I know this topic has been touched on in individual school's forums, but I wanted to start a discussion specific to student loans. How is everyone going about handling their student loans? Direct and PLUS loans all the way with their 7.9% fixed interest (yikes!)? Or are you finding alternative loans with reduced rates? Are you using a co-signer? Variable or fixed interest rates?
I went through the student loan process 5-6 years ago, but it seems a lot has changed. It used to be that the government loans were the way to go (I have a 3.0% fixed interest rate from those days), but now it seems as if the banks are offering better rates?
I would be interested in learning how others are approaching this hurdle. I just tried the SunTrust Academic Advantage variable interest rate loan without a co-signer and was offered an interest rate of 7.25% (SunTrust is my current bank so I went to them first). Should I re-try with a co-signer or go to a different bank? I decided to go at it alone, because I have very good established credit history, but that didn't seem to work.