[Asa]

Question for graduate students or those who have been one in the past: What's the deal with graduate student loans? Various scholarship will make my net tuition cost something manageable, but I'll still have to pay out the full amount (in installments) before getting the refund (also in installments).

How do they work, what's the current interest rate, should I avoid them as I'd like to do, how did you handle it? What's it really like, not what the websites will tell me? And no, I"m not asking for financial details, just advice.

Thanks for your time.
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[Tinalles]

It depends on the school. And on the country.

At UT Austin, they had a whacky system worked out under which the student paid full tuition up front, and later got a reimbursement for most of it. Like 90%, at least until my third year when the proportion of tuition reimbursement dropped to like 75%.

Really, though, it completely depends. Talk to your school's registrar or financial department. Nobody else can really give you the info you need.
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