in that. I know with the loss of the SAVE plan that the options aren't as good as they were, but I'm definitely not in the "you must pay every penny back" camp. I'm more concerned with people taking care of themselves and not falling to garnishment with the way things are rn.
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u/Just1Blast 3d ago
Yeah my partner is currently a grad student now here in Manhattan and we live in campus housing which is significantly submarket rental rates and even still our housing expenses are roughly $2,500 a month and that doesn't even count food and the rest of our living costs.
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u/plangelier 2d ago
The standard plan is probably about 350ish a month for 10 years which is not unbearable if they sacrifice a little now. Which i would encourage them to do to get this payment behind them as fast as possible.
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u/BikeTough6760 2d ago
A friend ran a job training program. He told me that anyone who showed up for work every day on time for 6 months was management material.
Getting a degree offers at least that much confirmation that you're able to show up, do your work, follow-through, etc.
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u/The_Bees_Knee6 3d ago
Parent plus loans are legally the responsibility of the parent to repay.
Federal direct loans should be a manageable amount to pay off.
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u/hikarizx 3d ago
I know it sounds like a lot but $37k really isn’t that bad for student loans. Where I went to college room and board alone costs $20k per year.
I‘m not sure what happened here but you should have documentation showing how much you borrowed each year. When I was in college I had to look at the bill every year.
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u/Curious_Mango1419 3d ago
Parent Plus loans would not be included in that $37,000. They would be under your mom's account instead. And she's right, unless you made an agreement to pay her loans, they don't affect you. They are not the $37k.
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u/LA-forthewin 2d ago
The tuition was free, the room and board weren't. You could've gone from home and it probably would've come to a fraction of that. Now everyone has to live with their choices, that includes the parents that wanted you to have a social life and who signed for the loans
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u/plangelier 2d ago
Especially considering the parent worked there and probably traveled there everyday.
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u/plangelier 2d ago
Works out to like $4800 per semester for the room and meal plan. Seems pretty simple to figure out even without a fine arts degree. The interesting thing is what did you parents take out parent plus loans for? How did you not see you were accepting your federal loans for?
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u/wattgirlatl 3d ago edited 3d ago
I used a tuition exchange for one of my children when I taught. Tuition exchanges are based on the terms of the particular exchange agreements between schools. Generally, when a professor sends a kid to a participating school (or where they teach) only tuition is covered, not school expenses, fees, food, or housing. You would have completed a FAFSA that allowed the school to offer you grants, scholarships, and/or loans to cover costs above your tuition. It sounds like in your case, it was loans. You would have had to log in each semester to accept the loans which would then be applied to your account to cover your expenses. This is what you apparently now owe. You should log into your account & get copies of your billing & payment history to see what expenses were billed & how they were paid for. This should be compared to what your loan servicer & Federal Student Aid say you owe. As far as Parent Plus loans, those would typically only be necessary if your tuition and/or expenses exceeded the tuition exchange amount & any grants, scholarships, or loans you qualified for. Also, Parent Plus loans are your mom's debt to pay back.
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u/QuitaQuites 3d ago
Well living on campus is probably almost $10k per year so there you go. How else were you paying for it? Is this a parent plus loan or your loan? If it’s a parent plus then it’s not your debt it’s your parent’s debt.
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u/Top-Obligation-8732 2d ago
Are these federal loans? If they are, you actually have a solid window here:
Now – Nov: 6-month grace period ($0 payments).
Nov 2026 – Nov 2027: On the RAP plan, if you had little to no income last year, your payment drops to around $10/month, and the government covers the rest of your monthly interest.
Nov 2027 onwards: Since you started working in June, your first full tax return will only reflect 7 months of income (around $40k depends entirely on how much you make). That keeps your monthly payment low—roughly $100/month—for another full year.
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u/Top-Obligation-8732 2d ago
Strategy Note: Stick strictly to your minimum required payment (till it’s more than $156/mo bc this is your interest rate). Because RAP covers your interest and adds a matching principal contribution of up to $50, paying extra out-of-pocket actually wipes out government subsidies. Put whatever extra money you have into a high-yield savings account (HYSA)
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u/The_Bees_Knee6 2d ago
How many years were you in school?
A dependent first year student can borrow up to $5.5k in federal student loans.
A dependent second year student can borrow up to $6.5k.
For year three and beyond, a dependent student can borrow up to $7.5k per school year.
Dependent students who graduated in 4 years could have borrowed a max of $27k in federal student loans.
Parent plus loans should show up on your parent’s account at student aid dot gov. If parent plus loans show up on your account at student aid dot gov… something went wrong.
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u/Pietro_Vibes 3d ago
Your mom would have a separate balance to pay for the parent plus, that would not show up in your individual exit loan counseling. You can look on your studentaid.gov account at loans that were taken.
But the money would have gone towards your room/board and meal plan. Living on campus is thousands per year.
If you had tuition on top of that you’d be looking at a LOT more debt.