| Anyone who wants an even remotely secure financial | | | | payments. |
| future cannot do without a college diploma. Yet the | | | | PLUS Loans |
| cost of getting that college diploma can in itself be | | | | The Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students, or |
| one of the biggest stumbling blocks to a secure | | | | Federal PLUS Program, resembles the Stafford loan |
| financial future. Even public colleges and universities | | | | program but is offers non-need based school loans |
| are rapidly pricing themselves beyond the means of | | | | and will let parents borrow the entire amount of their |
| many middle-income families, but for them, a | | | | child's education costs beyond any other forms of |
| well-though out school loan may be the solution. | | | | financial aid. These loans have a term of up to ten |
| Properly planned, a school loan need not saddle a | | | | years, but can be prepaid at any time without |
| student with crippling debt upon graduation. | | | | penalty. The parents can even start making |
| School loans can be categorized as need-based and | | | | payments while their child remains in school. |
| non-need based. Need-based loans are for families for | | | | Both Stafford and Plus school loans, however, may |
| whom the cost of higher education will truly present | | | | still not be enough to cover the full cost of college |
| a hardship; they are specifically earmarked to defray | | | | today. So any difference can be made up with |
| some of those costs. | | | | alternative school loans, which are private loans |
| A non-need loan will cove some shortfalls in the | | | | available from many different lenders. As student |
| education find when a family which can normally pay | | | | loans, they carry low interest rates, no application |
| for college runs into temporary difficulty. | | | | fees, payment grace periods, and a variety of |
| Stafford Loans | | | | repayment plans. In that they are very similar to the |
| One of the beat school loan programs on both the | | | | government school loans. |
| graduate and undergraduate levels is the Stafford | | | | The Home Equity School Loan Option |
| loan program. Providing unsecured government | | | | Parents who have exhausted their school loan |
| guaranteed school loans, the Stafford program offers | | | | options can also consider a home equity loan to fund |
| a rate of interest which accumulates at a slower | | | | their child's schooling. A home equity loan, however, |
| pace as long as the student is enrolled in school. The | | | | will not offer the flexible repayment options of a |
| long-term interest rate will is also fixed for the life of | | | | government school loan, and the repayments will |
| the loan, and the Stafford school loan has a | | | | have to be made on time or the parents risk |
| six-month post graduate grace period during which | | | | foreclosure. A home equity loan should be used to |
| the graduate doe not have to make monthly | | | | finance college only as a last resort. |