Student loans often become an important part of a college student’s life in order to get them the continuing education they need. The question always becomes what type of student loan should the person get? You have several options from federal loans, state loans, and private loans. The best loan that you can obtain for the interest rate and repayment is going to be the Stafford loans. These loans are available for undergraduate and graduate students. You will find there are two options for the undergraduate as well.
The subsidized or unsubsidized Stafford loans are available to undergraduate students. The subsidized loan is awarded on financial need. You will never be charged interest until you begin repayment or take a leave of absence of more than six months from school and defer the loan. The unsubsidized loans are not based on need. In other words any student can take out this loan, but you will be charged interest from the loan disbursement date until it has been paid off. You will find that there are also specific amounts for the Stafford loans. You can borrow a maximum of 23,000 or 46,000 depending on how you are borrowing. If you are a dependent of your parents you will only be able to borrow the 23,000. As an independent student borrowing money you are able to double that amount to the 46,000. You will also find that you can only borrow a certain amount per year of the 23,000. It will increase exponentially as you reach the higher levels in college because the classes or tuition tends to cost a little more. Independent students are also considered to need more money as they are not borrowing any from the family, hence the reason the amount you can borrow is a little more.