18 Year Old

What is the name of your state? California.
Can a 18 year old get a student loan without a parent's (or another adults) co-signature?

[stealth2]

No idea, but you might also want to ask over on the Education Law thread. Good luck.

You can get a Federal loan for college. Just about everyone can get a Stafford loan and lower income people a Perkins loan (at the moment, the Stafford is a much better deal)

Talk to your financial aid office, and also look at [url]www.salliemae.com[/url] and [url]www.fafsa.com[/url]

I imagine they could since they are now a legal adult.

Originally posted by Bud111
What is the name of your state? California.
Can a 18 year old get a student loan without a parent's (or another adults) co-signature?

Yes, but you are considered a dependent until you are 24 years of age. This means you are considered a dependent of your parents. Therefore, their income is factored in when you apply for financial aid for college, and there will be something called an "expected family contribution."

As a dependent, you are only currently entitled to 2,625 per year in a federal loan in your own name (for a freshman). As you increase to sophomore to junior level, this eventually can go up to 5,500/year. For some reason, the heaviest burden is placed on the 18 year olds (the government hates 18 year olds, you see!)

Your parents are expected to cover the rest of the costs, unless of course your parents are of sufficiently low income status that you qualify for the Pell Grant, in which case you would get another ~$3750 a year in free money, the Perkins loan, and maybe additional state grants to cover all of your costs (but again, only if your parents' income is below a certain level given the number of siblings). As far as state and private loans go, you probably have no collateral, don't work full time at a decent job, and have no credit history. This means that if you want additional loans, someone else would have to co-sign with you, like a parent or relative. Typically, college loans are deferred until you are out of college for six months; so no payments until then.

Now, if you were to do something that would qualify you for independent status, maybe marry a girl or something (some male and female students have been known to marry temporarily just so they could get loans), then you could get the full amount in loans and grants to cover your college costs.

As you can see, this situation really stinks like poo for the vast young men and women who want to go to college but have parents who either do not want to contribute, or won't contribute enough to make it work. Thousands and thousands of these students try to go to college anyway. Some manage to make it work somehow, others flunk out of college because they are trying to work 30+ hours a week at Taco Bell to try and cover their expenses and trying to go full time to college at the same time.

Some colleges require that freshmen live on campus. This is almost always way more expensive than living in an apartment. You can usually get around this because there is an exception for students whose permanent address is within a certain distance of the college. Even if this is not the case for you, all this means is that you rent an apartment and fill out a little form to change your permanent address to the apartment's address, then when you leave the apartment you fill out another change of address form!

Other options:

1) wait a year or two to go to college and see if you can find a decent job somewhere to save money if your parents won't help out enough

2) Go to community college for the first two years and live at home (vastly cheaper!!!!).

3) Consider other relatives, like grandparents or others you could ask for help.

4) Work while attending college (but be careful). There are jobs (computer lab attendant especially) where you may be able to just sit there most of the time and study because you have nothing to do.

5) Some full time students who are having trouble making ends meet may qualify for food stamps. (FIA office in your county)

I know all of this stinks like poo. Just remember, you're a young guy and the government hates you. Also, you need to register for selective services(military draft list) if you want to get financial aid for college.

You also need to fill out the FAFSA form. You can go to [url]www.fafsa.ed.gov[/url] to do this, and this form will have to
be filled out every year for school. You should really hurry and get this filled out if you're planning on college for the fall. It should have been filled out in January.

Good luck!!!!!!