Graduate Stafford Loans
Graduate Stafford Loans are need based student loans. So, you will need to complete a FAFSA form to find out if you qualify for Stafford Loans and how much you qualify for. Graduate Stafford Loans do not require a cosigner and you can obtain up to $20,500 per year. Repayment of the loans can be spread across up to 10 years and the current interest rate on Stafford Loans is 6.8%. The loan checks are sent directly to the school.
Subsidized Graduate Stafford Loans
After you have submitted a FAFSA application form, you will be notified what loan programs you qualify for as well as whether you qualify for subsidized loans or not. Subsidized loans means that the U.S. government pays the interest on the loan while you are in school. Once you graduate, the government no longer pays the interest on the loan, it is included in the student loan payments.
Unsubsidized Graduate Stafford Loans
If you do not qualify for subsidized loans, or if you need more money than the amount of subsidized loans you qualified for, you can get unsubsidized graduate school loans. For unsubsidized loans, you can either pay the interest payments while you are in school or roll the interest payments into the loan and thus increase your total loan amount.
Direct Graduate Stafford Loans
Direct Graduate Stafford Loans are loans that are directly funded by a federal loan program run by the U.S. Department of Education.
FFELP Graduate Stafford Loans
The Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), also sometimes referred to as FFEL, is a partnership between the U.S. government and approved financial institutions. It allows these financial institutions (such as banks, credit unions, or other consumer finance companies) to fund the student loans. Some of these financial institutions are non-profit and some of them are for profit. These graduate loans are identical to direct graduate stafford loans except for the source of the funds.
Direct versus FFELP
It is the school, not the student, that decides whether Direct or FFELP loans will be issued. However, after graduation if a student decides to consolidate their graduate student loans, they can select to consolidate with a direct loan consolidation or an FFELP loan consolidation.