Student loans have made a difference for me in my life. I come from a large family. We were an upper middle-class family that did pretty well. However, because there were five kids, starting college funds for all of us was out of the question. My oldest sister did not express any interest in going to college. I had always wanted to go. Through high school, I felt like I was lost. I had no idea how I was going to finance college and for a while, I put the dream of going to college away.
I worked low paying jobs from the age of 17 until I was 21 years old. I knew I wasn’t getting anywhere in retail and that I needed to get back into school.
I went down to a local community college and talked to an adviser. The adviser told me that I could easily qualify for Stafford loans. I filled out my FAFSA form and quickly found out that I more than qualified for Stafford loans. My Stafford loans gave me around 8,000 a school year to pay for both school semesters.
I learned to be smart about my loans. When I spoke to my adviser again, she told me to try to pay what I could while I was in school. While I only worked around 30 hours a week, I tried to pay what I could on my loans.
After I graduated, things got a little harder. The recession hit and suddenly, I was unsure of how to pay back the money that was loaned to me. However, the company that gave me my loans were more than willing to help me set up an affordable payment plan while I looked for a better job.
Student loans can help a lot, as long as you are smart with the money. Without student loans, I wouldn’t have gotten through college.