The Direct College Student Loan Program is one of many of the Federal Financial Student Aid (FSA) programs that are offered by the Department of Education, and has provided (more…)

The federal government offers many Federal Student Financial Aid Programs. These programs will offer you extremely low interest college student loans and grants (free money you will not have to pay back). Unlike the GI Bill, these programs are paid through the college or university of your choice; however, like the GI Bill, Federal Student Financial Aid is meant to assist you in meeting the cost of tuition, books, fees, and living expenses while you are attending school. This simply means that once the school has taken its share, the remaining college student loan or grant balance will go to you.

Federal Student Financial Aid Eligibility

You become eligible for Federal Student Financial Aid if you are all of the following:

• A high school graduate, or have a General Education Development (GED) certificate;
• Working toward a degree or certificate;
• Enrolled in an eligible school or program;
• A U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen (must have a valid Social Security Number);
• Registered with the Selective Service if required (you can use the paper or electronic FAFSA to register)

Military Service Members Are Also Eligible

It does not matter whether you are active duty, reserve, veteran, retiree, on MGIB, or not. You can and should be taking advantage of these programs. There are numerous examples of even senior active duty members receiving federal student financial aid loans as well as large grants. Remember: Grants are gifts that you do not have to pay back!

Example: In 2002-2003 an active duty E-7 with three dependents received a Direct College Student Loan for the maximum amount as well as a PELL grants for $1500 for each year attending school.

How do you start collecting on your Federal Student Financial Aid college student loans? Simply by starting with the free online FASFA. Once you have applied and they have reviewed and made a decision on your behalf you will receive the SAR report. This report will give full and complete details of all the federal student financial aid loans and grants you have qualified for. They make this process extremely easy. You just sign and the funds will be sent directly to your college or university of choice. Your tuitions and fees will be taken care of from these funds. If there are any remaining funds they will be given to you in the form of a check or put into an account for you to use as needed for schooling expenses.

I know you have probably heard horror stories about federal student financial aid loans. Do not let this detour you. More than likely, those stories are coming from people that simply did not fill the FASFA out properly or were not truthful on the application about the information provided. This is the only time it gets hairy. If you are truthful and honest on the application, I guarantee you; it will be a smooth and quick process for you. When you think and do the properly the first time the out come is always going to be good. In my 47 years of life if I have learned anything, it is to be truthful and complete. Your out come will be good as well.

It can be quite confusing when you start to look into a college student loan. There are so many directions and options out there for this particular kind of loan. One might not know which one is the right place to start. I have a theory on this that I would like to share with you. In my opinion there are two good places to start, you choose which is best for you.

When I obtained my last college student loan I went directly to the free online FASFA and applied for my loan. After that I went directly to my college’s financial aid office and spoke with my financial aid advisor. These are the two options I was speaking of. They actually do go hand in hand. You see by applying for the free online FASFA, I did exactly what my financial aid advisor would have asked me to do. She would have even sat down with me and help me fill it out. Some people find it a little bit confusing and time consuming. If you have some basic information at your finger tips before you start it will cute down the time it takes as well as the confusion it could cause. I have listed some items that will make this process easier for you below.

• Social Security Number
• Full Address
• Monthly bills and payments
• Tax returns (or estimation on Tax returns)

This is really very minimum information, but it will do wonders for you, as apposed to a private or alternative college student loan, there is much more information you would have to provide as well as passing a credit check. If you are just out of high school you probably do not have much credit at this point so unless you have a co-signer, a private or alternative college student loan would probably be out of the question. Besides the benefits of a federal financial aid college student loan will out way the lack of benefits from a private or alternative college student loan.

First of all, your interest rate on a federal college student loan will be any where between 6-8.5 percent. Depending on what loan(s) is awarded to you. A private or alternative student loan will probably be upwards of 10-14 percent interest rate. Big difference there. Also, the payment terms can differ greatly. With a Federal college student loan your loan is deferred until you have graduated or became less than a part time college student. With some private college student loans you may have to start paying back your loan immediately. Who can afford that when they are in college? Not me.

So start with the easy choices first. Go see your financial aid advisor and see what they advise you to do. Let them help you with the online FASFA application. This will greatly simplify things. They have been doing this for such a long time, in many cases they can pretty much tell you what types of loans as well as how much the college student loans will be awarded to you. The can usually get all the financial aid paperwork and loans taken care of with in a week or two, so then all you have to do is worry about your classes. Your financial aid situation will be well behind you.

Were did you start when you new you need to apply for a college student loan? Was it the free online FASFA? This is the best place to start. Because you are apply for student loan, grants, and scholarships that may be available through the federal government using the online FASFA is the best place to begin the process.

