<p>I am moving out of state for Fall08. I am going to be paying for college on my own.. so I am obviously going to have to take out student loans to pay my way through college. When do I apply for a loan? Is this something I have to do through a private company or through a federal loan? Generally how easy/hard is it to get financial aid from an out of state public university? The problem is my family's net income is somewhere around 140k. Will this not allow me to get aid?</p>
<p>You'll need to apply for financial aid using the FAFSA or CSS profile (whichever the school requires). I believe you automatically receive a Stafford loan if you qualify for fin. aid but given your family's income you likely won't get any grants. Depending on the cost of the school, you may be able to get loans on your own, but you're probably going to need a cosigner.</p>
<p>how early do you generally have to apply for a loan? The last thing i want is for it to be too late and not be able to go to school for a year.</p>