How to Find the Best Student Loans
Eng352 Prof. Johnson Janice D. Shin
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Table of Contents
Executive Summery ………………………………………………………………….. 2 Background …………………………………………………………………………… 2 The Cost ………………………………………………………………………………. 3 The Plan ………………………………………………………………………………..3 The Time Line ………………………………………………………………………….4 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………….…… 4 Support Materials ………………………………………………………………………5
Executive Summary The objective of this paper is to find the best student loans from a bank for graduate school. This will help students pay high tuition with low interest rate. Now days, it is not
so easy to find a good job after graduating from undergraduate college since there are so many people who have earned a college diploma. More and more companies look for people who are outstanding and just graduating from college won‟t do it now. Therefore, many people want to continue studying after college but tuition for graduate school is not cheap. Unlike in undergraduate school, financial aid is won‟t cover most of the tuition during graduate studies. So getting a student loan is necessary.
Background The reason why I started writing this paper about „how to find the best student loans‟ is because I am currently attending New Jersey Institute of Technology as a senior and looking forward to graduate this December. I started taking graduate courses during undergraduate since last semester. I considered going to a graduate school but the tuition was too high. I did some research and found out that when you take the graduate classes during your undergraduate years, you can pay the undergraduate tuition instead of graduate tuition. This might help reduce your tuition a little bit but you cannot take all your graduate classes during your undergraduate years, and if you decided to go to another school, this cannot be your solution to reduce your tuition. Therefore, we need to get a loan from a bank with lowest interest.
The Cost Needed Tuition $6655 Fees $700 Books $800 Total $9200
As you can see from the table above, for NJIT, graduate tuition is $816 per credit. Financially, it is better if you do full time for 2 semesters for 24 credits total which will be $6,655 per semester. Plus, there are $700 of academic related fees and approximately $800 for books which makes it about $9,200 per semester.
The Plan There are a lot of banks that offers student loans so it is important that you find the best one. These include lowest rate, grace period, minimum payment etc. First, I looked up a few bank sites that offers student loans and compared. There are so many websites and companies that offer student loans when you search internet but I only choose the ones that are well known since these are more trustworthy than others that are unknown. After you compare all the banks, choose the one that fits you the best. APR Monthly Payment Bank of America 9.45% Capital One Wachovia 8.52% 8.50% $77.42 $102.97 Min $50 Repayment Period 20 yrs 20 yrs Deferment Period 7 yrs 7 yrs 4 yrs
The Time Line In this case, time is not so important. All these banks can offer you the loan very fast. You can even apply for the loan after you start classes.
Conclusion After searching a few banks about graduate student loans for students who are willing to continue graduate studies but have concerns about the high tuitions, there are many options. I came up with the conclusion that there aren‟t much difference between banks. The repayment period is long enough for all the banks, and deferment period is also long enough that you don‟t need to pay during the school year. So only difference you need to look for is the APR. You will need to look for the bank who gives you the lowest APR. By comparing the Bank of America, Capital One and Wachovia, I found out that Wachovia has the lowest APR which will be the best student loan.
Support Materials
Bank of America, , accessed Nov. 5, 2006.
I have been Bank of America customer for very long time so I am hoping to get better interest rates.
City Bank, , accessed Nov. 5, 2006.
This website has different types of student loans that I can take. “Compare student & graduate loans”, Reviewcentre, , accessed Nov. 5, 2006.
This website will be very helpful since this has listings of different banks and compared them in many ways so that people can pick the best bank and plan that will fit.
New Jersey Institute of Technology, , accessed Nov. 5, 2006.
This is the school website. This site is helpful since I am trying to go to this school for graduate.
Wachovia, , accessed Nov. 12, 2006
Just like other bank website, it gives all the information about student loan.