Some things in life will never come naturally to me. For instance, planning is one of my known weaknesses. Plans really just don't like me. It seems no matter how much effort I put forth I usually fall short or encounter problems because I didn't think the whole plan all the way through. Shouldn't my academic advisor have warned me that I wouldn't get aid if I dropped below half time student status? Apparently in my focus of only taking one class in my last semester so that I can have extra time to apply for jobs, I failed to realize that I would not have the minimum credit hours necessary to get financial aid. Ugh, I feel so stupid. If I only take one class in my final semester, I won't have the credit hours to get aid and I'll have to start paying back my student loans in May 2015. Whereas if I sign up for two classes to get enough credit hours, I get financial aid (as long as they figure out the situation mentioned below) and I won't have to start paying back my student loans until November 2015.
My other financial aid issue is that I'm currently being reviewed by the Department of Education because they think I've reached the subsidized loan limit of $23,000. In which case, I won't be eligible to receive my typical subsidized loan for the Spring. Worse case scenario, I'm hoping I'll only have to pay back a little in order to take out an unsubsidized loan for the Spring. According to my records, my current student loan amount is $19,250. I'm so frustrated! Did I really miscalculate it by that much? There is a hold on my UCF account until they review my financial aid limit to confirm that I don't owe any money yet. So, I'm unable to register for the Spring semester (the semester I'm supposed to be graduating in) at this time. I'm going in to talk to someone at the financial aid office on campus on Monday to get more information about this whole "review process".
I had planned to graduate with a total of $22,000 of student loan debt. I think I'm currently at $19,250. To date I've only gotten $1200 in grants, which is pathetic. Anyways, I can't count on grants to pay for my final semester. If I screwed up my own student financial aid plans like this review by the DoE suggests, I fear my major in finance may be a joke. Obviously, $0 student debt would be better, but I was going to be super proud of only having $22,000 in student debt at graduation. Considering on average an undergraduate student graduates with close to $30,000 in student debt. I'm not intimidated by my student loans because I will add the loan payments to my budget after I graduate. Plus, by paying them on time they will help me build credit. Not that I have bad credit. Heck, Wells Fargo has pre-approved me for a home loan. I laugh at that because that is intimidating to me, and yet I want to build even stronger credit.
