FollowAre you a student pulling your hair out screaming “I need financial help”? 
Financial help is never more important to a young person’s future than when they are paying for their higher education. Parents often do their best to help their kids get into and graduated from college and on their way to a good job. But, unfortunately they often fall short, and their kids either don’t have enough to complete their education, or end up on the other side of graduation saddled with student loan debt that they simply can’t pay.
In the U.S. today, out of every ten seniors who graduated from either nonprofit or public college in 2013, seven of them were carrying student loan debt. Each student averaged $28,400 owed each. That is actually two percent higher than in 2012. Six states in this country have average student loan debt per student of $30,000. They include New Hampshire @ $32,795, Delaware @ $32,571, Pennsylvania @ $32,528, Rhode Island @ $31,561, Minnesota @ $30,894, and Connecticut @ $30,191, according to a study by The Project on Student Debt done by the Institute for College Access & Success.
Further study findings determined that, as most people suspected all along, college degrees are still the best route to adequate pay at a good job. Just as degrees differ, however, so do student loan types. While a federal student loan comes complete with certain important consumer protections built-in to them, such as payment plans that are income-based, private loans do not generally offer any such relief for borrowers who find that they need help paying bills.
So, if you’re one of the many Americans who are having trouble dealing with your student loan debt, or with getting financial help to pursue your education, there are a number of resources and here are a few:
- grants gov
When you go to www.grants.gov, you can find a concise list of all of the many grants available in the U.S. There’s an entire section on education, as well as a grant for just about every other area under the sun. If you need further help finding a grant, you can call their contact center at 1-800-518-4726.
- USA.gov
If you can’t find what you need at grants gov, try USA.gov for loans, benefits and grants. There you can find out how to get government benefits for help paying bills or pursuing your education. They are all broken down on their site by popular benefit topics. If you have further questions, you can email them via their online email form or call them at 1-800-FED-INFO.
- FAFSA
One of your best possible sources, when you’re trying to get financial aid in the form of low-interest loans, grants, scholarships, and work-study programs, would be FAFSA, which stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Just about everyone is eligible for some kind of student financial aid as long as they have a valid social security number, have received a GED or high school diploma, are A U.S. citizen or card-holding permanent resident, and agree to only use the funds for expenses related to education. For further fafsa questions, email them online or just call the fafsa number. Their website is very concise and informative, and you’ll probably find all of the answers to your fafsa questions here, but it not, you can call them at the fafsa phone number, which is 877-207-3050. They’re available Monday thru Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Central time, but they also answer their emails day of the week.
So, if you are still screaming I need financial help with managing your student loan debt, or getting low-interest loans, grants, or scholarships, contact one of these agencies for help. You could be on the road to better financial stability and a higher education in no time with their assistance.