Student Loans

[ravizzle]

Hi
I'm a non-citizen accepted to a US medical school. I have a US cosigner with good credit.

I was looking for advice regarding private student loans. I have been researching extensively and so far I'm looking at Sallie Mae, wells Fargo, and discover. All offer similar features like no origination fee etc... what other factors should i be considering?

Additionally these places offer choice between variable interest rate and fixed rate. What is the better option? I am expecting about 250-300k in loans by the time I graduate and would start making payments after residency ( approx 3 years after grad).

I really appreciate any advice you can give me.

[SCF]

You'll want to choose loans that have the ability to delay payments for your residency (so those targetted at med students), and you'll probably want to pick the company that has the most options for hardship deferments in case you need them.

Personally, I would choose a fixed interest rate.  Rates are very low now and basically can only go up in the future.  In your situation, you are going to have this debt for many years, so the fixed rate is probably the better bet.