Where Do You Start?
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008Have you given any though to your high school student’s higher educational costs? If you have not started some kind of savings plan for this, it is never to early to start thinking about it. Sometimes the paperwork that will go along with a college student loan can be tedious and not so fund to do. You might want to start with some research. What kind of options will you have? You can find so much information on the net, it can be a little over whelming as well.
If you just start with the basics it will all kind of fall into place. This is the experience I have personally found. The first step I have always started with was the free online FASFA application. If you just do a search on FASFA there official website will come up. They will walk you through the application as well. There is certain information you will need when filling the forms out. You will need you tax information, social security numbers, and much personal information pertaining to your assets and liabilities. Does not sound to hard so far, right.
Once you have completed this step, and they have reviewed and approved (made a financial decision), you are ready to move on. With the financial decisions they make on behalf of you will come college student loans and or grants. You will receive a SAR report giving you details on what you qualify for and how much. You may qualify for many different college student loans and grants. Or, you may just qualify for one. What ever you do qualify for with a federal financial aid program, it will be beneficial to you. The reason it is beneficial is a federal college student loan is backed by the government and is held at a certain (low) interest rate. It is also possible you could receive a subsidized college student loan. What that simply means is the government will pay all the interest and when you start paying your student loan back, you will only pay the principle, not the interest. That can be a money saver.
The other options with a federal financial aid program is a grant. Generally you will be awarded a Pell grant. This is free money you will not have to pay back, unless you quit school. We can all use some free money, right?
What every the financial aid program is you have been qualified for you should seriously consider taking it. You may find it will not totally cover your financial need cost, but it should cover a major portion of it at a low or no interest rate. Once you see you do need additional financial aid, this is when you need to decide about a private student loan, a refinance or what every type of loan will get you and your student to the number they need to go to college.
All in all it really is a fairly simply process. Just do some research and ask questions. If you can’t find an answer to something the financial aid office at the college will be able to assist you as well.