Community College Student Loans

Very few people today have the finances available for their entire community college education. Even with the grants and scholarships available to many students, this often does not completely cover their community college expenses. This makes it necessary for them to look into community college student loans to help relieve their financial burden. For students that choose a community college over a traditional college that requires them to leave home and are planning on going to community college part time and working part time, they sometimes find it frustrating looking for good lending sources. This happens because students are often unaware of the student loans available geared towards community college students. The reason that obtaining a community college student loan may seem challenging is because the actual attendance cost of going to community college is far less expensive than the cost of attending a traditional university or college. The average cost of two years of community college runs around five thousand dollars while the yearly cost of going to university often averages over twenty thousand dollars. Although university or traditional college costs more than community college, there are still many loans available to help pay for their education. The Federal Student Aid website is a good sources of information on student loans.

One of the biggest and best know sources in the nation for student loans is a SLM Community College loan offered by Sallie Mae, specifically geared towards students interested in pursuing a two-year community college program. The SLM Community College loan is credit-based so there will be a credit check done before any loan receives approval. For students that pass the credit check and receive approval for the loan, this could result in complete tuition fee coverage and a fifteen-year or longer repayment period.

The Signature Student Loan for Community Colleges has loans available to help students with the cost of their education. To be eligible for this loan students must be permanent residents or U.S. citizens; meet credit criteria; attend community college a minimum of half time; and international students require a co-signer with an acceptable credit rating to be eligible. Students with poor credit ratings may be eligible if they have a creditworthy co-signer. Some advantages to having a Signature Student Loan are no prepayment penalty and a Sallie Mae combined billing loans service. If creditworthy borrowers make two years of on-time interest and principal community college loan payments, they can request a release of their co-signer. As long as the student remains in school half time, they do not make any payments and there is a six-month grace period after completing college.

There are private lending alternative student loans sources that do not usually have the flexible, long-term repayment options or low interest rates offered through lenders such as Sallie Mae but for students that cannot afford to go to community college without financial help, it can solve their problem. Although financial institutions and banks expect to profit from lending money, it is still important to shop around to find the lowest fees and best interest rates.

Resources:

• Federal Student Aid