Look online for scholarships and grant opportunities.

If you'd like to apply for an education loan, we'd be more than happy to help you. But, before you get a loan, we encourage you to try getting scholarships and grants first. We've listed a few popular sites that might be helpful for finding a scholarship or grant. However, if you need to expand your search you might want to try the Web. Just go to your favorite search engine, type in the word "scholarships" or "grants" and you should find dozens of sites providing scholarship and grant information.

www.studentaid.ed.gov
A government site with plenty of information on funding opportunities and grant application packages. It lists grants that are currently available, and shows you how to apply for them. There's also a special link for minority languages.

www.collegenet.com
An easy-to-use site that lets you search for scholarships specific to your criteria, such as age, gender, year of college, clubs, ethnicity, nationality, sports and much more.

www.edu.programadvisor.com
In addition to providing resourceful information about colleges, programs and employment, ProgramAdvisor will match you with customized scholarships — simply choose "Scholarship Finder" when you reach their site.

www.fastweb.com
This helpful site links you to several scholarship databases, and runs a free scholarship search for you.

www.petersons.com
Peterson's provides one of the largest free undergraduate scholarship databases available! They also have scholarship offerings geared towards international students.

www.scholarshipexperts.com
Fast, easy and free way to find scholarships on the Internet, ScholarshipExperts.com delivers accurate and timely search results that have been filtered and customized to match unique user profiles.

Consider resources in your community.

High school counselors and financial aid officers are other great sources for finding out about scholarships. Also, be sure to look into scholarship availability through local civic groups, religious organizations, and area businesses.

If you've exhausted your scholarship and grant opportunities and you need additional financial aid, you might want to consider applying for a student loan with SunTrust.