Stafford Loan Application

Answer 1

Stafford Loans are generally considered to be the most common form of college financial aid that aspiring students will receive from year to year. In the most simplistic terms, if an aspiring college student completes the FAFSA, the FAFSA actually acts as the Stafford Loan application, which means a student is virtually guaranteed to receive one of the two types of Stafford Loans. From year to year, the loan amount that will be available to students through the Stafford Loan is preset. For instance, in the years of 2009-2010, dependent students were allowed to borrow five thousand five hundred dollars if student was freshman, six thousand five hundred dollars if student was sophomore and both juniors and seniors were allowed to borrow seven thousand five hundred during those years. However, it should be noted that independent students are allowed to borrow more from year to year. For instance, in those same years, independent freshmen could borrow nearly ten thousand dollars, sophomores could borrow just over ten thousand and juniors and seniors could borrow over eleven thousand.

For the Stafford Loan application, there are well defined questions to determine the dependency of a student so that proper loan amounts can be offered. This is especially so when a student goes through filling out their FAFSA documents. However, it should be noted that if you are older than twenty-three years of age, you will automatically be considered independent on your Stafford Loan application. When applying for one of these loans, whether through FAFSA filing or straight Stafford Loan filing, it is important to know that there are subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford Loans. Of course, the type of loan that will be given to a student will be decided by the Department of Education.

Subsidized Stafford Loans will have no interest and no payments while a student is in college while unsubsidized loans will accumulate interest while the student is in school. The FAFSA application information that a student submits will be the deciding factor in what kind of loan they are offered. Subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford Loans differ in interest rates. As of July first, 2011, the interest rate for subsidized Stafford Loans was 3.4% and 4.5% the year before. For unsubsidized Stafford Loans, the interest rate is always 6.8%.