Student Loans

Andrei Marks · March 17, 2010

A few days ago I went over my student loan information and really figured out how the interest and whatnot worked.

I’ve really treated the financial aid office like a magic box these past two years:

  1. Enter Financial Aid Office
  2. ????????
  3. Profit.

Fortunately, the federal Direct Loan site is pretty straightforward explaining things, and from the factors and methodology given by them, you can make a fairly accurate assessment of what you’re actually paying.

For grad school I get three types of loans:

  1. Subsidized loans, which have about a 7% interest rate, but the interest doesn't actually start accruing until the day I finish law school.
  2. Unsubsidized loans, which also have a 7% interest rate, but started accruing from the day I took them out.
  3. GradPLUS loans, which have an 8% interest rate and also started accruing from the day I took them out.

I also worked up an excel formula to figure out how much I’m paying in interest per day. Â In the past ~2 years, I’ve accumulated an extra $4,000 in interest, and currently that number is going up by about $13-$14 dollars a day. Â Damn out-of-state rates.

Student loans.

Ouch. Â Although really I get no visceral reaction from looking at these numbers, which may be part of my problem…

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