From Here to Anywhere...

Belmont's motto is just that, "From Here to Anywhere."

So here I am, 2 years after graduating with 'anywhere' looking more like 'nowhere.' As I have mentioned before, I am heading towards a spiraling pit of debt with every closing minute. My mother has asked me once or twice to call Belmont to see if they have any suggestions on what I should do. And, unfortunately, I tell her that I have and not only can they do nothing for me, I end up educating them on something they did not know about the refinancing process. However, it has been a little over a year since I have spoken with someone in financial aid, so I am thinking of giving it one more shot before I give up.

D-E-F-A-U-L-T

Smart thing to do? Too many consequences? Giving in? Totally ruining my credit? The only way?

All of these questions and many more float around in my head when thinking about the word default. So many say it is the only way to let the lenders really know you can't pay them. Others say it is merely giving in and ultimately hurting yourself. Which is it? I DO NOT know.

Winning!

Today I played a small role in someone's decision making when choosing where to receive a graduate degree. My friend and I have talked briefly about my student loan situation. I don't talk about it too much, but I occasionally make some sort of negative comment about it from time to time and she just happened to remember me saying something. She had the choice to go to Austin Peay or Belmont University. Once grants and other financial help was considered, she would graduate Austin Peay with less than $10k in loans and graduate from Belmont with almost $40k. She would add this to an undergrad loan of about $40k. She fully understood the cost difference, but was unsure about the name recognition. She wants the best education so she wonders if the $30k difference is worth the name drop? NO WAY. I talked to her about basically everything I have said here in my blog, but just in a nutshell. After telling her that Belmont's name has done nothing for me, and a little bit of advice from others at work who have the same bills piling on their counters, she decided to choose Austin Peay.

Oh so sorry I have not been blogging.

There really is no excuse for not keeping up with this, other than merely not wanting to talk about it so that maybe it would disappear ;) It is around 3 months shy of a year since I last wrote on this page and not a lot has really changed. In fact, I had ramen noodles and Kroger brand Doritos for dinner just the other night (I swear I remember graduating college 2 years ago). Anyway, as of February, I moved out of the townhouse that my college roommate and I rented right after graduating. I now live in an older house with 2 girls from my work. Adding a roommate and subtracting about a decade worth of visual appeal lowered my rent by $200 a month, so I guess operating outdated appliances and hearing every move either of us ever make is worth it. Now that we are all caught up, here is what I have been doing in regards to my private student loans....

Just as I Suspected

I went to Belmont today; NOTHING they can do for me. I spoke with a financial adviser who later on in our meeting (after many "I've already tried thats") asked his supervisor if he knew of anything in case there was something he was possibly overlooking. Their final suggestion, you ask? Try consolidating again, here is a list of places who offer it. My reaction? Here is my pile of rejection letters from every lender on your list. So disheartening. Over it.