Once you have provided all the information they request, it will take about a week for your SAR report to come back with all you qualify for. Yes, I said all. You may qualify for two Stafford college student loans, a grant, as well as a scholarship. With all these funds you may not have to seek anything further. How is that for easy?

What the federal financial aid program can off is a subsidized or unsubsidized Stafford college student loan. A subsidized Stafford college student loan is when the federal government will actually pay for you interest. When you start to repay your loan you will only be paying on the principle. This type of loan is awarded on financial aid need. The second Stafford college student loan is the unsubsidized loan. Simply when you start to pay your loan back you will be paying both principle and interest. However, with both the subsidized and unsubsidized the interest rate is set at a very low fixed rate you will never be able to obtain with a private student loan.

Other programs funded by the federal financial aid program are a federal grant. These are economic aid issued by the United States government out of the general federal revenue. A federal grant will be an award of financial aid assistance from a federal agency to a recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law of the United States.

Grants are not federal financial aid assistance or student loans to individuals, benefits or entitlements. A grant is not used to acquire property or services for the federal government’s direct benefit.

Grants may also be issued by a private non-profit organizations such as a foundation, not-for-profit corporations or charitable trusts which are all collectively referred to as charities. This type of grant is not a federal grant and would not be awarded in a Federal financial aid program. In essence, a grant is free money you will not have to pay back.

The federal financial aid program also offers some other kinds of college student loans, depending on your financial aid need as well as the year in school. The Stafford subsidized and unsubsidized loan along with a federal grant are some of the most popular and widely used aid awarded by the federal financial aid programs. Anyone has the right as well as the responsibility to apply for these funds. Even if you think you will not qualify you should not just turn away from it. You would be surprised of what you qualify for once you apply. There are many different kinds of opportunities out there for financial aid as well as college student loans. Do not not apply because you may not qualify.

Applying for a college student loan is a big responsibility, but even bigger is the idea of getting that higher education. If you have made that decision, just let me be one of the first to congratulate you. This decision probably did not come to you easily. With what school you will attend, to finding the time to attend, to how you will pay for it, it could have been a very complicated decision. No matter, you have made the right one.

You have done all the paper work for your college student loan through FASFA and have just received your SAR’s report. What did you qualify for? The more important question is have you qualified for enough to cover your college expenses? If funds are still needed there are still options out there to obtain more money for your college education. Do you know where to look for it? I can help you out with that.

I bet you did not think you would have to do homework before you even started your classes. Well, this is exactly what you need to do now. Start with your college campus financial aid office. They will be able to give you a list of preferred lenders and could probably even help you fill out the paper work to get it started. You can also go online and do your own research or simply go into you local bank and see what they may have to offer in the way of a private student loan. Not all financial or banking institutions will provide a private student loan, so you will have to ask the questions. This type of student loan, unfortunately, is not very profitable for a financial institution. After all they are in it to make money, so they go were the money is.

Once you have decided on a bank or financial institution to obtain a private student loan, you simply apply. In many cases you can apply online and make it real easy and convenient for you. However, if you have chosen a local bank you may want to go into there location and let them help you with all the questions that will be ask of you. Just be aware if something does not feel right, do not sign. This is a student loan that will probably be around for quite some time for you to pay off. A huge investment and you need to ask the right questions, such as what your interest rate will be, will you have to pay back will in school or will there be a deferment? These are very important questions and they will make a difference as to whether this loan will work for your while you are attending college.

A private student loan is a very helpful tool when you are needing additional funds to complete your college funding. However, taking the first thing that is offered is not so much a smart chose. Shop around and get the best deal you can. You will be paying this loan off at probably a higher interest rate than your financial aid college student loans, so get the best deal possible.

Your education is going to be one of the biggest investments in yourself. You will be spending your limited resources in the hope that you will obtain a positive return for the future.

Consider the time and money you will invest in your higher education as well as the personal and professional goals you have set. Then, make the best investment you can.
Borrow the minimum amount of college student loans necessary to obtain this educational dream.

Why borrow as little as possible. There are actually many good reasons for this school of thought. One being, you will have to pay it back. Borrowing needlessly will only incur debt that did not need to happen. When you find yourself in a repayment period and you are paying back student loans that the money went to a spring vacation, trust me, you will slap yourself on the forehead. The interest you are now paying for the vacation will build up big and you will be sorry.

Not only is it important to borrow only the minimum amount needed, but is also important to make sure what you do borrow goes to what is needed instead of what is wanted. Our college years are so important for so many things one of them being a time to learn. Not only are you going to learn all the book work and studies, but it is also a time to learn how the world works. This would include college student loans and how the financial world can treat you when you treat them well. Do not forget you could also learn how the financial world will treat you if you do not treat them well. That lesson is a bad lesson to learn first hand. However it is one you probably will not forget.

