Can taking out student loans improve your credit score?

[Anonymous]

I know that a portion of your credit score is determined by the different types of credit on your report. So right now, all I have on my report is student loans. I have no credit cards, but my husband has only credit cards and no student loans. This upcoming fall and spring will be his last year in school and it's finally come to a point where he needs to take out a loan of maybe $3000-4000 from FAFSA. I've told him that maybe he shouldn't because it might impact his credit score negatively, but at the same time, it could show that he has a good mix of different kinds of credit on his report.

What should he do? It's a fairly small loan and I think he'd be able to make monthly payments which could look good on his report, but is it worth taking out a loan to improve his credit score?

[Anonymous]

The student loan would show up as an installment loan, which it sounds like he does not currently have any of.  This could provide a boost for the credit scores.  I am curious though, if you are not required to make payments  while in school and you make payments if they then start reporting to the CRAs.  If not, then there wouldn't be any score benefit until he is required to start making payments six months after graduation.  I am currently waiting for my student loans to reappear on my credit reports (coming out of default) so that I again have some installment loans reporting.  I am hoping to see a jump from this myself.