How To Get A Student Loan Without A Cosigner
Attending college is an exciting time in any person’s life. Whether you are fresh out of high school, returning to college after leaving for a while, or have been in the workforce for some time and have decided to finally fulfill your dream of a college education, there is a certain thrill and excitement present when you walk down those cobblestone lanes, between old buildings covered with ivy that speak of history and tradition. Yet paying for this adventure can be a real challenge, especially when you need to consider student loans with no cosigner.
There are two main varieties of student loans: Federal student loans, known as Stafford loans or FAFSA, and private student loans, which can come from any number of different lending institutions. If you are young and don’t have a credit history, and are applying for private student loans, it will be very challenging to find a firm that will lend you money without a cosigner on the loan. If you do obtain a student loan without a cosigner, you will be facing pretty steep interest rates and high fees as well. For returning students and those who have been in the workforce for a while, this won’t be as much of an issue.
Once you have finished your four year degree, and are considering graduate school, a lot more options will open up for you. Once you have your degree, and are seeking entrance to graduate school for a Masters or Doctoral degree, you will be considered a much better credit risk, and many more institutions will open their doors for you and offer you student loans with no cosigner.
Thankfully, private student loans that require a cosigner aren’t the only loans available. The only student loans that never require a cosigner are the federally guaranteed student loans – the FAFSA Stafford Loan Program. Not only is a cosigner not required with these loans, but you will get a much lower rate of interest as well.
When you take out a federally guaranteed student loan, the US government acts as your cosigner – so you won’t need one. Now the amounts you can borrow are typically less than with a private loan, but you will most likely be able to borrow enough to cover tuition, fees and books at any public college or university.
Another advantage of the FAFSA government student loans is the fact that they don’t look at your credit history either. So if you are credit challenged, you can still return to school, complete your degree, and pursue the career path of your dreams. When applying for the Stafford loans, if you are still a dependent on your parents financially, they will look at your parents’ income and assets to determine eligibility, as well as your grades, proposed course of study, and the amount of tuition at the college you wish to attend.
While you probably won’t get into an Ivy League school if you are limited to student loans with no cosigner, it is still quite possible to obtain the funds you need to pursue almost any course of study, at the less expensive states schools. Don’t be concerned that the quality of education will be any less; many state universities are in fact considered world-class. Ultimately, what counts is your ability, and you can prove that ability in a state college just as well as you could with any good private university.