College student loans will come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, quite literally. There are private college student loans, federal college student loans, as well as state college student loans. It would not be uncommon for one to have college student loans out from all of these sources. The high cost of your higher education almost makes it mandatory for many college student loans to help pay the cost.

This is not anything to worry about, it is just something to think and research about as soon as you know you are going to college and what school you will be attending. It is never too late to attend college as well. If you take a couple of years off or many years off, what is important is you made the decision to go back. You can never learn too much. Even in life we should be learning something every day. Do not let the cost of a higher education stop you. With the many option I have mention above (and there are many more not mentioned) it is possible for anyone to attend the college of there dreams and obtain that special degree. Come on, we can do it together.

College is expensive. That is why most of us need loans to help pay for our education. Many college student loans come from the federal government but sometimes many times these do not cover the total cost of a higher education. For those college students requiring additional money to pay for there higher education there are student loans provided by private lenders.

Private student loans can be the best way to cover any additional educational costs and earn a degree. Private student loan lenders can offer an affordable way to help pay for college as well as help to increase your life long earning potential. Earning your degree is one of the most important steps you will take to living the life you have always dreamed of living.

Private student loans in many cases will offer a quick application process, quick approval and with the right credit history and or co-signer also offer a low interest rate. These types of private student loans will provide you with the extra money you are in need of to complete your higher education and start on the road to success.

This all sounds great and simply, does it not? Well, the process does not have to be hard. Talking to your schools financial aid officer is the easiest way in my opinion to get started. This is what I did and ultimately all I had to do was provide some financial information get my co-signer to sign and then I received a check. It really can be that easy.

Other ways to get started are the internet. You can apply online to just about anything today. Do some research online with a financial institution you are interested in. Make sure you check out there terms (when will payment start) and possible interest rates, fees, and will you need a co-signer. Using a co-signer can also just simplify a private student loan for you as well. That is not to say you can not obtain a private student loan on your own, but with limited credit history and financial back ground it may be much more difficult and your interest rate could be a little scary. You need to remember that a co-signer with a good credit history will lower your interest rate and possible get you a better term as well as fees. You also need to keep in the back of your mind you could be putting this co-signer at risk if for some reason you do not fulfill you payment and term obligations. Those signing on the dotted line with you will make them responsible, so if you do not pay, they will have to or you will both go into default (big ding on credit history) on the loan. This is not something you want to do to someone.

All in all, a private student loan is a helpful tool to help you continue your higher education, however, how you obtain it and the people you use to obtain it need to be in your thoughts always. This will affect you for many years to come so you doing the right things now are going to benefit you greatly in the future.

One of the major benefits of consolidating your federal college student loan is the relief on high payments as well as multiple payments. By combining all of your college student loans into one consolidated college student loan, you can easily lengthen your repayment term from the normal 10 years to up to 30 years, depending on the amount of your current educational college student loans. With a one low monthly payment, you will have more money available to meet additional living expenses, including car payments, housing expenses, as well as career related necessities. Because there will be no penalties for any over payments, you can then make larger payments and help to reduce your repayment term when it becomes affordable. You can learn more about how a college student loan consolidation will work for you by doing some research.

You can obtain one on one personalized customer service by contacting the lenders that are now servicing your existing college student loans. They will be happy to answer any questions and let you know what kind of options you may have.

Federal college student loan consolidation will include Federal Stafford College Student Loan consolidation, PLUS Loan consolidation, Direct College Student Loan consolidation as well as Perkins College Student Loans, HEAL College Student Loans and all Federal FFELP and Direct College Student Loans that have been taken to pay for your higher education. Private college student loan consolidation is different. You can lose your federal college student loan benefits if you consolidate your federal college student loans into a private college student loan consolidation. So do not let anyone talk you into combining federal and private college student loans. This will never be a good match for you.

Once you have graduated and are gainfully employed is when you would usually start thinking about consolidation of college student loans. You know have more on your plate such as a car and maybe a home and family. A college student loan consolidation is going to combine many payments into one and hopefully lower your monthly payments as well. This is a good thing. As stated before, contact your current college student loan servicing department and talk to them about this. They are trained professionals and they will know how to help you out with a consolidation.

If you do not get the right answers from them, you can always go to a local bank or lending institution that handles college student loan consolidations. Not all lending institutions will be willing to do a consolidation, so research it. Keep in mind the purpose is to lower your monthly payments. If you consolidate and find your consolidation payments are the same or higher, you need to ask yourself what the point of the whole thing is. Do not do it for the sake of doing it. Only sign if it is going to help your current financial situation.

You had a long hard road in college, but what you did just laid the stone work for what you will do with your life now. Be smart and think about what you do before you do it.