Aside from being fraud it's also incredibly stupid from a long-term financial stability standpoint. Student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy and they are there until you pay them in full. You're better off putting your car repairs on a credit card and paying a higher interest rate if the alternative is "the only way out of this $2,000 bill is that you die."

How do you think people pay rent, feed themselves, buy textbooks, etc, while in school? You just aren’t aware how financial aid works

So students typically work jobs, use savings, get help from friends and family.

[0] https://www.salliemae.com/blog/what-to-use-student-loans-for...

>Otherwise, use your leftover student loan money for anything you absolutely need for school.

>Ultimately, any leftover loan money is yours to use how you’d like.

This article is merely a shitty low quality advice article, these are suggestions.

What!? No!

You're willing to pay often 25% interest on a credit card on the off chance you need to file for bankruptcy?

(That is, assuming its not fraud, of course)

> Student loans are intended to pay for college, but education costs include more than tuition. You can also use student loans for living expenses. You’re limited to borrowing the school’s cost of attendance — that’s tuition and fees, books and supplies, room and board, transportation, and personal expenses —minus any aid you receive.

In other words, once you've paid tuition the balance is yours to do whatever you want/need to continue as a student, including paying rent or fixing your car. After all, barriers to poor people attending college go far beyond just the cost of tuition.

[1] https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/stude...

If you're wondering how this works, financial aid and student loans are distributed to your school, tuition and fees are paid, and then you request the school distributes the rest to your bank account. I did this is college, it's totally and completely normal. No everyone's parents are willing and able to just pay for their kids living expenses.

In actuality, the bookstore had not only books but a good 700sqft of CDs (yes, this is a while ago...), clothing, memorabilia, food, junkfood, etc.

You could also have the Bursar disburse cash straight to your account for off-campus rent or food. How you spent it was up to you. Several students I know put it right into the then-roaring late-90s stock market.

Not saying this is the right thing to do, but thats how it was

Whatever financial aid you receive is paid to you as the student, as a literal check, once the cost of attendance is paid to the institution. You can then use that money to pay for whatever you want. Some low-income students actually get paid to go to community college because of PELL and state aid packages, even without loans.

Google, "Financial Aid Refund".

During my time I had to routinely apply for student loans every year to cover housing, food, and other living expenses and it made sense because unless I was doing an internship the next semester - I wouldn't be able to make any payments until I was done with school and had a full time job.

Was able to consolidate and refinance all my private loans to a variable 4.5% back in late 2019 and since then has gone to 2.48% which is now less than my mortgage interest rate. Leveraging student loans for financial flexibility opened the doors for me to live a great life during some super chaotic but fun years.

Have you put any thought into why that isn't the way its done?

Of course, if you bought your room and board from your college there would be little to no money leftover after tuition and fees were paid.

Source: Personal experience.

When I was in undergrad (granted, 20+ years ago) part of my aid was a couple thousand a year in direct cash payments to me. There were no restrictions whatsoever on this money.