Student Loans

Student loans are indispensable for anyone seeking a college degree. With these tough economic times who can possibly afford to pay $16,000 to $40,000 a year to get a higher education without some kind of student loan, financial aid, scholarship or grant?

There are a number of student loans available to help students survive high tuition fees and gain the education they desire. In fact, there is in excess of $100 Billion dollars in financial aid and student loan funding waiting for you from federal and state governments, universities and private organizations!

You can get your piece of this huge student loan fund by sending in your Free Application for Federal Student Aid Form (FAFSA). You can download one for free at www.fafsa.ed.gov

They take into account many factors to determine your eligibility for student loan funding, including income, assets, children, and number of children in college to come up with a number known as the Expected Family Contribution (EFC).

It's an extensive process, and you'll need to have a number of documents handy to fill out the form completely, including tax returns, W-2 forms, bank statements, mortgage information, records of untaxed income and business records.

The effort is worth it, though, because the FAFSA is used to apply for federal and state loans and grants. Your EFC is generally what schools use to create your financial aid package, no matter what the price of the school. If your EFC is $10,000 and you attend a school that costs $8,000, you'll be expected to come up with the money to pay for your education. Attend a school that costs $22,000, however, and your need will be $12,000.

The amount of student loan funding you get relies heavily upon how accurately and completely you fill out your FAFSA form, so here are some accuracy tips to help you.

FAFSA Student Loan Accuracy Checklist

The first thing you should do to make sure you get the most student loan funding possible is to check your numbers. If you estimated your gross income, be sure you get your W-2 and provide exact income totals. In case of an error, resubmit the form to the central processor as soon as possible. Corrections will go through in a couple of weeks, and each college that your student applied to will have access to the updated information.

Colleges and universities start sending out admission acceptance letters in March and financial-aid award notices and student loan notices come close behind. Expect a financial-aid student loan letter to arrive within two weeks of an acceptance letter. So be sure you meet the deadline when filing.

After filing, you will receive a Student Aid Report (SAR). Your SAR is also available online at the FAFSA website. This report summarizes the information submitted on the FAFSA and lists your expected family contribution (EFC), which is the amount of money the government expects your family to pay in college education costs. The EFC is used to determine your student's eligibility for federal student aid, grants and student loans.

In a financial-aid package a college or university will try to make up the difference between the cost of attending their school and a family's expected contribution as spelled out in a SAR report. Some succeed better than others. Three schools with similar costs may offer very different financial-aid packages.

You next steps for student loan funding is a waiting game. First you wait a few weeks for that SAR to arrive. Then you wait a few more weeks for those acceptance letters and the financial-aid awards and student loan notices to trickle in.

You should receive admissions notification by around April 1 and financial-aid packages by mid-April. Most schools give applicants until May 1 to select a school. Experts point out that while SAR reports may make you sweat a bit, it's the financial-aid notices that throw some families into an all-out panic.

The good news is that you do have a little bit of leverage if you have been accepted at a number of schools. You may be able to negotiate a better aid package by mentioning to School A all that School B is willing to do for you. Student loans can help you make up any difference in tuition fees.

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