1. the school isn’t eligible to receive federal fin aid. In this case, the student and your friend should RUN not walk away from this school.

2. the student hasn’t applied for federal student loans yet at www.fafsa.ed.gov and doesn’t know he can get a better government backed loan without his parents as cosigners.

3. the school is eligible for federal student aid but the school is wickedly expensive and the student has maxed out all other loan types and therefore has to take out other private loans to cover the cost.

4. the student has taken out the “good loans” as mentioned above AND covered the cost of his education because it isn’t an expensive school. But is taking out yet another loan to “live off” of and this money isn’t going to the school to pay for tuition and fees. Note: Many school loans that don’t require a cosigner go directly to the student and NOT the school. If trust is an issue, look into this.

My advise to your friend regarding cosigning. Have him ask his son for a copy of his “Award Letter” from the schools financial aid office, it has a detailed amount and types of fin aid the student is being given. Also ask his son for a copy of the bill from the school. Then he/she can make a more informed decision about if they want to “possibly” pay for their child’s education.

Below is a link for the different types of federal student loans and the minimum and maximum amounts. The student needs to utilitze these first before he goes to the others.

Ken W

[email protected]

http://wolff2001.googlepages.com/home