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lawschool22 wrote:

aboutmydaylight wrote:Am I wrong in thinking that the quarter system is much more favorable to student loans than the semester system? Not only does semester start about a month before quarter system, but you also have to take out more money up front because its divided by 2 instead of 3. That seems to be a pretty significant difference.


For example, assuming you start at the beginning of August and take out the max $20,500 in Stafford loans, that means $10,500 per semester. Second semester starts at the beginning of January. By the beginning of August next year you've had 12 months of interest on the first part of the loan, and 7 months of interest on the second part of your loan. With an interest rate of 5.41%, that's 5.41% * 10500 + (5.41%*(7/12)) * 10500 = 568.05 + 331.36 = $899.41 in interest.

For quarter system, its $6833 per quarter, in September, January, and April. That means by August of next year (assuming your big law job starts at the same time regardless of semester/quarter), you'll have 11 months on the first part of your loan, 7 months on the second part, and 4 months on the last part of your loan. Again, that's (11/12)*5.41%*6833 + (7/12)*5.41%*6833 + (4/12)*5.41%*6833 = $677.719 in interest. That's significantly lower.

Or am I making a wrong assumption about how loans are distributed?

I didn't check your math but I don't really consider $220ish differential to be significant when we're talking about $100-$200k loans

Pneumonia wrote:would you pm this to me? I'm getting a 404 error when I try to download from google docs. thanks LS22

buffalo_ wrote:Well deserved sticky!

Maybe LS22 can relinquish some edit rights to an admin (or just be diligent) so that interest rates can be updated each year. Unsubsidized Stafford graduate loans have an interest rate that varies each year to the tune of the June 1st T-Bill rate + 3.60% (with a cap at 9.5%); Grad Plus loans will have the Stafford rate + 1%.

lawschool22 wrote:

buffalo_ wrote:Well deserved sticky!

Maybe LS22 can relinquish some edit rights to an admin (or just be diligent) so that interest rates can be updated each year. Unsubsidized Stafford graduate loans have an interest rate that varies each year to the tune of the June 1st T-Bill rate + 3.60% (with a cap at 9.5%); Grad Plus loans will have the Stafford rate + 1%.

I'll try to keep up with it. I think I may just add the in a URL to those rates in the spreadsheet so people can update them on their own.

zazmo2 wrote:This is so helpful -- thank you!

It's a lot to ask, but I'm wondering if a future version could include Perkins loans for those who qualify!

dietcoke1 wrote:this is awesome, thank you for this.

I'm not sure that I'm using it correctly tho. If I entered Cornell's tuition for year one at $61, 485 (from new 509) and put room fee at $23,436 (also from new 509), no scholarship info, a 10 year re payment period and 3 month long grace period, it says that the total amount of money I would pay is, with all the interest and fees accumulated, $488,825

would I really be paying close to half a million dollars to attend Cornell at sticker price and if I paid it all back in 10 years?????

guybourdin wrote:

dietcoke1 wrote:this is awesome, thank you for this.

I'm not sure that I'm using it correctly tho. If I entered Cornell's tuition for year one at $61, 485 (from new 509) and put room fee at $23,436 (also from new 509), no scholarship info, a 10 year re payment period and 3 month long grace period, it says that the total amount of money I would pay is, with all the interest and fees accumulated, $488,825

would I really be paying close to half a million dollars to attend Cornell at sticker price and if I paid it all back in 10 years?????

It looks like while you are in school, you would accumulate ~$45,000 in interest before you even start paying anything back, which means your entire first year goes to basically nothing but interest. If that is the case, then paying ~$100,000 in interest otherwise seems about right (simple 7% interest over 10 years on $280,000 is well over $100,000).