tju411

Thanks Lynn. I intend to pay this off within about a year of graduating, so these shouldn't matter. However, I think that the extra safety is worth it, as plans can fall through.

I see that a lot of people here are talking about already being in debt, whereas I am talking about taking some on, so if this is the wrong board, could you point me elsewhere? I have one more year of school left to earn my master's degree in computer science (i.e. one of the few fields where I'll have no problem getting a job), so I'm comfortable with taking out loans to pay for this final year. I see that Sallie Mae has rates as low as 2.87% APR (based off of LIBOR) with no fees, and federal unsubsidized Stafford loans are always 6.8% APR with a 1% disbursement fee. I've always heard that it's better to take public student loans before private, but assuming I qualify for an interest rate below 6.8% with Sallie Mae, does it make any sense to pass that up in favor of the Stafford loan? References: http://www.salliemae.com/get_student_loan/...est_rates_fees/ http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/stu...tudentloans.jsp Thanks for any guidance!