Student Loan Policies: Are they really helping? By: The Students Voice

We deal with finacial aid every day as college students.  It is very confusing at first with how much you are getting, who it is coming from, what froms need to fill out and so on.  This is not the bad part.  The bad part is when internships are built into your curriculum and you are required to partake in them, but, you are only going to recieve 2 credits for them.  this in turn means that you loan provider will assume you have dropped below the hours needed to be accredited as a student and you have to pay them back within a six month grace period.  Is this fair?  Am I still a college student?  Yes.  Sure, I am on internship but it is for school.  All they would have to do is receive an signed letter from our internship advisors.  But, this method has been shot down.  The problem is definatly dealing with power arrangements and inequality.  It is hard enough surviving as a student knowing you have to pay these loans back at the end of our college careers, but starting them while I am still technically a student making an interns rate of pay, if there is even one!  This problem is over looked but it takes place a great deal in university’s around the country.  From the other side of this arguement, it seems the only thing that can rationalize the student paying back the funds during internships is that the rules are black and white.  Or, the other option is taking a class during one’s internship to keep up with the minimum credits needed.  This option personally scares me due to me already being busy trying to perform to the highest standard as an intern to further my career.  But, with these cut and dry rules we are at the end of our rope.  What else can we do other than grit our teeth and grind it out.  Wonderful, another stress in my life.  Add it on the list.   

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