Best places for Alternative/Outside Loans?

Paying for College
1

<p>I had asked my Financial Aid office for suggestions, but they told me that had to pull any sort of suggestions or references to outside loans due to the scandal. Therefore, I need some suggestions for financial institutions that students can take out loans (I'm looking at about $22,000). I have been searching on BoA and Citibank already; any other suggestions?</p>

2

<p>We're looking for information, too. My S's school, Carnegie Mellon, has this information on their site. It's a comparison of different providers, rather than a recommendation. We found it useful as a starting point.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.cmu.edu/hub/fa/altloan.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cmu.edu/hub/fa/altloan.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I assume you know to take any information on student loans with a grain of salt these days and check things for yourself. :D</p>

3

<p>Who will you be using for your Stafford and PLUS Loans? My advice as both a student and an FAA is to use the same lender for ALL your lending needs...this way it will be much simplier when you enter repayment.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the help. But I was wondering if you could clarify? My Stafford loans are coming from my school. Also, aren't PLUS only for parents? I'm a student.</p>

5

<p>Depending on how your school's financial aid is set up, they may be either a Direct Lending school (in which the lender is the federal government) or a FFELP lender in which you are using a private company as the lender. Schools, typically, are not considered the lenders of FFELP loans....except in a few rare cases. For undregraduates, PLUS loans are only available for parents....but most traditional students do have to hav their parents take out a PLUS Loan in order to cover their expense. The necessity of your needing a PLUS loan was based on my experience as a Financial Aid Counselor and the typical type of student posting to this message board.</p>

<p>Since you do not seem to know much about Stafford Loans, you may want to have a discussion with your Financial Aid Counselor and determine who your lender really is....as this will be extremely important once you enter repayment....so as you do not go into default on your loans and ruin your credit report.</p>