Are Student Loans considered Scholarships?
Are student loans considered scholarships?
This is a very simple question but often confusing, there’s no difference between any form of financial aid as far as it is serving the same purpose. However, all of them came differently and in most cases spent in different manners too.
To simply address the question, a student’s loan is not a scholarship, they’re not considered as one due to many reasons specifically due to the criteria for granting of the two and their return payment whether they’ll be paid back or not.
It is quite OK to ask the question of whether student loans are considered scholarships or not due to the similarities they share, however it might also interest you to know that they’re very different in most cases, let study the two below.
What are Students Loans?
While it is obvious that you might have known by now what student loan is all about, to make a productive and insight judgment about it, it is crucial to furthermore address it again. Student loans are paid by advanced countries.
Most of the less developed countries wouldn’t survive it due to a lack of jobs to pay off the debts after one has graduated. Student loans for many years have been the key factor that has greatly increased the literacy rate in the developed countries. This is because everyone is privileged to be granted loans to study either rich or poor with the condition that they’ll pay it back.
Most of the student loans come from the government, while they’re many private student loans granted. Normally, individuals must be willing to pay back when due with a certain amount of money as interest.
They’re two different types of loan, tuition fee, and maintenance fee. While the tuition fee covers your school fees during your studies in the university, the maintenance fees cover all types of expenses you’re likely to make such as feeds, accommodation, books, and other things. The tuition fee is normally paid directly to the institution account while maintenance fees are paid in a lump sum either monthly or semesters.
What is a Scholarship?
Scholarship on the other hand is a gifted or a free education aid. It is very large with numerous audiences for all types of nations. It is usually granted to individuals in the form of a fully or partly funded study in a specific or any place of your choice.
Scholarships are often referred to as awards because they’re not to be paid back, unlike student loans. They’re many scholarship programs available at all levels from both government and private organizations. Scholarship awards are granted based on academic performance. Individuals must be able to demonstrate their willingness through academic skills to be qualified for this program due to the high competition.
Why are student loans not considered scholarships?
Aptly, going by the two explanations above, one can easily arrive at the following points;
- That student’s loans are to be paid back after studies and are employed
- That student’s loan is limited to most of the developed countries
- The scholarship is very different from a students loan in that, it’ll not be paid back and the criteria is based on academic performance
- That both the student loan and scholarship serve the same purpose in helping students with their education fees.