Education is key, at least to those who know how best to use it to their advantage. And no matter how much you think you might not need education, sooner or later, there seems to be some elements of life that will derail your path towards this direction. Now, going to school under the supervision of your parent could feel like a piece of cake, especially considering the fact that you’re not the one who is solely responsible to funding your education. In other words, if you’re to get yourself through school alone, perhaps while still working a part time job, chances are that you might find it a bit difficult.
But not to worry, there are ways through which you could support your college education financially, and that is through the help of private and governmental loans.
FAFSA
Particularly in the United States, the first thing you need to do in order to be aware of what funding channels you could actually make use of, is to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form(FAFSA). Once this is done, you will be able to know your governmental monetary aid packages that you could claim when admitted into any college. And most often than not, it is always made up of grants, governmental work-study schemes, and a number of federal mortgages.
And the college you’re about to get into, will be able to come up with these packages by estimating the cost of your attendance, which includes living expenses and living expenses.
Also, from the data shown in your FAFSA form, they will be able to know the range of your family’s financial support, and then subtract it from the presumed cost of attendance, thus arriving at the financial figures you’ll to cover your college education.
Mortgages
One of the basic ways through which you could fund your way through college is by using mortgages. However, there are different forms of mortgages of which we will be discussing. The best part about these form of mortgages is that, you could actually use them in funding your way through college.
Plus Mortgages
Basically, there are two forms of PLUS mortgages; the Guardian PLUS mortgage, which is a kind of plus mortgage where a student’s guardian can afford to take it up in order to help their ward go through college, and a Graduate PLUS mortgage, which is also a type of plus mortgage but his time, designed specifically for students and graduate. However, you must know that there are some restrictions accompanied by this kind of mortgage which is; you are only permitted to borrow less than or equal to what your cost of attending your college will be. Also, it mostly comes with huge interest rates when being repaid.
Perkins mortgages
Unlike in the plus mortgages where the interest is often times so unbearably high, Perkins mortgages on the other hand typically come with low interest when being repaid. However, the Perkins mortgage is only available to colleges that do participate fully in the Perkins scheme. And given that Perkins mortgage is federal program, their main target is often to undergraduate and graduates who are financially challenged in funding their way through college. Nevertheless, the money you’ll get from Perkins mortgage is solely dependent on the amount of money you do get from other mortgage schemes, and how much your college has in the Perkins program.
Private Mortgages
Unlike the Plus and Perkins mortgage, this type of mortgage as the name implies are being made by private institutions who deem it fit, to financially support some students through their stay in college. However, given that it is a private mortgage, requirements might differ as much. Still, the basic features amongst them all is that the amount of mortgage your eligible for will be determined on what interest rate you pick. Also, the timeframe allocated to you before you could repay will mainly be decided by factors such as, your credit score profile, which will go a long way to proving what kind of person you are when it comes to repaying debt, and how long you could take. Other than these basic things, private mortgages differ in areas like interest rates, as some are often very high and others, considerably low, and so on.
Nevertheless, as tempting as it may sound to just get money from mortgages to fund your college, you have to be aware of the consequences that tail such actions. And what are we talking about here? Debts! Nobody wants to graduate from college knowing that the next six month or even a year’s earning of either their new job or internship will all be channelled towards paying debt. In other words, if you wouldn’t love to be in such a disastrous situation, then it would be wise for you to opt for mortgages with lower interest, and avoid making the acquisition of mortgage it a habit.