mutual funds!??

[trader]

I'm a freshman in college and i've had to take out some student loans to pay for school. They're interest free until I get out of school, but I've managed to save about $1,000 since christmas and I want to put the money in some sort of stock/mutual fund type deal to pay for school. I really dont have much of a clue on what to get. I've heard that a balanced mutual fund would be good, but i'm just wondering what would be the best way to go to maximize my returns so i could pay off as much of my college tuition as I can when I get out of school. Thanks...

I would just open a broker account (etrade, ameritrade, etc) and look into just buying stock with a really good dividend (something that will give you cash flow every 3 months) . This will give you the oppurtunity to maybe give the returns of an employer matching 401K. Dividends are the way to go if you don't need the money for 4 years. Just my 2 cents.