How to finance a return to college

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returning to school can be one of the best decisions you can make for your future a degree that help you find new career opportunities and even higher pay but one of the biggest challenges figuring out how to cover the cost this can be difficult if your taking time out from working a job in order to study but there are many ways to help u financial education expenses there scholarships grants and work-study programs you may be eligible for some employers offer tuition assistance programs if you need additional funding after looking into these options there also a variety of federal and private loans to consider the first of the finding out what funding options are out there for you is to fill out the FAFSA or three Application for Federal Student Aid you can find the application online at fafsa.ed.gov we look at the FAFSA and how it works in another video after you file your FAFSA the school you're planning to attend will
send you an award letter that will include your federal financial aid package as long as you listed at school on your FAFSA this will likely include a mix of different ways to find your educational expenses you can include Grants federal work-study programs and more commonly several kinds of federal funds now you may be wondering how does your school figure out how much you can receive Wells is based on the number of factors the school estimated cost of attendance basically the cost of tuition and living expenses and using the information on your FAFSA expected family contribution that's the amount your school expects that you or your family could pay towards your education by subtracting your expected family contribution from the cost of attendance they figure out your financial need your financial need help determine how much you can receive in certain types of federal loans so let's take a look at those ones now the most common federal loans are direct subsidized and unsubsidized loans PLUS loans and Perkins Loans later to look at private loans which are offered by private lenders like a bank or other financial institution so direct loans come in two types subsidized and unsubsidized offered only two undergraduate students enter based on financial need typically use loans have lower interest rates than unsubsidized loans because the loan is subsidized by the government to government will pay your interest while your in school and potentially at other times throughout life of your loan unsubsidized direct loans are available to undergraduate and graduate students and aren't based on your financial need however these loans usually higher interest rates and subsidized loans and you'll be responsible for paying the interest accrues bones off and carry higher interest rates and more restrictive credit requirements then direct subsidized and unsubsidized loans and interest on the loans begin to accrue right from the time you take out a loan Perkins loan for a little bit different perkins loans are low interest loans that are only offered by schools that participate in the Perkins program they're given to undergraduate and graduate students typically need more financial help in most students the Perkins Loan Program is a federal program however the loans are actually given out by your school and interest doesn't start accruing alone until your repayment period starts the amount of money you can get if you qualify for the program is based on how much money your school has available for the program and how much money you're receiving from other loans you may qualify for a few of these loans in your financial aid package when added together they could come out to enough money to cover your costs however if you find you need more financial help they're also private student loans to think about private student loans are offered by private lenders that is not the federal government amount you can qualify for and the terms of the loan interest rate and the time you have to repay will be determined by things like your credit score and your ability for the ability of a cosigner to repay the loan rather than your FAFSA information with private loans you may pay higher interest rate than you would with federal loans and you may not get as many repayment options as you can with a federal loan income based repayment for instance keep in mind you may be offered more money in your financial aid award package than you actually need for the beer essentials but might be tempting to take that extra money loans aren't free money you have to pay interest on what you borrow and you need to start repaying your loans shortly after you graduate in most cases it can be hard to understand what kind of impact the amount of money to take out in loans will have on your finances later on so you may want to look at what your monthly repayment plan will be after you graduate you can use the loan repayment calculator Zad student aid.ed.gov or ask someone in your schools financial aid office to help you for instance if your monthly loan repayment comes out to $450 and you expect to make around $40,000 a year before taxes when you leave school to much of a strain on your future budget if you'd like to learn more about how subsidized and unsubsidized loans work in a few different repayment options for student loans we look at these subjects and other videos going back to school can be one of the best investments to make​