Saving for college can be accomplished through various college savings plans with tax advantages, where the money is usually invested into mutual funds. There's no single college savings plan perfect for every family. Deciding where to invest will largely depend on your income, the age of your child, and your chances of qualifying for financial aid.

It is important to keep your child's future financial aid in mind from the beginning because where you invest can have an impact on their aid eligibility. But be careful to avoid the trap of not saving at all, thinking it will help your child to qualify for more aid. Financial aid is determined more by income than by accumulated assets, and investments held in a student's name typically reduce financial aid more than assets held in a parent's name.

Qualified Tuition Plans, also known as 529 college savings plans, allow you to save for higher education for a named beneficiary or prepay future tuition in today's dollars, and can offer significant tax advantages. Parents, grandparents, siblings, uncles, aunts or friends can establish them. You can even set up a plan for yourself as long as the plan is designated for education funding needs.

A Coverdell Education Savings Account (CESA), formerly known as an Education IRA, is designed to help you set aside money for the qualified education expenses of your children, grandchildren or any other eligible beneficiaries. You cannot deduct contributions on your tax return, but the earnings are not taxed while they are held in the account. When your child is ready to head to college, distributions from this account will be tax-free if they're used to pay qualified education expenses. These funds may also be used to save for elementary and secondary education.

A custodial account under the Uniform Gifts to Minor Act (UGMA) and Uniform Transfers to Minor Act (UTMA) is another way to save for your child's future higher education needs. Although not tax advantaged - earnings and withdrawals may be subject to your child's tax rate - custodial accounts allow you to contribute as much as you like and give you maximum control over investment choices and decisions.

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Scholarship awards vary, and there are thousands of scholarships out there for students. It's important to begin looking for them early.
These resources can make the search easier:

Learn more about the PNC Student Lending Scholarship Sweepstakes

Principal: The dollar amount of a loan that's initially borrowed. It's also the amount on which interest is charged. For example, if you borrow a $10,000 loan (assuming you're charged no fees), your principal amount will be $10,000.

Interest: The fee charged by a bank or lender to borrow money, charged as a percentage of the principal borrowed.

• Paying toward your loan while in school, even making small payments that aren't required, will reduce the total amount you'll pay back over time. You can always prepay your PNC Solution Loan^® without penalty.
• Any interest that isn't paid each quarter will capitalize, or be added to, the loan at repayment, and you'll end up paying interest on interest and principal. It's the snowball effect.

What is more important to you: a stable monthly payment into the future or a lower interest rate right now? Do you feel that interest rates will rise or remain low in the future? Your answers to such questions will lead to the loan option that's right for you.

There are many reasons to choose one loan rate option over the other. For instance, if you would prefer the stability of paying the same amount each month, a fixed rate loan might be better for you. Or if you believe that interest rates and indices such as LIBOR will remain low in the future, a variable rate loan might be better for you.

If you apply for your loan and are approved, you will be presented with your rates for both the fixed and variable rate versions of the loan. At that point you'll be able to choose which loan rate option - fixed or variable - you'd like to accept.

All PNC Solution Loans^® have a fixed and variable rate option, and you don't have to decide which you'd prefer before you apply.

The variable rate PNC Solution Loan is based on the average of the LIBOR rates from the previous three months.

View a history of the LIBOR rate over the last 20 years