Once more, My Show of Appreciation for helping me avoid this

[sanantone]

Upon transfer: Are you living on campus so you can avoid the cost of a car?

This depends on where you live. If you live in a city with public transportation, this is not an issue. A lot of colleges and universities are surrounded by apartments that cater to students. Even though we don't really have a public transportation system in San Marcos, Texas State University offers shuttle bus service that goes all over the city. You don't have to pay a fee when you board; the price is included in your student fees.

In San Antonio, where the cost of living is low, it is cheaper to live in a one-bedroom apartment alone than to live on campus in many cases. It is definitely cheaper to live with a roommate off campus.


My calculation above is wrong because I used what she originally owed plus what she still owes. Adding up what she paid and what she owes is almost $78k! I think it's still the case that consecutive payments only count after a certain year for forgiveness purposes, or did they recently change that?

There are other ways to get forgiveness. If you teach in a low-income school for 5 years while making all of your payments, part of your loans will be forgiven. The threshold for being a school to be labeled low-income is rather low. The last time I looked, which was a few years ago, a school was classified that way if 30% of its students were economically disadvantaged. Those who work for non-profit and public organizations can seek forgiveness after 10 years of making 120 consecutive payments.