A while ago, I was faced with the possibility of going into further education and as a result I would have to consider taking a loan out. Thus, I had to get educated in order to avoid getting enslaved into a loan I totally did not want to be under.

What I found out was that if you are going to take a loan, take out a federal student loan. There are two types of loans - subsidized and unsubsidized. The former is from the government, while the latter is not. The federal student loan will have a considerably lower interest rate (like 6% or 8%), but the amounts are much more limited. But don't get greedy - just because you can take out as much as you want for a much higher interest is not a good thing. Most non-government loans will hike their interest rates up way high (some are as high as 20%+!) to a point where you will be paying a lot of money in the long run.

So, take out a federal student loan. Budget around the lower amount you can take out, and make it work. In the longrun it will pay off considerably.