What is a Student Loan and does it allow you to cover a wide range of expenses relating to school?
Student loan is a class of unsecured loan.  The characteristics that define a student loan are, primarily, that it is a loan that is intended to be used by someone who is currently a student.  Beyond that, though, there are many variations. The different kinds of requirements usually have to do with who is eligible for the loan, and with what the loan is allowed to be used to pay.  Some loans have other limitations, such as only being allowed to be directly paid to the institution. Some student loans are federally guaranteed (meaning the Federal Government will repay the bank if you default).  Those have a lower interest rate, typically, and often have more stringent requirements, such as only full-time students being eligible, being need-based, and limitations on what the loan's funds can be used for.  See studentaid.ed.gov for more information. Many private student loans have quite lax limitations. Some for example have nearly no limitation as to what they can fund; many are allowed to be taken out by part-time students and even non-degree-seeking students in some cases.  Private loans usually have somewhat higher rates (as they're entirely unsecured) to go along with the lower restrictions and higher borrowing limits.  You'd have to see the specific details of any particular loan to know what it's allowed to pay for, so if you choose this route, know what you plan to use it to pay for before you go looking. "Is a student loan a type of loan or just a generic name used to refer to a loan for someone who is going back to school? A student loan from the federal government is a specific type of loan used for education purposes (i.e. attending college). They have guidelines associated with them that are very flexible as compared to a student loan from a private bank.  If a student loan is a different type of loan, does it only cover the costs of going to the school? Every student at a university has a ""budget"" or the ""cost of attendance"". That includes direct and indirect costs. Direct costs are ones billed directly to you (i.e. tuition, room and board - should you choose to live on campus, and associated fees). Indirect costs are such things like books, travel expenses (if you live out of state), and personal things. Direct costs are controlled by the school. Indirect costs are estimated. The school will usually conduct market research to determine the costs for indirect items. Some students go above that, and some go below. For example, transportation is an indirect cost. A school could set that at $500. There are students who will be above that, and some below that. If you choose not to live on campus, then rent and food will become an indirect cost. Student loans can cover up to 100% of your budget (direct and indirect added together). If your total budget is $60,000 (tuition, room and board, transportation, books, supplies, etc.) Then you are able to borrow up to that amount ($60,000). However, because your budget is both direct and indirect costs, you will only be billed for your direct costs (tuition, etc.). So if your direct costs equal $50,000 and your student loan was certified for $60,000, then you will get that $10,000 back in the form of a refund from the school. That does not mean you don't have to pay it back - you still do. But that money is meant for indirect costs (i.e. books, rent - if you're not staying on campus, etc.). If your school is on semesters vs quarters, then that amount is divided between the terms. Summer term is not factored in, that's another process. Also with student loans, there are origination costs - the money associated with processing a loan.  A good rule of thumb is to never borrow more than you need.  Source: I used to work in financial aid at my college." The short answer is that you can use student loans for living expenses.  Joe provides a nice taxonomy of loans.  I would just add that some loans are not only guaranteed, but also subsidized.  Essentially the Government buys down the rate of the loan. The mechanics are that a financial aid package might consist of grants, work study (job), subsidized, and guaranteed loans.  One can turn down one or more of the elements of the package.  All will be limited in some form. The work study will have a maximum number of hours and generally has low pay.  Many find better deals working in the businesses surrounding the college or starting their own services type business.  The grants rarely cover the full cost of tuition and books.  The loans will both be limited in amount.  It mainly depends on what you qualify for, and generally speaking the lower the income the more aid one qualifies for. Now some students use all their grant, all their loan money and buy things that are not necessary.  For example are you going to live in the $450/month dorm, or the new fancy apartments that are running $800/month?  Are you going to use the student loan money to buy a car?  Will it be a new BMW or a 8 year old Camary? I see this first hand as I live near a large university.  The pubs are filled with college students, not working, but drinking and eating every night.  Many of them drive very fancy cars. The most onerous example of this is students at the military academies.  Attendees have their books and tuition completely paid for.  They also receive a stipend, and more money can be earned over the summer.  They also all qualify for a 35K student loan in their junior year.  Just about every kid, takes this loan.  Most of those use the money to buy a car.  I know a young lady who did exactly that, and so did many of her friends. So kids with a starting pay of 45K also start life with a 35K.  Buying a nice car in the military is especially silly as they cannot drive it while deployed and they are very likely to be deployed.  