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Comment by protomyth | Hacker News Reader

In Fall of 1988, I was handed a sheet with my first loan that said how many $ per month the loan payments would be starting 6 months after I graduated and lasting for 10 (15?) years. I take it that's unusual and new students don't get that information?

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The financial aid process is horribly dysfunctional. Some loans, grants, etc, are based on financial need. There's expected family contribution (i.e. they assume your parents are going to cover part of your expenses). There's the PLUS loan that they give to parents, because of course parents should have to take out a loan to even begin to cover what the federal government expects them to pay. If your parent isn't going to pay for you to go to college, it can be unaffordable.

I got screwed in 2008 when my mom was denied the PLUS loan. I tried talking to student financial services for advice. After talking to the dean of my college, I received a large grant in order to cover my senior year. I thought I wasn't screwed anymore, but I got screwed again because nobody told me that a whole other part of my financial aid, "need-based" aid would disappear because my parents are expected to pay so much, regardless of their ability to do so. After that I was still able to pick up a few more grants and scholarships. However, I ended up having to take out private loans to cover much of the rest. I very much do not recommend taking out a private loan to pay for college.

I heard a news story last fall that said they're doing this at Indiana University, but I went to a different university starting in 2006 and didn't receive anything like that. The story made it seem like a novel and nearly genius approach to making students aware of what they're getting into. It's interesting that it was around in '88, then disappeared, then the economy crashed, and it's coming back.

Well, Bank of North Dakota is actually pretty good at what they do, so maybe it was just them.

In the summer of 2014 (after graduation) I was sent to a web site for my loan provider that told me "everything" I needed to know and even quizzed me on it.

I'd say I'm well-informed now but I learned nothing about my loans until I graduated.

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