Can someone educate me?

[ssiptang]

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This is my first time ever applying for a loan so I'm not sure how the whole thing works.
As far as I can tell, the stafford loan(unsub) will cover majority of my tuition and other school fees. And Grad PLUS could cover the the remaining that stafford can't cover correct?
How about my living expenses such as rents and meals? Will any of these two loans cover at least some portion of that?
Sorry If I sound stupid but this is my first time applying for any kind of loan so I can't even get a big picture of this.

 

[sazerac]

You get loans up to the school's Cost Of Attendance (COA). COA includes both tuition and living expenses (rent food books etc).

 

[ssiptang]

Thank you Sazerac for clarifying that.
Is there a better private loan option than grad PLUS? or is grad PLUS usually what everyone goes with?

 

[RangerBob]

Thank you Sazerac for clarifying that.
Is there a better private loan option than grad PLUS? or is grad PLUS usually what everyone goes with?

Right now you can probably get a private loan with a lower, but variable, interest rate. I don't think it's worth it though--they aren't eligible for IBR, or PSLF, and that 3% rate can easily go up to 9% when the economy normalizes, or go even higher. Personally I'd always max out on the federal loans first--unless you are sure you can pay the loan off within 2-3 years or so.

 

[sazerac]

Grad plus sucks, except compared to everything else. The benefits to grad plus are (1) FIXED interest rate and (2) option to pay little or none during residency. Yes banks will try to sell you alternative products that seem superior, but be sure to evaluate them versus these two benefits.