Can you get Student Loans without having a job?

[Anonymous]

I am looking for info on student loans but can´t seem to find the right place.

Guys what are the best student loans out there and is there anybody that will give a student loan to someone without employment?

Also, can you request more than the tuition expenses so you can pay off debt with the loan?

[SCF]

First, we can all give you some general information here, but you what you really need to do is make an appointment with your school's financial aid office.  They will help you understand any financial aid that you're offered, what you will owe the school (tuition, fees, room & board if applicable), and give you a sense of all your options for paying for school.

Now, in terms of the "best" student loans?  That would definitely be federal loans, but only after you've exhausted any grants or scholarships, because you want to keep your student loan debt to an absolute minimum to give yourself the best chance of success when you graduate.  First, accept any Pell Grants or scholarships, then any Perkins loans, since they are generally the lowest cost.  After that, accept subsidized Staffords (the government pays the interest on these loans when they are in deferment) and after that unsubsidized Staffords.

Private student loans are still out there, but they are expensive, based on a credit check, and often require  co-signer for young students.  They are far from ideal, because they don't have the same protections and benefits as federal loans (like forgiveness programs for certain professions, or the ability to lower or stop your payment if your income goes down), but you still cannot discharge them in bankruptcy.

Never use student loans to pay off other debt.  Student loans will follow you for the rest of your life, they never go away until they are paid.  If you are in so much debt now that you can't afford to go to school, that's OK.  It's not the end of the world to take some time and get your finances in order, in fact, it can help you do better in the long-run.

Good luck, let us know if you have other questions.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your advice, SCF. I am currently trying to help a friend of mine with his finances. We have been going to college together for courple of years now and recently, he has been running into some crazy debt almost maxing out every card he has. Our first shot was to try and get student loans as suggested in the credit cards section. We will go to the financial aid office and request an apppointment to see what his options are.

I am considering to get one for myself and pay it off slowly over the next 2 years before I end college so I don´t have to pay any interest in the subsidized loans. This decision is mostly based on the fact that I would like to get a loan on my reports asap so it shows history of good payment.
My friend does need the loan to payy his debt and we saw the max amount is $7500 (5.5k sub and 2k unsub) per year which would cover all his debt.

We have no idea how this loans work and we spent the last couple of days trying to figure out. Again, thank you for the reply, it is much more clearer now