You want to take out federal student loans, NOT private loans.
There is no $250,000 limit on federal loans, I know because I am taking out much more than that for my school.
Basically there are subsidized loans, unsubsidized loans, and the PLUS loan.
These cover you for tuition and living expenses.
The subsidized and unsubsidized loans have limits, and the PLUS loan covers you for the difference up to the schools maximum cost of attendance.
Ex: University of Dental has 50k tuition and the living expenses are estimated at 20k a year
These arent exact numbers but subsidized and unsub may cover you for say 30k a year.
So the avg cost of attendence would be 50k + 20k = 70k. Which means the PLUS loans would cover you for the additional 40k.
Sometimes your cost of attendance in the living expenses section is higher than what you will really need, so you can just request less or return the difference.
They did send a letter saying I passed a credit check, but I am still under the impression that once you are accepted to dental school, assuming you filled out a FAFSA, you are eligible for guaranteed federal student loans.
The loans have lower interest rates than private loans. Furthermore, there is no interest accrument on the subsidized loans until you graduate. For the unsubsidized loans and PLUS loans interest does accrue but it is not required to be paid until after you finish school.
You can get up to 6 months grace period post graduation.
You can find out all of this information from
http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/index.jsp