At least, however, they are guaranteed a starting job with a nice starting pay, and upward potential. College kids who behave similarly might not have it as good.  Will they even find work?  Will the job have the ability to move up?  How much security is in the job?  One might say that this does not apply to engineers and such, but I am working with a fellow with a computer science degree who cannot find a job and has not worked in the past 6 months.  This even though the market is super hot right now for computer engineers. So, in a word, be very careful what you borrow. Short answer: student loans are loans given to people that are currently enrolled in school and yes, you can use them for personal expenses.  Long answer: be very careful because you can easily be financially ruined if you borrow too much and can't repay it quickly. Once the loans get beyond a certain size relative to your income, you can find it hard to stay ahead of the interest payments let alone actually pay off the principal. These are the facts you need to know:
"First, it's clear from your story that you very likely should be able to receive some financial aid.  That may be in the form of loans or, better, grants in which you just get free money to attend college.  For example, a Pell grant.  You won't get all you'd need for a free ride this way, but you can really make a dent in what you'd pay.  The college may likely also provide financial aid to you.  In order to get any of this, though, you have to fill out a FAFSA.  There are deadlines for this for each state and each college (there you would ask individually).  I'd get looking into that as soon as you can. Do student loans have to be paid monthly?  Any loan is a specific agreement between a lender and a borrower, so any payment terms could apply, such as bimonthly or quarterly.  But monthly seems like the most reasonable assumption.  Generally, you should assume the least favorable (reasonably likely) terms for you, so that you are prepared for a worst-case scenario.  Let's say monthly. Can I just, as I had hoped, borrow large sums of money and only start   paying them after college? Yes.  That is a fair summary of all a student loan is.  Importantly, though, some loans are federal government subsidized loans for which the interest on the loan is paid for you as long as you stay in college + 6 months (although do check that is the current situation).  Unsubsidized loans may accrue interest from the start of the loan period.  If you have the option, obviously try hard to get the subsidized loans as the interest can be significant.  I made a point to only take subsidized loans.   WARNING: Student loans currently enjoy a (nearly?) unique status in America as being one of the only loan types that are not forgivable in bankruptcy.  This means that if you leave college with $100,000 in debt that begins accruing interest, there is no way for you to get out of it short of fleeing the country or existence.  And at that point the creditors may come after your mother for the balance.  These loans can balloon into outrageous amounts due to compounding interest.  Please have a healthy fear of student loans.  For more on this, listen to this hour long radio program about this. Would a minimum wage job help,  Of course it will ""help"" but will it ""help enough""?  That depends on how much you work.  If you make $7.50/hr and work 20 hrs/week for all but 3 weeks of the year, after taxes you will be adding about $6,000 to offset your costs.  In 3 years of college (*see below), that's $18,000, which, depending on where you go, is not bad at helping defray costs.  If you are at full-time (40 hrs), then it is $12k/yr or $36k toward defraying costs.  These numbers are nothing to sniff at. Do you have any computer/web/graphics skills?  It's possible you could find ways to make more than minimum wage if you learn some niche IT industry skill.  (If I could go back and re-do those years I wouldn't have wasted much time delivering pizzas and would have learned HTML in the 90s and would have potentially made some significant money.) would college and full-time job be manageable together?  That's highly specific to each situation (which job?  how far a commute to it?  which major? how efficient are you?  how easily do you learn?) but I would say that, for the most part, it's not a good idea, not only for the academic-achievement side of it, but the personal-enrichment aspect of college.  Clubs, sports, relationships, activities, dorm bull sessions, all that good stuff, they deserve their space and time and it'd be a shame to miss out on that because you're on the 2nd shift at Wal-Mart 40hrs/week. How do I find out what scholarships, grants, and financial aid I can apply for?  Are you in a high school with a career or guidance counselor?  If so, go to that person about this as a start.  If not, there are tons of resources out there.  Public libraries should have huge directories of scholarships.  The Federal Student Loan program has a website.  There are also a lot of resources online found by just searching Google for scholarships--though do be careful about any online sources (including this advice!). Sermon: Lastly, please carefully consider the overall cost vs. benefit to you.  College in 2012 is anything but cheap.  A typical price for a textbook is $150 or more.  Tuition and board can range over $40k at private colleges.  There is a recent growing call for Americans to re-think the automatic nature of going to college considering the enormous financial burden it puts many families under.  Charles Murray, for one, has put out a book suggesting that far too many students go to college now, to society's and many individuals' detriment (he's a controversial thinker, but I think some of his points are valid and actually urgent).  With all that said, consider ways to go to college but keep costs down.  Public colleges in your state will almost always be significantly cheaper than private or out-of-state.  