Student Loans?

I will be attending San Francisco State University in the fall and want to live off campus. My parents are going to pay for my tuition/books etc. but i need a student loan to pay for my living costs. I will probably need to borrow about $40,000 for all four years. Where is the best place to get a student loan with low intrest and repayment until after graduation?

Student Loans?
Firstly and most importnantly, you need to fill out your FAFSA. You can do this on http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ This is a Gov't aid that you do not have to pay back. You need to apply for a pin to sign it online. It will have all your instructions on the website to do so. It's been so long since I've gotten my pin I can't remember enough to tell you for sure how to do that. They will give you an EFC number after a few days of applying and submitting it ONLINE. If you file, print and send... it could take WEEKS.. and I highly do not recomend that. Deadlines are comming up for all schools, so you need to do it quickly.


FAFSA works like this:


Your EFC (Expected Family Contribution) is a number that FAFSA, when they process your application, they give to your school. That's all they handle is processing your application.


Now, its all up to your school.


After they process your FAFSA, they send your school of choice a Student Aid Report (SAR). On the student aid report will have all the aid that you qualify for as well as all your information. Your school will tell you if you qualify for the Pell Grant along and Stafford Loans.


Your school will have a set amount that they give each student with whatever their SAR says. The ones with 0's for the EFC will recieve the maximum amount of financial aid.


The lower the EFC, the more Aid you get.


Your school should send you an Award Letter stating how much you will recieve on your Financial aid, Pell grant, anyother grant that you qualify for, and how much you are aloud to borrow in federal loans that they can give you.





Contact your school financial aid and make sure they recieved your SAR (mine didn't and I'm very lucky I called). Also talk to them about any other outstanding questions you might have, along with when you may recieve your Award Letter from them with all that information. You may also ask them how much you will recieve from financial aid if you get the full amount to maybe give you an idea on how much you'll recieve. Don't do all that until you can see what your EFC is on the internet. You can do that by going to this website:


http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/FOTWWebApp/stude...





As a part time student, you will not recieve as much as a fulltime. Your school has a set tuition, and it kind of goes off of that.





Next, ask your financial aid office what kind of scholarships they offer to you. You can usually apply for them at the office, or they may have applications you can print off of the internet and send in to them. I would do this quite quickly as well, because deadlines are comming up.


Contact local clubs, businesses, and even your boss (if you work) to ask if they have any avaliable scholarships you may qualify for. Places like these like to give scholarships because they can use it as a tax write-off on the following year taxes.


Also, your local library should have all the information you need on whats avaliable as well.





Lastly, when you have your award letter and know how much you will be recieving for aid, you can talk to your financial aid adviser about student loans. There are federal student loans out there that are very helpful and low in interest to no interest at all.


http://www.salliemae.com/get_student_loa...





that's the most informational website about federal student loans. I would start there, and if you need more, you could go to a private student loan provider. but first, they have wayyy better interest rates and everything else.





check with your financial aid office, they'll have very good references on student loans as well. They actually can probably provide you with a loan through them.


Hope this helps!
Reply:Look into your banking provider's loans. Sometimes if you already have an account with them you can get a good rate.





I went with bank of america. Wachovia I heard is one of the best. Make sure you research. Also apply for fafsa cause they usually include loan packages as well. :]
Reply:There are two sources for student loans -- the federal government and private lenders. In order to obtain most federal student loans, you will first need to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). In most%26lt;!--instances the FAFSA is required for all federal financial aid including federal student loans. Deferment options are available while you are still attending school at least half-time. There are four main federal loan programs.





http://best-loans.awardspace.com/student...





Federal loan consolidation is for students who are in repayment status or parents who wish to extend the repayment period on their current PLUS and obtain a fixed interest rate for the life of the loan--%26gt;you can combine all of your eligible federal student loans into one loan with a Federal Consolidation Loan. Consolidating also locks the interest rate you pay on your loan.