In this article, we review the details of: do parents have to cosign for student loans, student loans that dont require a cosigner, can my child get a student loan on their own, why might a parent not want to co sign a student loan and can an 18 year old get a student loan without a cosigner. If you’re borrowing federal student loans from the Department of Education, the answer is usually no. But if you need a private student loan, you’ll need a cosigner if you can’t meet requirements for income and credit on your own.

do parents have to cosign for student loans

We begin with do parents have to cosign for student loans, then student loans that don’t require a cosigner, can my child get a student loan on their own, why might a parent not want to co sign a student loan and can an 18 year old get a student loan without a cosigner.

Do parents have to cosign on student loans? If you’re borrowing federal student loans from the Department of Education, the answer is usually no. But if you need a private student loan, you’ll need a cosigner if you can’t meet requirements for income and credit on your own.

Even if you can get approved, adding a cosigner to your application could help you secure better rates. However, there are some downsides to having your parents cosign a student loan.

student loans that dont require a cosigner

Now we consider student loans that dont require a cosigner, can my child get a student loan on their own, why might a parent not want to co sign a student loan and can an 18 year old get a student loan without a cosigner.

4 cons of having a parent cosign your student loans

You might think that having a parent cosign a private loan could be nothing but good. After all, they’d be helping you afford college.

But before you and your parent(s) agree to this arrangement, know that there are downsides:

1. You’ll be leaning on your family a bit longer
2. Putting family in harm’s way is possible
3. Achieving cosigner release isn’t easy
4. You’ll be left hanging if your cosigner passes away

can my child get a student loan on their own

More details coming up on can my child get a student loan on their own, why might a parent not want to co sign a student loan and can an 18 year old get a student loan without a cosigner.

You can get a private student loan without a parent, as well, but there’s a pretty big catch. Private student loans generally require a creditworthy cosigner, but the cosigner does not need to be your parents. Someone else with a good or excellent credit score can cosign the loan.

why might a parent not want to co sign a student loan

Four Action Steps to Get a Student Loan Without a Parent

Leverage the right strategies to get a parent-free loan:

1. Fill out the FAFSA form

The one step in the “no-parent” student loan that requires a parent’s involvement is the FAFSA form. The FAFSA is a prerequisite for a student to get a federal student loan. If the student is dependent, parental information is required on the form. Signing the FAFSA does not obligate the parent to borrow or repay their child’s federal student loans.

2. Explore going independent with your college loan

Uncle Sam, via the U.S. Department of Education, does offer various loopholes to move your “dependent” status to an “independent” status.

Students can’t declare themselves independent, even if they live independently and are financially self-sufficient.

There are very few options for becoming independent that are under the student’s control. The main options are getting married, having children or legal dependents other than a spouse, serving on active duty with the U.S. Armed Forces and enrolling in graduate school. Otherwise, the student will have to wait until they turn age 24 and are automatically independent to go to college.

Besides these options, college students can ask the school’s financial aid office for a dependency override in unusual circumstances. But, dependency overrides are very rare and involve extreme cases, such as an abusive household and abandonment.

The college financial aid administrator will not provide a dependency override merely because the parents are unwilling to complete the FAFSA or verification or because the parents are unwilling to pay for college.

Suppose parents can’t or won’t provide their financial information and have cut off all financial support to the student for whatever reason. In that case, the student may qualify for just unsubsidized student loans.

3. Check out tuition installment plans

The vast majority of U.S. colleges and universities offer tuition installment plans that can help you take a bite-sized approach to paying down tuition costs – and curb the need for any student loan. If you’ve saved up enough money, paying your tuition via monthly installments buys you some time to so you don’t need to make that huge upfront, lump-sum payment.

Even if you steer $2,500 of your savings toward $10,000 worth of college tuition costs for a semester, that’s $2,500 less than you’ll need to borrow in a student loan scenario. So ask your bursar’s office about signing up for a tuition payment plan.

Tuition installment plans are also a good option if the student is trying to work their way through college.

4. Check your SAR

Once the FAFSA form is complete, the student and their family will get a Student Aid Report (SAR) in a few days or, more likely, in a few weeks. On that form is all the data recorded on the form by students and parents.

When you get your Student Aid Report, check it thoroughly for accuracy. The information included is used to calculate the amount of money available in financial aid for the student. If the amount isn’t enough for your college costs, the student can apply for federal student loans (as long as they remain under the loan maximum cap) without getting their parents involved.

can an 18 year old get a student loan without a cosigner

Whether you’re an independent student or a dependent student who needs parental financial information on their paperwork, the good news is that you can easily obtain federal student loans without cosigner obligations.

Seventeen-year-olds can’t take out a car loan, or even become a cosigner or co-borrower on one. In the U.S., you absolutely have to be 18 years old in order to legally sign a loan contract. Up until you turn 18, you’re considered a minor by law and can’t enter into a contractual agreement with a lender.