Once there, aim for As and Bs--don't cheat yourself out of what you pay for.  And lastly, consider a plan in which you complete college in three years, by attending summer courses.  This website has a number of other options for helping to reduce the cost of college." In general, insurance is a net good for you when it covers catastrophic losses that you would otherwise be unable to properly pay for yourself. See more here: https://money.stackexchange.com/a/77570/44232. Of course, insurance is more valuable when the catastrophic event becomes more likely. The list of possible outcomes for this combination of expense + likelihood is below: 1) Unlikely event; minimal loss: Insurance has no value here; you will simply be giving money to the insurance company and never getting anything worthwhile in return. Example: insuring your car in Florida against hail damage. 2) Unlikely event; catastrophic loss: Insurance has some value; it is likely cheap to acquire due to unlikelihood of occurrence, and could reduce the possibility of unfortunate incidences from becoming life-altering. Example: insuring your car for an extra $1M liability insurance against possible medical expenses of those in an accident. 3) Likely event; minimal loss: Insurance has no value here - you will over the course of your life suffer many of these small losses, and by constantly paying insurance, you are on average losing money to the insurance companies. Example: insuring your toaster. 4) Likely event; catastrophic loss: While insurance would be valuable here, it is also going to be quite expensive. A better option may be to simply not participate in that activity. Example: insurance for participating in an unlicensed MMA fight. Your specific question refers to what I would classify as #2 above - an unlikely event, but a catastrophic loss. This implies that insurance may be worthwhile, depending on the price and payout. The price itself seems small in relation to the cost of a ticket, and the payout seems high in relation to the cost of the premium.  But does the payout actually mean to you? It is perhaps not wise to consider life insurance as a 'windfall payment'. Instead, consider life insurance as coverage for the financial realities of death - funeral expenses, and perhaps money to provide grieving time for your family before they resume or take on work [Again, insurance is coverage against catastrophic loss, not a lottery ticket to provide a windfall when the unfortunate happens]. If you are the sole provider for your family, you may also want your insurance payout to be enough to resolve any outstanding debts you have outstanding [such as a mortgage], and/or substantially cover living expenses for your family for an extended period of time. A $20k payout would likely be far more than enough to cover funeral expenses, but may not be enough to set up your family to subsist without you as a sole provider. Also consider that the chance for an accident may not seem particularly concerning while you are on the train in comparison to when you are jaywalking, or smoking the odd cigar, eating red meat, having a glass of red wine. What I mean is that there are many things in life which add some level of risk; not all of them are as obvious as a train ride, but there is always a chance of something unfortunate happening, even if you take reasonable precautions. What these two considerations imply is that perhaps instead of insuring against this very specific incident, you instead purchase overall life insurance. Rather than taking a flat payout amount, take enough of a policy only to cover the specific needs you expect - for many people, this is defined by the amount needed to cover funeral expenses only + possibly their outstanding mortgage balance. If you take the train often, your annual insurance premiums for a full insurance plan may be similar to your 'train only' insurance, while covering you in a wider variety of circumstances. Many people hesitate to think about purchasing not only life insurance not only because of the cost, but also because they do not wish to dwell on their mortality. But facing the subject head on may provide you with both financial and emotional peace of mind.  [And write up a will, while you're at it!] On what basis are you not employee? You should probably get some tax/legal advice, but generally J1 internship is by definition employment. You should also check the tax treaty between the US and Ireland, if there's one, and check what it says about training related income. You may find a pleasant surprise there. Most universities have support for international students/visiting scholars, check the international students' office at your school. My son is in a similar situation where he is 21 and in college. My wife and I claimed him as a dependant on our taxes last year. He had still been able to get some student loans as a dependant as well as scholarships. I have told him that we will not cosign on a loan for him. It isn't because we don't like our son, it is simply because too many unexpected things can happen.  He has been working multiple jobs which is one thing I would suggest as well as donating plasma for extra money to have a social life. As an electrical engineering major he doesn't have much time to be social. He cuts rent by having roommates and does most of his own cooking to help with food costs.  The main thing he does to keep his costs under control is attends a school that isn't outrageously expensive.  An expensive school does not offer as much benefit for an undergrad degree as it might for a graduate degree.  Another option is to look for a job that had some sort of tuition assistance.  Another option along that same line is look into military service either active duty or reserves as there is tuition help to be found there. There are options that don't involve debt. As a side note my son used a student loan last year however, this coming year he has his budget figured out and he will not be needing one at all. While not entirely untouchable, a college fund can also be in the form of an Indexed Universal Life (IUL) contract through a life insurance agent.  