$100K in debt, 1 semester left and no cosigner in sight

Yahoo Finance ^ | 18 Dec 2015 | Vanessa Sanchez

[11th_VA]

Because no one is able to co-sign her student loans, Ashley Fleming, a 24-year-old college senior with one more semester left, may not be able to graduate. With close to $100,000 in student loans, and no longer allowed to take another leave of absence to work, Fleming has resorted to crowdfunding her tuition and set up a GoFundMe page to ask for help.

$100K in debt, 1 semester left and no cosigner in sight Yahoo Finance Vanessa Sanchez 1 hour 13 minutes ago Because no one is able to co-sign her student loans, Ashley Fleming, a 24-year-old college senior with one more semester left, may not be able to graduate. With close to $100,000 in student loans, and no longer allowed to take another leave of absence to work, Fleming has resorted to crowdfunding her tuition and set up a GoFundMe page to ask for help.

Start Earning Gas Rewards Today Speedway Sponsored   As a first-generation college student, from Manassas, VA, Fleming was mostly on her own when researching how to finance her education. Her parents, both retired, attempted to co-sign her loans but were denied.

“My parents supported me through the process as best they could,” says Fleming, “but they didn’t really understand, and unfortunately did not have the credit to help me out financially.”

For the first two years of school, she got enough financial aid to afford a $43,000-per-year tuition at her dream school, American University. But the aid to cover the next two years didn’t come through as expected and she’s since struggled to make it to the finish line...

[Ben Chad]

Economics...the irony.

[bjorn14]

Economics and Finance. Apparently she missed the class on Income and Expenses.

[Paladin2]

"a 24-year-old college senior"

She's a slow learner?

[muir_redwoods]

I wonder where she was when I was working 2 or 3 part-time jobs, living in slum housing and eating mostly pasta while going to college paying my own way.

[Little Bill]

I sent my Daughter to a Community College and told her she had better do well or off to hair dressing school.

She did well and I sent her to UA and because I come from a rather large family I managed to obtain instate tuition through a legal loop hole and cousins in the facility .

You have to do what you have to do, I ain't going bankrupt over a kid no matter how much I love them.

[Buttons12]

I’m in my early 20’s. Working 2 jobs and will attend college someday, on my own dime. (Planning on a career in law, specifically church law.) No student loans, no grants, no Go Fund Me, no OPM for me. I’ve lost count of the people who’ve called me a chump.

[A_Former_Democrat]

Gotta pay for all those “diversity” hires and affirmative action scholarships

[ilovesarah2012]

I would rather help American college students than Wall Street and energy companies abd studies of why lesbians are fat.

[Moonman62]

If she’s reasonably good-looking, she could easily make $50,000 a year in DC as an “escort”.

...

More like $500,000.

[MeganC]

My life isn’t perfect but it’s a boatload better than this!

[Ace's Dad]

Of course the University won’t step up and provide a free semster.

Perhaps lackluster grades are the problem?

[Kozy]

Go to Radio Shack. Buy a clock and a black case that might look like a bomb. Put the clock in the case. Take to your next woman studies class and open it. Next thing you know you will be at the White House and MIT will give you a full scholarship. There problem solved.

[samtheman]

American University. Right.

[angry elephant]

Obviously the degree she is going for is not math or economics.

Why would she choose an expensive school when her parents had no funds to help her? Why would she not go to a community college for two years and then go to a state college?

Seems like she is not really college material to not be able to think her way out of a paper bag.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

-— I’ve lost count of the people who’ve called me a chump -—

College students I presume. I hope!

[Yaelle]

Forget medical these days. MediCal in a couple weeks will be paying docs $20 per office visit. Medical school is NOT worth the money.

[faithhopecharity]

yes indeed!
first off, the young lady in the article could have gone to a community college and then transferred into a university. That would have saved her about $86,000 right there, using her figures..... (and, one local CC’s grads do BETTER in upper division work at the state university than do the university’s freshmen admittees). Second, she could have picked a university far, far , FAR less outrageously expensive than the one she’s at.
She made at least two bozo mistakes.
Third, maybe.......we don’t know what major she’s taking.
Is she taking a good major or is she taking a basket=weaving ‘studies’ course? I hate to be too blunt since I don’t know her...but with 104 million Americans lacking employment today, she’d be wise to at least pick up some genuine salable skills...whatever else she’s doing on campus.

[Patriotic1]

College was probably cheaper back in 1878. (I couldn’t help it!!)

[NEMDF]

I know, right? I am thinking, I really SHOULD just work until I am 80 or 85, just so I can pay more taxes, so people like her won’t suffer, right? How selfish of me to hope to retire before I die.

[Lou L]

Huh...a dual major. BA in Economics and Finance, and go-fund-me is all she’s learned. Better start drawing on that expensive education.