Gather the necessary information. This includes the loan amounts and interest rates for current loans as well as the student loans you plan to take. Classify them by the type of student loan.
Determine the interest rate for each loan. For instance, the fixed interest rate is 6.8 percent for the Federal Stafford loan, which is a student loan; 7.9 percent for the Federal Parent Plus loan, which lets parents borrow to cover costs not already covered by the student's financial aid package; and 5 percent for Perkins loans, which are also student loans. Private student loans and consolidation loans will have varying interest rates: check with the financial institution for more details.
Note the minimum monthly payments that are required for your loans. The minimum monthly payment is $50 for the Stafford and Plus loans, and $40 for the Perkins loans.
Locate an online student loan calculator, such as FinAid's loan calculator (see Resource).
Get the loan fees. Loan fees are used to adjust the loan balance so that the borrower receives the original loan amount after the fees are deducted. In other words, the fees are amortized over the term of the loan.
Input the fields in the FinAid loan calculator and click "Calculate." For example, if the loan balance is $50,000, the loan fees are 5 percent, the loan term is 10 years and the Stafford loan interest rate and minimum payment amounts are used, then the adjusted loan balance is $52.631.58 requiring 120 monthly payments of $605.69. The total amount of interest paid over the term of the loan is $22,682.11, which brings the total cost of your student loan to $72,682.11 (50,000 + 22,682.11).