While new programs may allow students that typically wouldn't have a chance a way to attend college, concerns about "crowd-soucred" or "social-lending" programs may leave students iffy about trying them out.
Michigan State University Director of financial aid, Rick Shipman said, "The trick is always in the details: what happens to the loan if a student doesn't find employment or finds employment that pays too little to permit a monthly loan payment? Is there a program available for a student in every major or only in certain majors? If there are such restrictions, what happens to the student who is in the 'wrong' major? Does he/she consider changing their path just to get funding? For some students, theses issues might not matter, but what about those for whom it does matter?"
Issues like these may make a student stop at think twice about apply for funding from sites like lumniusa.net and enzi.org.
MSU junior, Armando Vargas said his biggest issue with tuition funding repayments like these is just the longevity of the payments and the percent the company would want to take from his pay check for that amount of time.
Val Meyers, MSU's Associate Director said, "It concerns me that students could get in way over their head and not realize it."
Shipman said, "We would recommend that students look into using the federal loan program first as they accommodate life circumstances such as I've describe above and many more. There are now federal repayment programs that are tied to income and never charge the borrower more than 10 percent of their discretionary net income based on poverty levels. This means that a student just starting out in their career making, lets say, $25,000 might have a monthly payment of $50 or nothing. These federal protections are important for most students."
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