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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

What is the Stafford Loan?

By Kay Riter

Are you starting college within the next year? If you are, you are probably frantically looking for ways to pay for it. You should be applying to every college scholarship you can find, working as many hours at your part time job as you can to save up some cash, and talking to your parents about any possible college fund they have and if there is any money they can give you towards college. College costs have only gone up in recent years, much faster than the cost of almost everything else.

Some people are lucky enough to be born into a rich family or have parents that were able to set aside money in a college fund. Others are super smart and able to land a full ride scholarship to the college of their choice.

The majority of us have to pay for college all on our own. We try to scrimp by attending a community college first, going to a state school, applying for every scholarship available, and saving whatever we can. Unfortunately, if we still come up short, we have to take out a loan.

As bad as it sounds to have to take out a loan, if you can't pay, you have to do it. As much as you hate to do it, it's just what you need to do. Most college students will have to take out a student loan.

Your first student loan should be a government loan. The government will give you the lowest interest rate out there. Other personal loans will cost you more. You could even pay using a credit card, but that would be a huge mistake a cost you a lot down the road. First, look into the government Stafford Loan.

The Stafford loan is an affordable loan that can be used for college tuition at a two or four year college, university, or trade school. You can borrow up to $4,000 a year to a maximum of $20,000 total. There are two different types of Stafford loans, the subsidized loan and the unsubsidized loan.

If you are in great financial need, you can get the subsidized loan in which the government will pay the interest on the loan until six months after you graduate. If you don't show great financial need, you can still get the unsubsidized loan in which the government won't pay any interest.

If you need to take out a loan for college, the Stafford loan should be the first place you look. It can help considerably. Just make sure you know you will have to pay it back and that you have a plan to do so.

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