Federal Direct Student Loans are available to assist those vocational, undergraduate, and graduate postsecondary students (or their parents) and allows them to borrow money directly from the Federal government. It's done this way so that these students or their parents do not have to take out loans through private or other commercial lenders that oftentimes have much higher mortgage rates or simply will never provide a loan.
There are different variations of a Federal Direct Student Loan available; they are determined by whether or not the student is eligible for government assistance. Need based programs include the Stafford Loan and the Direct Subsidized Loan; while non-need based programs will be the Direct PLUS program, and the Direct Unsubsidized Loan.
Federal Direct Student Loans are overseen by the Department of Education. In order to be qualified to receive Federal Direct Student Loans the student needs to be a United States citizen or an eligible non-citizen (therefore those with Alien Registration Cards or those with Arrival Departure Records with specific designations). To qualify for Federal Direct Student Loans the student must be accepted or currently already enrolled in a degree or certificate program. The student must be at least a half-time basis undergraduate, graduate, or professional student at a postsecondary that participates with Federal Direct Student Loans. Students usually are not allowed to owe a refund on another a Title IV grant, and cannot currently have a Title IV loan that is defaulted. The student may also have to get a certification of eligibility from their school.
For students that are already signed up for college to remain eligible for Federal Direct Student Loans they have to maintain satisfactory academic progress in their course of study. Whenever they neglect to do so, it is grounds to start the repayment plan. If this were to occur though the student would be notified before the loan simply went into repayment.
Before acceptance, the school that the student is attending/enrolled in must certify that the borrower is eligible to be given the funds from the Federal Direct Student Loan. Schools can grant the students the money by issuing a cash or check, transferring the money electronically, or applying the sum directly to the student account at the school.
Repayment on Federal Stafford loans begin around six months after the student stops being enrolled in at least one-half the normal full-time academic course load. This can be either graduation or termination of the program by the student or school. For the other loans that are available under the Federal Direct Student Loans, repayment starts within 60 days after the student is no longer enrolled.
The overall loans were $13,022,000,000 in 2007; approximately $14,103,000,000 in 2008; and approximately $14,867,000,000 in 2009. There were over 2.9 loans in 2007 alone.
For additional info on Federal Direct Student Loans, the student can contact the Department of Education or the school that they attend/are enrolled in. Applications for the Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized loans are extracted from the school. Direct consolidation loan applications are obtained from the Department of Education.
Michael Saunders is an editor of TopGovernmentGrants. He maintains Websites providing resources on small business grants and children grants.
No comments:
Post a Comment