I'm in grad school now and was offered a teaching position for the duration, as well as a few scholarships, awarded on the basis of academic merit prior to and during my degree.

I was lucky, I am at a school (in Canada) that offered a lot of funding opportunities. Before looking into financial aid and loans, completely exhaust the scholarships and grants avenue. Keep it reasonable, though. Unless you really have to, you'll have to balance preparing occasionally immense funding proposals with the time you have to complete them. By exhaust, I mean research and gun for a few that you have a reasonable chance of getting.

In the province of Ontario, in my field, I also have the opportunity to apply for two major government funding sources, OGS (Ontario Graduate Scholarship) and SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council). These are grants, not loans. Check if you have something like that in your area.

I have a friend in the faculty who is actually making a net profit after tuition and living expenses because of all the grants and scholarships he got! :eek: