College student loans are three ordinary words, which have the unique ability to strike worry and confusion into the minds of parents and students from all over the world. Fear not; with some careful planning and a little investigation, you will be well on your way to effectively funding your upcoming college journey.

College student loans seem overwhelmingly intimidating to the potential college freshman. But by the time you are a sophomore, these meandering financial paths will seem old hat to you, and merely tedious.

College student loans come with various keywords such as interest rates, consolidation, Sallie Mae, Citibank, and FAFSA. Although FAFSA is not a student loan, it is indeed the place to start when seeking a college student loan, since most times it is necessary before you go any further.

FAFSA (otherwise know as free application for student aid) is a federally funded program that will seek out what grants and scholarships you might qualify for, before you can look into any loans at all. The money will be disbursed directly to the school you plan to attend, with any leftover funds paid directly to you by check from the college. Or you can choose to send the money back to the loan as prepayment. You can download and apply for FAFSA by going to http://www.fafsaonline.com and it is entirely free of charge.

College student loans can be sought through Sallie Mae (and its subsidiary Nellie Mae), Citibank, The Stafford Federal Loan, Perkins (which is a low five percent interest loan for students funded federally and paid back directly to your school) and many private lending institutions. There is also a Plus program where parents can borrow at a low rate to help fund their child's continuing education. All of these institutions are quite easily accessed online with a few simple strokes on your keyboard.

College student loans can be consolidated in the future to ease the financial burden, by merging them all into one and spreading them over the course of 12 to 30 years. This results in lowering the monthly debt considerably. But college student loans are not able to be consolidated during the time that the student is actually attending school.

I hope you learned something from this brief summary about student loans. They are nothing to fear, and much information about them can be found online. Good luck in your pursuit.