School loans for college seem to get more expensive as the years pass. There are so many questions when thinking about getting a school loan: What kind of school loan should I get? Should I even get a loan? What are the pros and cons of getting a loan? Believe it or not, even beginning college students sometimes do not understand the difference between a school loan and a grant for school. A loan is money from the government or private institution like Freddie Mae or Frannie Mac that must be paid back within a given period of time. A grant is money from the government you do not need to pay back. Personally, I do not see any pros with a school loan except the fact that you can make it through school. The average of paying back a school loan is 10 years.
Grants for School
Grants slightly differ from scholarships as grants come from the government and grants for school depend on how much income your parents claim on taxes, not necessarily actual income. For example, if your parents own a business and the business makes a decent amount of income, the business income is put on grants and the grant often falsely determines how much your parents can help because what comes out of the business is a business expense and not personal expense. Grants sometimes see business income as personal income. However, the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is what every aspiring college student fills out before attending to see how much income one qualifies for per college semester. If a student is at poverty level, but makes good grades, she can usually attend a public college for free with this grant. A middle class student will have to pay some expenses and in many cases can be a burden.
Scholarships
Today, there are thousands of scholarships. Most students can go to college for free if he does in-depth researching, but a lot of time is involved. Of course, you can always get hel from your high school counselor or college counselor in the college you are interested in. Most signed scholarships come from sports, but beware of political agendas within a college atmosphere. Simply do a search on student scholarships and apply for as many as you can even if you are not qualified for the scholarship. Why? When an organization has a scholarship offer and only one person applies for it, that organization must reward you the scholarship. This happens more than people think. Although there is no free college education, if you motivate yourself hard enough, you can make it free.
Student Loans
The two so-called most affordable student loans are the subsidized Stafford loan and the unsubsidized Stafford loan. The differences are that you need not to pay interest for the subsidized while in school, but you can only borrow up to $8500. With the unsubsidized loan, you can borrow up to $12000, but the government pays the interest for you while in school. Of course, all this depends on income level from both you and your parents as well.
Take the time and get as much as you can through FAFSA and scholarships. As the cliché goes, “the best things in life are always free.”
