With education costs continuing to increase each year it is becoming harder to source the money necessary for college and more and more students spend more time worrying about raising the money needed than they do concentrating on their studies. As if this was not bad enough all too many students discover that once they have graduated they are left with so much debt that it quite simply drags them down and will take many years to repay. If this paints a grim picture then for many students the problem of financing a college education is compounded by a need to raise the funds needed without having a cosigner to their loans.
College funding today is not merely a matter of turning to a single source of finance for the majority of students but is a matter of putting together a portfolio of funds from a range of different sources.
The first port of call for every student should be to try to find scholarships and grants. A lot of students overlook this source of effectively free money completely and yet it is surprising just how many scholarships and grants are available today. In a lot of cases of course the sums of money in question are reasonably small but even so can be very helpful as a part of your total funding plan.
The next port of call ought to be federal loan funding through schemes like Stafford and Perkins loans which can be obtained as both subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Perkins loans especially useful because of their low rate of interest but are also the hardest loans to get and need a student to show particular financial need.
Sadly at this point in spite of the fact that you will have started to build your portfolio it is unlikely that this will provide you with enough money and you will now need to begin casting your net wider and here you will have two roads to follow.
If you are fortunate enough to have the assistance and support of a guardian or parent then they can apply for a federal student PLUS loan to make up the shortfall between the money you have been able to find yourself and the overall cost of attending college. Student PLUS loans are conditional upon your parent or guardian having a fairly good credit history but the requirements are generally less strict than those which would be applied by private lenders.
If you do not have a parent or guardian to whom you can turn or decide to go it alone then you will need to seek a private loan and exactly how simple this will be will depend to a large extent on your own credit history. In almost all cases private lenders will be quite happy to offer you a loan as long as your credit history is good and will ask for a cosigner if you do not have a credit history against which they can make their decision or have a bad credit rating. However, with a growing number of people with a bad credit rating these days there is also a rising number of private lenders who are prepared to offer loans without the need for a cosigner and so it is merely a matter of shopping around.
A bad credit loan without a requirement for a cosigner will of course be more expensive than a standard good credit loan although if you take your time and shop around carefully you will obtain a loan at a reasonable rather than extortionate rate of interest.
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Sun, 04 May 2008 19:23:50 - 100%
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