After years of putting your nose to the grindstone, working hard and targeting a path to higher education, the moment is coming around the corner. Your entire family has worked, scrimped and saved to finance your dream but there still isn’t enough money in the kitty to fully pay off your tuition and other educational expenses. At this point you are concerned if you can qualify for a student loan. With both the Federal Government and private lenders in the student loan game, there will certainly be a program you can qualify for.
Experts advise the first line of defense for any student looking to continue on to a higher degree, is to apply for a Federal Loan. Federal Loans, tend to be offered at a lower, fixed interest rate than private institutions. There are generally three types of loans offered, Perkins for lower income students, Stafford (which can also be subsidized for lower income students) for pretty much everyone and PLUS programs for which the parents become financially responsible for the debt.
To qualify for these types of student loans, the applicant must fill out a FASFA form and either be low income (for the Perkins loan) or have decent credit (the Feds basically want to see no adverse activity for around a three month period)
The amount of loan available through the Federal Government is capped by Congress and may not be sufficient to cover all the additional expenses associated with a matriculation. Many times that is when people go to private financial institutions to get additional loan money.
To qualify for these types of loans, many times students need to get their parents to co-sign for the loan (meaning both parties are financially responsible for the debt). There will be a credit check. Additionally, students must be enrolled in an accredited 4-5 year university. In general, most people can qualify for student loans so choose your path wisely.