With education costs continuing to increase year on year it is becoming harder to source the funds necessary for college and more and more students spend more time thinking about raising the funds needed than they do working at their studies. If this was not bad enough in itself all too many students discover that once they have graduated they are saddled with so much debt that it quite simply drags them down and will probably take many years to pay off. If this paints a grim picture then for all too many students the problem of financing their education is magnified by a need to raise the necessary funds without having a cosigner to their loans.
These days college funding is not simply a matter of turning to a single source of finance for the majority of students but is a matter of creating a portfolio of funds from a range of different sources.
The first port of call for every student must be to look for scholarships and grants. Far too many students ignore this source of essentially free money altogether and yet you would be surprised at just how many scholarships and grants are on offer nowadays. In a lot of cases of course the amounts of money in question are relatively small but nonetheless can be very helpful as a part of your total funding plan.
The next port of call should be federal loan funding through schemes like Stafford and Perkins loans which are granted as both subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Perkins loans especially attractive because of their low rate of interest but are also the hardest loans to obtain and require students to show particular financial hardship.
Alas at this point although you will have begun to create your portfolio it is unlikely that this will give you sufficient funds and you will now need to begin casting your net wider and here you will have two paths to follow.
If you can get the assistance and support of either a parent or guardian then they could apply for a federal student PLUS loan to make up the shortfall between the funding you have been able to get yourself and the total cost of attending college. Student PLUS loans are subject to your parent or guardian having a fairly good credit rating but the requirements are generally less strict than those which would be applied by a private lender.
If you have not got a parent or guardian you can turn to or decide to go it alone then you will need to seek a private loan and just how simple this will be will depend to a large extent on your own credit history. In most cases private lenders will be quite happy to offer you a loan as long as your credit rating is good and will ask for a cosigner if you have no credit history against which they can make their lending decision or have a poor credit rating. In spite of this, with a growing number of people with a bad credit rating these days there is also a growing number of private lenders who are prepared to offer loans without the need for a cosigner and so it is simply a matter of shopping around.
A poor credit loan with no requirement for a cosigner will naturally be more expensive than a normal good credit loan but if you take your time and shop around carefully you will obtain a loan at a reasonable rather than exorbitant rate of interest.
These days college funding is not simply a matter of turning to a single source of finance for the majority of students but is a matter of creating a portfolio of funds from a range of different sources.
The first port of call for every student must be to look for scholarships and grants. Far too many students ignore this source of essentially free money altogether and yet you would be surprised at just how many scholarships and grants are on offer nowadays. In a lot of cases of course the amounts of money in question are relatively small but nonetheless can be very helpful as a part of your total funding plan.
The next port of call should be federal loan funding through schemes like Stafford and Perkins loans which are granted as both subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Perkins loans especially attractive because of their low rate of interest but are also the hardest loans to obtain and require students to show particular financial hardship.
Alas at this point although you will have begun to create your portfolio it is unlikely that this will give you sufficient funds and you will now need to begin casting your net wider and here you will have two paths to follow.
If you can get the assistance and support of either a parent or guardian then they could apply for a federal student PLUS loan to make up the shortfall between the funding you have been able to get yourself and the total cost of attending college. Student PLUS loans are subject to your parent or guardian having a fairly good credit rating but the requirements are generally less strict than those which would be applied by a private lender.
If you have not got a parent or guardian you can turn to or decide to go it alone then you will need to seek a private loan and just how simple this will be will depend to a large extent on your own credit history. In most cases private lenders will be quite happy to offer you a loan as long as your credit rating is good and will ask for a cosigner if you have no credit history against which they can make their lending decision or have a poor credit rating. In spite of this, with a growing number of people with a bad credit rating these days there is also a growing number of private lenders who are prepared to offer loans without the need for a cosigner and so it is simply a matter of shopping around.
A poor credit loan with no requirement for a cosigner will naturally be more expensive than a normal good credit loan but if you take your time and shop around carefully you will obtain a loan at a reasonable rather than exorbitant rate of interest.
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