Affordable student loans without a co-signer can be hard to find but it is certainly not impossible as long as you know where to look.It is recommended that before you even think about taking out a student loan you try to find funding which will not require any repayments and which can be found in the form of scholarships or grants. Your first enquiry should be with the school you wish to attend and then you should search the internet for grants such as PELL grants. Any sort of scholarship or grant you can get will reduce the amount you need to apply for in the form of a loan.Once you have exhausted these options, your next step should be to start looking at federal government loans and this essentially means Stafford and Perkins loans. These loans which you may be eligible for depending on your financial circumstances are given with a relatively low interest rate and advantageous repayment terms.Stafford federal loans can provide student loans without a cosigner and do not require any form of background credit check. You can either apply for a subsidized or unsubsidized loan with the former being ‘needs based’. Subsidized loans also means that the government will pay all your interest while you are studying and then give you up to 10 years after graduation to repay your loan. The loan limits are based on your year level at college and whether or not you are seen as being a dependent or independent student.Perkins loans are somewhat harder to get as they are only given to students who have exceptional financial need. The Perkins loan is issued by the educational institution itself although the funding is provided by the federal government. These loans are all subsidized and do not require the student to pay any interest while studying and, once again, have a 10 year repayment period.Once you have exhausted these options, and assuming that you have been unable to find anyone who is willing or able to stand as guarantor for you, you will finally need to look for a student loan which does not require you to have a cosigner. It should be emphasized that this is a last resort option and if you can get a loan based on your own good credit record or with a cosigner this is certainly a better option. However, this may simply not be possible and a private loan without cosigner support may be your only option.Many lenders are prepared to grant loans without a cosigner but this represents a higher than normal risk to the lender which will be reflected in the interest charged on the loan and the overall terms of the loan. This is something which you have to look at very closely indeed because it is very easy to take out a loan of this nature and then find yourself unable to make the necessary payments after only a few short months.Remember too that repayments will almost always start within one month of the loan being issued and you will need to consider just where you are going to get the money to make these payments. One mistake that all too many students make is to take a loan that is larger than they really need so that they can use money from the loan itself to make the monthly repayments. This almost always ends in disaster. If you are going to take out this form of loan then you need to have some form of income from which to make the repayments on the loan and this means taking some form of employment while you are studying.The problem with student loans without a cosigner is often not getting the loan in the first place but repaying it and this is something you need to think about very carefully before heading down this particular road.