I had heard that Federal loans are a bettter deal. Anyone?????
How do we work through the maze of financial aid. Any advice on available scholarships that might be easy to obtain?
Anonymous
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Go to www.fafsa.ed.gov
That is the primary spot to start your financial aid search. Is your daughter at a state school? You should be getting a better rate there. Your daughter can take very low interest student loans and you can also take loans. Call the financial aid office at the college.
mistyblue352001
First is your daughter elgible for any federal or state grants? The federal loans are the better deal . There are subsidized and unsubsidized. One charges interest while your going to school while the other doesn't. The loans don't have to be paid back until schooling is completely done and u get a six month grace period to find a job after graduating. Sallie Mae is another good student loan lender. As far as scholarships look online for possible ones or check with the college they may have scholarships available. I can't think of the website for the federal grants but in a search engine type in federal grants and it should bring up the website.
CollegePhD
If you're looking for scholarships, don't go to Sallie Mae. In fact, I'd never go to Sallie Mae after dealing with them, but that's a personal aside.
First, start with the most-respected scholarship search sources - fastweb.com and scholarships.com. Those two have the best databases and search vehicles, so everyone looking for free money should start there.
Second, if you can't find a scholarship, you should consider federal student loans. They have low limits for undergraduates, but they are extraordinarily cheap. If you need more than federal loans allow, you should look at private loan options.
I've heard good things about www.thinkfinancial.com - they got my friend his money in 6 days or so, and they give the money directly to you instead of to the school, which is nice.
Hope this helps.
nabdullah2001
I am a recent college grad (2005) and I had used loans for 3 years in school and it came out to about $47,500. I would consider this by possibly opening up an interest bearing savings account for your daughter so any money she earns from a job or work study take a portion of that and put it into the account so when she graduates she'll have money already set aside to start paying her loans back. Any loans you take out make sure that you defer them because if you do foreberance you're responsible for the interest that builds up on the loans, but if it's deferred the government pays the interest until you graduate. You can also set up a UPromise account and contribute to her college fund that way for graduate school so you don't have to take out more loans. Look at the options you have and if she's gone away to school you're going to be paying a hefty price for it. I would consider the UPromise account(to help save for grad school) and an interest bearing account to help with repayment of loans. She could check out Fastweb.com and Scholarships.com and start applying for the ones that have deadlines for the spring or fall and make sure that she's aware of the GPA requirements for many of them and to get all her information together early because the sooner she gets it the better because she doesnt want to be sitting there at the last moment trying to get letters of recommendations or other documents to accompany applications.
Anonymous
salliemae.com
thats where i get all my college loans from! and they have information on scholarships !