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What Is Meant By Financial Assistance When Talking About Student Loans?
Over the past 25 years the cost of college education has gone up significantly. Increases in tuition fees in excess of 6% per year are commonplace now. For instance, back in 1973 the price of registration at The University of California (UCLA) was just over $200 per quarter and now it is well over $2,000 per quarter.

A tenfold increase is not too abnormal and lots of things cost ten times more than they cost 20 or 25 years ago. On the other hand, wages have risen about three times in the same time period from in the region of $15,000 - $30,000 per year to about $39,000 - $42,000 per year. The figures vary according to gender, age and more but as a rough guide a three times increase is just about right.

But it is not all gloom and doom. There are far more types of financial help available today to parents and students than ever before. As its name implies, financial assistance is money which parents and students get from grants, loans and scholarships granted by Federal and private lenders to aid students to pay for their college education.

Once upon a time, students depended almost entirely on Pell grants and Stafford loans to finance the cost of their education and college living expenses. Nowadays Pell grants are still issued but they are need based and represent a small percentage of college costs today. Stafford loans are similarly need based but can meet 25% to 40% of the average cost of school today. Another type of aid is Perkins loans that are similar to Stafford loans but that are issued only to particularly low income families.

Luckily, PLUS loans (Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students) are also available nowadays and these loans were not around 25 years ago. PLUS loans are provided for parents and not students to help parents to pay for their child's college education. The interest rates on PLUS loans are reasonable

and there are some restrictions and fees levied but they often form an important part of the student's total package of college funding.

One quick note on the subject of fees. A lot of loans are for a specified sum of money such as $6,000 per year to be disbursed in several payments (normally once per semester). But it's not uncommon for fees of up to 4% to be taken from the loan amount before the funds are disbursed. This 4% fee on your $6,000 represents $240 that you will never see but that you must repay. Whenever you are seeking a loan make sure that you do your homework and try to find a low-fee or no-fee loan.

Although Federal loan programs such as the subsidized Stafford loan program levy low fees and interest is paid by the government, they are not the only form of financial assistance nowadays and are not necessarily the best choice.

Funding the cost of a college education nowadays is a complicated undertaking and the majority of students will need to assemble a package of funding that includes grants, scholarships, government loans and private financing.

Luckily, there are now a lot more more sources of finance available than ever before and market competition from private financial institutions especially means that you can obtain funds at a price that will not necessarily run you into unmanageable debt.

You are also fortunate to be living at a time when getting hold of the information that you need to make sensible decisions about the choices available to you is also fairly simple.

TheStudentLoansCentre.com provides a wealth of information for students covering everything from an introduction to college loan financing to a detailed look at student loan consolidation