These often net a higher rate of return annually than any savings account, are not going to tank if the market does, and can be owned by you for the child.  If no one else is on the policy, they have no access to it.  You can name yourself the beneficiary as well.  There's several very nice features to doing your child's college funding this way. You can ask that the contract is established for maximum cash value.  This means the death benefit isn't the overriding need so the premiums you pay fill the cash value of the contract much more quickly. As mentioned in point 1., the contract has a death benefit.  No other savings device will grant you this.  Heaven forbid the child passes while you are saving for college.  Now you will have a tax free benefit that will pay for burial and other related costs and can be used to fund yet another IUL policy if you have more than one child. Unlike other policies, you can set your minimum monthly premium and have the flexibility to add as much as you would like to fill the fund faster if you happen to come into more money and you want to direct it to that contract.  There are ceilings to this so that you don't create a modified endowment contract (MEC. Look this up at investopedia), but this is specifically stated in your illustration so that you can keep your contributions a penny under that limit. Unlike college loans, you have extremely quick access to the funds when you need them (probably counter-intuitive to your desire for untouchable money). This can be achieved a couple of ways.  You can borrow money from the insurer using your IUL cash value as collateral.  Often, a check can be cut within 48 hours.  This eliminates the time a normal lender takes in making the loan decision.  Or, you can surrender the policy and take the cash value (paying taxes on your gains).  The first keeps the policy in force while you pay back the loan if you desire.  The second cancels the policy so that you can take your own accumulated money out. Utilizing an IUL in this manner can (but not always) lower your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) with colleges so that you could qualify for higher student aid.  If your income puts you in the middle class, you would be wise to note this in particular.  Having control over your EFC is major benefit.  (If you'll read the link above, you notice the UGMA isn't necessarily the best idea as schools look to the student to give a higher percentage of their own assets than the parent.) Ultimately, while the IUL is a little known method for saving for college (and some will argue what they may) it would benefit you to speak with an insurance professional about this option.  Ask if the insurer has access to the SAGE Rewards program (https://secure.tuitionrewards.com/).  The program is a free benefit if you purchase a cash value contract like an Indexed Universal Life policy and activates IF the agency participates.  The child earns tuition credits for every birthday of your child (not retroactive) and for having the policy.  If you do an annual review, you earn more tuition credits.  I have established these for clients and some have sent their child to college with more than 44k in college funding (split out over four years).  The point system is 1 credit = 1 tuition dollar.  Quite unlike air miles! For those of you reading this that have similar concerns, please consult an with an agent (or feel free to contact me) to get up to date advice on how to structure these.  They are simple and efficient and have significant upside for college funding. "As someone who has a very similar debt amount and environment (new grad, nice new paying job, want a car, etc), I'd like to share something with you. Life has unexpected costs. Luckily I didn't buy that new car the first few months out of college like I had planned to; I'm glad that I didn't because, as a fledgling ""adult"", despite having lived on my own while in college while working part-to-full time there are some things you just don't realize until it either happens or it happens to someone else. Here are some of those things: I could go on but I won't. $95K is good money and I would definitely recommend spending it a bit to enjoy yourself. But I would honestly tell you that taking your monthly expenses, adding a few hundred on top of that and then multiplying  that sum by 3 would be a smart savings amount before picking up a car loan. Maybe that's an excessive savings but I've seen way too many people burn out over their cost-of-living and their failure to adjust appropriately when shit hits the fan. So instead of having to deal with the stab at your pride when having to lower the cost/quality of living that you'll probably grow accustomed to at a $95K salary, just prepare for the worst.  Oh, and did I mention... A NEW JOB IS NOT A SECURE JOB Consider yourself to likely be the first asset dropped from the company if even the tiniest thing goes wrong. I know way too many people who were fresh hires at Intel, Boeing, and a few other big tech companies that pay around what you make and, despite being bad asses in college, they were dropped like a bad habit when their employers hit rough patches. To those even more experienced than me, please feel free to add to the list. I'd personally love to know them myself." &gt;You default on a loan, student or otherwise, by not paying.  Student Loan debt, backed by the government, means the government can garnish any wages you make, or otherwise put liens against property you own to secure the debt.  You have no say in the matter. I would not advise you to go entirely broke in order to clear debts. You could use the cash you have to invest, or render some other services other students need in school while you raise cash from doing so.