Great News for Financing College!

On Friday, Congress recently passed legislation to drastically increase the amount of financial aid to students and to assist students in the repayment of their student loans.

This particularly benefits students in California, where cuts to public education were felt especially by public colleges, and which has the most .

This benefits you in many ways:

• If you have demonstrated financial need, you may be eligible for a Pell Grant - and since it's a grant it never has to be repaid. This bill is expected to increase the amount given in Pell Grants to about 5.5 million needy students all over the nation. Now you have a better chance of being one of them.
• For those students starting college from 2009-2012, the maximum amount of Pell Grant you can receive will increase from the current $4,310 to $5,400.
  
• For minorities, you now have a better chance of getting funding directly from a mostly minority college, since the bill will invest over $500 million in minority colleges.
• If you take out a loan, your interest rate will be halved from 6.8% to 3.4% over four years, which would make a noticeable difference in repayment. Never forget the interest!
  
• If you work in certain public sectors for 10 years after college, you can have all of your federal student loans waved.
• If you come from a disadvantaged home and/or your parents did not attend college, you may receive additional funding from Upward Bound as $285 million will go to that organization.
  

Tips to remember with these points.

• Always try to get federal loans rather than a private one (even though many federal grants are funded THROUGH private companies, they are still federal loans).
• If you have demonstrated need and can get a Subsidized Federal Loan, you can have the interest paid by the government while you are in school, and during deferments.
• It's worth the frustration of paperwork to try to get federal grants. They NEVER have to be repaid!!
• Don't be afraid to apply to private colleges simply because the tuition is expensive. If you have demonstrated need, you can often get a considerable amount of funding directly from the school as well - and for some people have your entire college career paid with little debt by graduation.
  

Check out the full story on Latimes.com