Parents who wish to take out loans to fund their children's higher education goals often look to the PLUS loan program issued by the federal government. The PLUS loans offered are of great benefit because they can balance the total amount needed for the education and include books, residence and food programs.

Parents are able to begin repayment on the loans immediately and even opt for PLUS loan consolidation upon beginning paying the installments. Parents tend to do quite a bit more research on their financial undertakings so it is important that they be made aware of the consolidation situation.

The Rush Many people will rush to consolidate their loans thinking that there is a particular closing date to get loans each year. The reality is that on July 1st of each year the interest rate is revised by the US Treasury Department and typically increased by some measure. Prior to this, you can get the rate from the previous year. There is no particular reason to rush into a PLUS loan consolidation to get a great rate. The rates do not change by much each year and the difference can often be within the hundreds of dollars rather than the thousands.

Taking Time It can sometimes take a short period of time to have a loan approve. More often than not, loans take a month or more to have approved. PLUS loan consolidation can take even longer because the borrower has to go through a credit check to make sure they are financially fit enough to repay a consolidation loan. The loan processing time typically does not affect the interest rate you receive.

If your loan application was done before the July 1st deadline you should receive the previous year's interest rates. Sometimes the delay in loan processing is due to the sheer number of borrowers who want to have their student loans consolidated. There can be tens of thousands of application processed each month.

In some cases there are lenders who seek to take advantage of the delays in hopes the borrower will forget about the application and they can make profit off of the typically short attention span of people in the internet age. The US Department of Education is taking steps to improve the delays in loan processing time. They are imposing penalties on lenders who have excessively long processing periods and go as far as barring them from participating in the federal loan programs.

Scholarships can be a great way to fund a college education, but a lot of students compete for few awards and most students are not selected for financial assistance. Once you have a list of scholarships you are eligible for, how should you decide which ones are worth the time to apply for?

Lists of scholarships that match a student's individual eligibility can be obtained for free online from sources such as Fastweb, Scholarship Experts, and Scholarships.com. Once you or your favorite student fills out some personal profile information, the websites will show all of the scholarships in their database that the student qualifies for. However, not all scholarship programs are created equally, and your chances of winning are directly related to how many other people are eligible for that award. It is also worthwhile to consider how much time it takes to apply.

Contests are generally open to all students regardless of major, activities, or even GPA. These are probably the worst odds of all, because tens of thousands of other students are likely to apply and winners may be selected randomly. Contests like this are often part of a corporate advertising promotion, so unless you can register in under five minutes or so, just skip it. Even if you can apply quickly, be careful of ending up on commercial mailing lists or being pressured into buying something. You don't need to spend money to get money for college! That completely defeats the purpose.

Institutional scholarships are better, but they are still open to everyone at the particular school or everyone majoring in a certain subject at that school. If the scholarship requires a specific major, a better than average GPA, or certain hobbies or skills, fewer students will be applying and your odds of being selected are greatly increased.

The best scholarships to apply for are local or based on group memberships or company specific employment. Professional societies and community charities often offer generous financial aid, but they are the most selective about who is allowed to apply. If the student's parents work for a company with family tuition benefits or employee scholarship programs, this is another good source of low-competition college money. These restrictive eligibility awards offer the best odds, and even if they require complicated applications they are worth the time. If the application is too involved, it may discourage other students from applying, and increase your chances yet again.

Avoid the national programs with raffle-style awards and focus on the local and career-specific scholarships you find. It is better to apply for a few lower-competition programs than it is to sign up for the first ones you find.

Trying to finance a college education can be a pretty daunting task these days. Somehow the college fund that we all should have started when our kids were three years old got spent during a period of unemployment before that child got out of grade school. Or even if those contributions got made we just did not believe the expenses would rise the way they have, and the college savings fund is, well, underfunded. Right now, when you add in tuition, fees, room, board, books and other expenses for a public 4 year university, and that is with resident tuition rates, it is easy to look at a bill that pushes $20,000 a year! Multiply that $20K by 4 years, and you can see that a student, and his or her family, needs to come up with about $80,000! A private school will cost even more, and many start at $30,000 a year, or even more! Now consider that most families do not just have one child, but must help multiple kids get through school.

Many families, or students, need to take out loans. These loans, usually, do not have to be paid back until the graduate has been out of school for 6 to 9 months, and so they do give a person a chance to get established in a new job. However, some come with hefty interest rates and leave the recent graduate with a large burden of debt.

However, we do have some good news. Two thirds of students in 4 year colleges do get some sort of financial aid. This aid can come in the form of grants, scholarships, and work study programs. In other words, this type of financial aid does not have to be paid back. We believe that many people do not know how to access this financial aid, and that many college students do not get as much money as they may be entitled to.

Finding college scholarships and grants can be even tougher for older students who wish to return to school many years after graduating high school. They do not have the resources of their high school counselor. Many high school graduates started a job, always planning to start or complete a college degree. Some college graduates want to work for awhile before returning for graduate school. And do not forget other college graduates who simply want to educate themselves for a profession change because they do not find their initial job choice satisfying.

The internet makes it much easier to search for college scholarships. Of course, you can just go to one of the major search engines and look for information on scholarships and grants. But we all know how many search results that come up, and how long it can take to search through many websites to find information that is really useful. However, we have more good news! We have found free online scholarship search websites that can help you find and compare thousands of scholarships, grants, work study programs, and internships! In fact, even high schools and colleges endorse these services because, of course, they really do want you to find the money for college!