Student loans for more than cost of attendance

Financial aid using state or federal government sources (including Stafford loans and other federal forms of loans) use two primary figures - the Expected Family Contribution (or EFC, that comes from the FAFSA) and the Total Cost of Attendance (TCA) (tuition, books, room/board). All students in a specific program at a college have a similar TCA figure. For public institutions, there would be different TCA for in-state students vs. out-of-state students. Similarly, students in a BSN program would have a different TCA than would students in a law program at the same university.

To use basic math: TCA - EFC = amount of aid that you are eligible for. You cannot receive more federal/state aid than is the TCA. Private loans or are different -- you can take out additional private loans that are more than the TCA.

This is the sequence I took in getting money for college:
First of all, try and apply for all of the scholarships you can through the school.
Also, fill out the FAFSA to see if you qualify for grants/federal loans/etc. Don't accept loans until you know that you cannot receive any more scholarship money or grant money. The federal loans will have lower interest rates and some of them are even fixed. AFTER you are sure you cannot receive money from scholarships or federal aid, apply for a private loan. In my case, the scholarships, grants, and federal loans have never covered my full cost of tuition, so I've had to do private loans. But I also go to a private school.

You can borrow somewhat more than what your school will cost (for books and things like that) but I wouldn't borrow very much more! For me, on my school's website it estimates that tuition + room & board & other fees is about 21,000 . I usually end up needing to take out 8000 in private loans, and I add about 1000 for books. I've never had any problems getting a loan, and the money I don't spend is left in my student account for future semesters! I hope this helps!

This is no longer true. From what I've researched and been told in the past month, private loan companies like Sallie Mae and banks have taken away loan programs that allow students to borrow more than the TCA.

I'm trying to get student loans through my school also. I don't qualify for grants because unfortunately they look at PAST income on the FAFSA rather than current or what your income would be once you start a full time nursing program and have to quit your job. Good luck getting approved for private loans. I have A paper credit, but didn't qualify. I also have a good debt ratio, but that didn't help either. They are pretty much finding any reason possible to deny people for private student loans right now. I have no other options. There are no good cosigners hat would do that for me. My school also has a max loan limit of 12k. I'm going to apply for WIA...it's a program in florida that helps with tuition and books, etc. So hopefully that helps out too. We'll see.
I'm in the same boat as you are. I have 2 small kids. I can't imagine being successful in the program and also working and trying to find time for the kids. I will hopefully be able to work part time during the 1st semester, but after that it won't be possible.
Wow...sorry this was so long. I guess I had a lot to say!
Good luck with everything!

I'm also a second degree student. Any ideas on the best 3rd party loans?