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‘Student Loans’

Over the past 40 years, just as with everything else, the cost of education has risen dramatically. Average tuition increases of more than 6% per year are common today. Just as one example, in 1973 the cost of registration at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) was $208 per quarter. It is now over $2,300 per quarter. Read the rest of this entry »

Obtaining student aid can be more complicated than playing the stock market. There are literally hundreds of possible scholarships, loan programs and other forms of assistance. But for the overwhelming majority a Federal student loan program is the most likely source of funds to help pay for school. Read the rest of this entry »

Stafford loans are part of the FFELP (Federal Family Education Loan Program) established by Congress in 1965 to supply financial aid to students. Read the rest of this entry »

With the rising cost of education over the past few decades, reliance on traditional Stafford loans has often failed to cover even the majority of expenses. The PLUS (Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students) loan program was designed to close that gap. Read the rest of this entry »

Many of the common Federal student loan programs require no credit check and provide substantial sums for financial aid. Unsubsidized loans, in which any interest accrued while the student is in school making satisfactory progress, are among the most desirable. Read the rest of this entry »

Having a poor credit history is never an advantage. Fortunately for students and their parents, though, there are a number of loan and aid packages that don’t look at credit status at all. Several Federal loans consider only need or other factors, and ignore any credit history entirely, good or bad. Read the rest of this entry »

Understanding the various types of interest rates is important when considering a loan of any type. Student loans are no different when it comes to the impact interest can play when paying the loan back. Read the rest of this entry »

A co-signer is a second party who guarantees to repay the loan and usually becomes involved when the primary borrower has no or a poor credit history. Read the rest of this entry »

Many common student loan programs are not credit-based. Stafford and Perkins are based solely on need and don’t even do credit checks. But not all will qualify and those programs will often cover less than 100% of the needed amount, especially considering the high cost of education today. Read the rest of this entry »

The Direct loan program began about 15 years ago and, in true American fashion, was designed to cut out the middle man. Instead of having banks, credit unions and other private businesses lend money to students and parents, the Federal government loans the money directly. Read the rest of this entry »

The costs of education today are ten times what they were less than 40 years ago. But those differences become even more stark when considering undergraduate versus graduate programs. Fortunately, there are resources available to both types of student to help them pay for college. Read the rest of this entry »

The FFELP (Federal Family Education Loan Program) is a Federal Government-private lender partnership and umbrella program that includes Stafford, PLUS and Perkins loans. Established by an Act of Congress in 1965, it began in 1966. Since then, over half a trillion dollars have been disbursed, over $50 billion in 2006 alone. Read the rest of this entry »

A scholarship, as distinguished from a student loan, is money given that does not have to be repaid. There are scholarships for academic high-achievers, athletes, Pacific Islanders and children of local widows. In short, there is a type of scholarship to suit any possible circumstance. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite high education costs and the cost of borrowing to meet them, students and parents have some advantages today that didn’t exist even ten years ago. The Internet has changed the way financial aid is researched (and granted) in more ways than one. Read the rest of this entry »