Hey Ray,
I know a guy who is graduating this May/June from USN and here is what he told me through e-mail this week: "Oh, by the way, I got my federal funding approved and the money was already sent to my private lender to pay back the private loan I did this year. When you apply it will probably take a month or less so as long as they get you started by July you'll be fine. You'll probably get something in the mail around May or June with instructions so it will get done with plenty of time to spare. Plus they're hiring more help so it will get done even faster than it did for us." and a week or so before this he told me: "Figure out how much you need to live off of and then you can decide whether to loan out the max or only a portion. The nice thing is they are Federal now and the rates are fixed. It's better to have a fixed rate and have rates drop than to have a variable rate and see them keep increasing."
To me it seems that if you can get them that the Stafford Federal Loans and the Grad Plus Federal Loans are a better option than private loans!
Best wishes and Later.
