There are very few students who have the privilege of going through school without requiring some sort of funding. Whether it is a grant or a student loan, the majority of students will need financial help to get them through. Many require a no cosigner student loan as they don’t want to involve their parents and want to stand on their own two feet.
The main problem with finding a student loan that doesn’t require a cosigner is the fact that most lenders will need that security.
You have probably not built up any credit history yet, so they can’t be sure whether you can be trusted to pay back the money. So a lot of lenders will always require a cosigner. This doesn’t of course mean it is impossible, it just means you might have to search a little deeper.
If you can get a cosigner then you will find that the percentage of interest will be a great deal lower. This means you will pay back less in interest thus the loan will be more affordable for you. A loan without a cosigner will be considerably more expensive and have a higher APR than a cosigned one.
So ideally you should try and get someone to cosign for you. This is of course going to involve a lot of trust on their part but if they are a close family member then you will undoubtedly do your best to make sure you keep up the repayments. Otherwise they will have to pay it off for you or lose any assets they have secured on the loan.
There is a type of student loan called a FAFSA. This is a government student loan that will never require a cosigner. The way they base their decisions is not on your credit history but on how much your parents are contributing to your education, as well as your grades. It is done on a student by student basis but is one of the best ways to get a no cosigner student loan.
A FAFSA loan is generally done in the form of a Stafford loan. It will be from a major bank in the USA, depending on how much you are borrowing. This might be your best choice if you simply cannot (or do not want to) find a cosigner for your student loan.