i came across these articles in the news. please, no politics. this is a purely financial question:

http://fallschurch.patch.com/articles/o ... e-my-rates

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns- ... 4997.story

my concern is this: if stafford loan rates are about to double, should students get their loans now instead of waiting until their admissions cycle is over and they know where they're going for sure? is it even possible to get that stafford loan before the interest rates double?

also, when you apply for a loan, do you have to apply for loans for the upcoming academic year only, or do you do it for all 3 years?

sorry these sound like stupid questions. they probably are, but i wasn't able to find much information on this.

The Stafford increase would only affect undergraduates, grad school interest is and will continue to be 6.8% past July 1st.

would you get a private loan to cover the full amount, or would you exhaust stafford first, and why?

and when you get a loan, is it for just the upcoming academic year, or for all 3 years? if possible i would like to borrow 1 year at a time so interest doesn't accrue on money i don't need.

It's just for one year.

I use the gov. loans totally first because they are fixed rates and pretty decent. The risk of private loans is, even if the rates are currently lower than gov. rates, they are LIKELY to be variable rate loans. The variation is often prime-plus, where the plus is calculated as a function of the risk you present to the lender---So as the prime rate shifts, so do your loan repayments.

it sounds like i would have to re apply for additional loans before each academic year. when is the best time to apply for new loans ("new" meaning for the next academic year)? i don't want to wait so late that the deadline for making tuition payments is already past, but if i do it too early, i will have to pay interest on it.

You don't start accruing interest until your loans are disbursed, which is at the start of each semester. So, if you take out $20,000 in loans for the year, $10k will be disbursed in Aug/Sept and the other $10k will be disbursed in Jan. Therefore, you can apply for loans for the year at any time. Your school will likely have a deadline for when the FAFSA is due, so you just have to make that deadline. I filled out mine for my 3L year in Feb/Mar after doing my taxes, and everything is squared away for the loans to be disbursed when school starts.