Too much debt, what to do

I have made a mess of my financial aid, so I am open to advice.

I changed majors too many times, but I am on schedule to graduate with
a BS degree in December of this year. I was previously I was in
pharmacy school, but bills were climbing too fast for us to cover, so
I felt I had no choice but to leave pharmacy school. Needless to say
I will never make the money with a BS degree that I would have made
with a pharmacy degree. Now I have close to $40,000 in student loan
debt and will be 38 years old when I graduate. I have far more than
200 credit hours due to changing majors. My biggest fear is that I
will never get out from under the loans given my age and the amount.
So my questions are:

1. How long can you stretch student loan payments out?
2. Is there anyway to get the loan amount reduced?
3. Is there a way to get, yes, even more money? I would only consider
that option so I could return to pharmacy school thereby giving me a
greater income.
4. Any advice at all?

ATL

There are a lot of variables here. You can have a number of options
depending on the type of loans, when they were taken, whether they were
federal loans through a lender or through the Direct program with the
government acting as lender, whether you have consolidated, and whether
you are currently in default, etc. It can get complicated until you zero
in on your specifics.

In general, you may take plans stretching as much as 25-30 years,
possibly obtain deferments, etc.

For an overview by a publishing company take a look at this URL

http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/ency/article.cfm/objectID/C24F147E-2641-...2-8858B

For information on Direct loans look at

http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/repaying_loans/2003_200...nglish/

If the government backed loans were through a private lender -
SallieMae, etc. - some of the options may differ from the Direct loans
but they will be fairly similar.

If you have any private non-government backed loans there will be a
different set of rules for them.

You should be able to get options specific to your personal situation
from your lender - either at their website or by phone.

And yes, you might be eligible for more loans if you returned to school
so long as you are not in default and under the maximum borrowing limits
for your enrollment status. And returning to school might even put your
current loans on hold.

--
Steven B. Blank
College Financial Aid Consultants
29 Ives Hill Court
Cheshire, CT 06410
(203)250-7761



ATL wrote:
> I have made a mess of my financial aid, so I am open to advice.
>
> I changed majors too many times, but I am on schedule to graduate with
> a BS degree in December of this year. I was previously I was in
> pharmacy school, but bills were climbing too fast for us to cover, so
> I felt I had no choice but to leave pharmacy school. Needless to say
> I will never make the money with a BS degree that I would have made
> with a pharmacy degree. Now I have close to $40,000 in student loan
> debt and will be 38 years old when I graduate. I have far more than
> 200 credit hours due to changing majors. My biggest fear is that I
> will never get out from under the loans given my age and the amount.
> So my questions are:
>
> 1. How long can you stretch student loan payments out?
> 2. Is there anyway to get the loan amount reduced?
> 3. Is there a way to get, yes, even more money? I would only consider
> that option so I could return to pharmacy school thereby giving me a
> greater income.
> 4. Any advice at all?
>
> ATL