If you are going to start college within a year’s time, you are probably trying to figure out how to pay for your educations. You should be applying to every college scholarship you can find, working as hard as possible to save up cash at part time jobs, and see if your parents are able to kick in some money towards your educations. Fortunately, if you can’t quite come up with the money on your own, there is a federal student loan program called the Stafford loan.

The Stafford loan is a very affordable loan that you can use to pay for a full college education. You are allowed to borrow a maximum of 4k a year for a total of 20k. There are basically two different types of Stafford loans – the subsidized Stafford loan and the unsubsidized Stafford loan.

The unsubsidized Stafford loan is a better option because the government will continue to pay the interest until six months after you graduate from college. However, you need to show clear financial need – meaning, you are going to have to show the government you are not going to be able to pay your bills without their help. If you don’t show financial need, you will be given an unsubsidized loan and be charged interest on the loans while going to school.

Now, in general the Stafford student loans are the most popular federal student loans. The primary advantage of the Stafford loan is that your credit history is not taken into account when you are being considered for loan qualification. This means the is that it’s a  great student loan for people with poor credit scores.

Stafford loans are also student loans without cosigner – very important for some students who bad or no credit without family to back them up. If you want to apply for a Stafford loan, you will need to fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid to help determine your level of financial aid needed.

Now, even if you don’t qualify for an subsidized student loan, you will still probably qualify for a subsidized Stafford loan.

One of the Stafford loan requirements is that you must be enrolled in school for half the time; this means you will be expected to be taking at least six credit hours a week.

Stafford student loans are so popular with students because they always have very low, fixed rate repayment terms. You are also given a 6 months grace period after graduating where you don’t need to make any loan repayments. This gives students a chance to find a job first.

The Stafford loan, like other student loans, can be consolidated after graduation. Student loan consolidation is the process of combining multiple loan debt into a single debt, usually with longer repayment terms, lower interest, and much lower monthly payments

Keep in mind that there are indeed other student loan options out there to chose from like signature student loans, Perkins student loans, and the Pell grant. However, the Stafford loan is probably your best bet.

Check out these related student loan hubs:

• Student Loans for Students with Bad Credit
• Loans for Students with Bad Credit
• Student Loans for People with No Credit
• Private Student Loans with No Cosigner
  

It’s important that you look around on the internet to find a good Stafford student loan guide. It’s important that you do some research and get familiar with everything related to Stafford student loans. By looking at Stafford Loan guides, you ensure you have to best chance of getting an unsubsidized Stafford loan.