Last year when applying for a private student loan I was foolish and applied with like 4 different companies (costing myself four hard inquiries). The goal was to find the lowest rate, which wound up being a Sallie Mae Signature loan. Of course back then I didn't realize the inquiries hurt your credit, but now I do.

So does anyone know what lender is offering the best rates this year?

I was just approved for a loan with CitiAssist for prime + 0.325. I'm not sure yet if that is a good rate or bad.

Any inquiries made within a 14 day period counts as one.

Uhm, no they don't. This is one of those urban legends, myths-from-hell, that keep rearing their ugly heads. All inquiries matter and count. the only time they don't is when you get a manual review and they can see (if coded correctly) that it was for the same thing. But you did still take a FICO score hit.

But in answer to the OP's question, can't the APR's be found online? I wonder if there is a clearinghouse of info for student loanms, like there is for credit cards, where you can see them all compared to each other.

For those of you takling out persoanl loans that are not Stafford, have you already used up your allotment of Stafford loans? or is this for the needs that are above the yearly loan value? Or do you get much better deals on persoanl loans rather than Stafford or Perkins or the like?

Just curious.