Advice please - cosigning a tuition loan?

[Rachel]

Originally posted by catland

She's attending an expensive private school and living on campus (its about 90 minutes from her folks - she doesn't have a car). So she'll be amassing a fairly huge amount of debt by the time she finishes school. The loan she wants us to cosign on is just a portion of all the debt that she is collecting.

I couldn't stop thinking about this thread. Maybe you could indicate your niece should consider transferring to a state university where her undergraduate expenses could be kept to a minimum and she would come out of school with much less debt.

Obviously this financially strapped family did not take the expense into consideration when they decided on which school their daugher should attend. It is not too early for this industrious young woman to learn one of life's lessons....we cannot always afford the things we want... and what we need and what we want may be two different things. Sometimes when people are indulged (because we love them) they come to believe they are entitled.

Yes, it would be a sacrifice for her to switch schools (and understandably a big sacrifice) but isn't that you she is asking you to make when she asks you to co-sign a loan with all the risks involved?

I'm sorry if I sound a bit harsh, but our family is dealing with a relative in her mid forties who still hasn't learned the lesson of living within her means, and as I think back to her college years, this feeling of entitlement was evident way back then.