9 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Refinancing Your Student Loans

9 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Refinancing Your Student Loans blog.credit.com 5. Will they combine federal and private loans? The allure of refinancing student loans is being able to group all of your loans into one. Many students took out government financed loans as well as personal loans which can be tricky because of varying payments and amounts. Refinancing usually allows you to bundle all of your loans together into one payment which can be a huge plus. 6. Have I done my research? Similar to what I said about finding the best rates, do your research on the company in general. It’s likely you’ll be working with them for five to 10 years and if you’re constantly frustrated with them, it’s a recipe for disaster. Make sure the company you have is helpful and provides personal information for you. Don’t fall into the trap of finding good rates at a company you hate dealing with. 7. What are minimum rates? Even though it may seem counter intuitive, sometimes your debt may be too low. Most times, companies require a minimum of $7,500-10,000 of minimum student loan debt. If you’re under that, it may be easier to just pay off your student loans in the traditional fashion. Again, these rates will vary based on the company you’re looking at, so if your debt ranges around those numbers, be sure to check for minimum rates. 8. What’s my income and credit score? Like many loans, refinancing companies will often require either a steady (and relatively high) income or a really nice credit score to be approved. If you’re fresh out of college, it isn’t likely that either of those will be your first priority and might be lacking. However, some companies will accept you based on timely payments in general. Because of this, you’ll probably need a cosigner on your refinancing loan. If finding someone to cosign seems like a large issue, refinancing may become an issue for you. 9. Should I shorten my loan horizon? Ultimately, as it is with any loan, the shorter the horizon of your loan, the less interest you’ll be paying. This means you’ll be paying less money than you already owe. However, this doesn’t mean that the shortest loan is always the most feasible option. If you are seriously doubting your abilities to make the monthly payments on the shortest loan plan, don’t force yourself to. Make sure you’re settled into something reasonable and safe. Ask yourself if you can seriously take on the responsibilities of the loan. With all the grey areas of student loans and debt, finding out exactly how and what to do about them seems difficult at best. Because of the varying nature of student loans in amounts, grants, loan types, and other things, no one formula works. The best thing to do is to always do your research and really understand the benefits and repercussions of any loaning option. Talk to the staff of loaning companies to get a true feel to what you should be doing and how they’ll be able to help you. Once you do decide to refinance or not, you’ll be glad you know why.

5 Expectations College Students Should Have Of Their University President

5 Expectations College Students Should Have Of Their University President http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com 1. Easily accessible As a chancellor/president of a college or university, a lot of power and responsibility is held. This often gives off the impression to students, and even staff lower on the totem pole that the person holding this position is unattainable, unapproachable and generally hard to track down. This should not be the case with a university president. College students should feel like they can reach out to their president with any concern they have, whether its by email, contacting the presidents office or contacting the president directly by phone. Students should expect their president to be approachable. After all, without the students, the school would not exist. The students should be the presidents first priority. http://uhs.uniondaleschools.org 2. Highly qualified As with any major position, the person holding it should be expected to be more than qualified. The president of a college or university is the highest leadership position that can be held at a school, so the person holding the position should, before anything else, have past leadership experience. College students should expect their president to have shown leadership qualities before they even became president. They should expect that their president is highly educated, and has previous academic experience as well. Someone holding a position of this much power at a place like a university should know how to handle that power. http://crownheights.info 3. Responsible Going off of the last point, with great power comes great responsibility. The president should be responsible. They are in charge of and responsible for the entire universitys management, whether that be functions, managing staff, making major decisions, or being the voice of the university to the public. College students should expect their president to be highly responsible. They are making critical decisions each day on behalf of the university, and if they cant practice true responsibility, the integrity of the school could be lost. http://wellnessconsultinggroup.com 4. Politically savvy The president of a college or university holds the highest office of the university. That means that there is a hierarchy within the staff of the university, which means that its inevitable that politics will get dragged into certain situations. Money is also a major concern of colleges and universities, and the president, being the head, is the final say of that. Because of this, they should at least have some idea about how politics work, in the sense of the university itself. They should know how things work within the university, how things get done, who is in charge of what, and how to be the most effective at getting things done successfully. College students should expect their president to be politically savvy for the sake of being successful as a higher-up in a major academic institution. http://hamptonroads.com 5. Excellent communicator This one might seem pretty obvious. The president of a college or university is constantly communicating. They are the voice of the university to the public, meaning other universities, students and their parents, the press and any other source. They are constantly producing mass emails, giving speeches and are responsible for the schools reputation. Because of all of these everyday tasks, college students should expect their president to be in possession of some excellent communication skills. This might be the most important quality a president could have. Without being able to effectively communicate to mass audiences, a president loses all credibility.