Most students need guidance when it comes to learning about financial aid. When you want to secure a Stafford Federal student loan, you must first file your FAFSA at the FAFSAonline.com website, since it will save you a lot of time. After filing the FAFSA you generally wait a few of weeks to receive your Student Aid Report. Then your school will send you a letter confirming your financial aid. This letter will detail how much aid the student is eligible for, and the form of aid that he or she will get.
With this award letter in hand, you can then get a promissory note that you have to sign. This promissory note will also contain the filing instructions. The Federal Stafford Loan is a low-interest federally guaranteed loan that students can avail of. These loans can either be subsidized or unsubsidized.
For the time that you’re in school and for six months after leaving school, the interest on subsidized loans is paid by the federal government. The interest on an unsubsidized federal student loan begins to accrue from the date of disbursement. The student may receive a subsidized loan as well as an unsubsidized loan during the same enrollment period.
Consolidation of federal student loans is also a possibility. This consolidation program is comprehensive and contains all the necessary information for figuring out how to take advantage of it. With federal student loan consolidations reaching unprecedented lows it has become advantageous to the student to receive federally guaranteed protection by using one of these programs.When you use one of the consolidation programs you’re taking advantage of guaranteed protection offered by the federal government.
A good federal student loan program is the Federal PLUS loan that is a smart financial strategy that parents of students find useful. Apart from offering attractive terms, it enables you to meet your college obligations while paying below market interest rates. This type of federal loan is available any time of the year, offers single-digit interest rates, and you can fund 100% of your college expenses.
The student may also eligible tax deduction of the interest with the whole process being on an instant-approval basis. Take advantage of any federal assistance that you can. It’s tax dollars at work.