It is the time of the school year where students are receiving their financial aid award letters. This can either be beneficial by being offered a nice amount of grants or disappointing when you did not get anything. No matter the situation, students have been offered some type of loan to help pay for that year. Unless you are extremely lucky, most college students will not be able to escape from student loans.

There are several types of loans that can be offered to students depending on their financial need. A student can get either a subsidized loan or an unsubsidized loan. Both are essentially the same except when it comes to how the interest is paid on each loan.

If a student is offered a subsidized loan, he or she is not responsible for any interest on the loan until six months after graduation. Instead, the government takes care of the interest rate until the six-month grace period is over. This allows students to have time to get a job and start making money to pay off the loan and the interest rate on the loan. For those that qualify, this is a pretty sweet deal.

If a student is not eligible for this type of loan, they are often given an unsubsidized loan. For this type of loan, the student is responsible for the interest rate while he or she is attending school. The student can decide to not pay the interest rate while in school, but the interest rate will then accumulate and be added onto the loan. Compared to the subsidized loan, this is the worst option.

Students that do not qualify for a subsidized loan may go into more debt than what is necessary. Students take out loans for one reason, to pay to go to school. College is quite expensive and loans are a way to allow students to pay for college. Most often students have other expensive that they have to worry about besides their tuition. Money may be spent on a car expenses, rent, groceries, and other things that are needed. Paychecks earned go towards these things and the last thing students want to add to their already tight budget are interest rates on loans.

Sure there is the option for students to not pay the interest rate while they are in school, but the interest rate just builds up and makes the loan more and more pricey. After graduation, students have to pay for the loan and the interest rate. If a student does not have a high paying job or even a job at all, this can be quite difficult to make ends meet.

Those that qualify for subsidized student loans are usually in more financial need than those who do not qualify. Just because a piece of paper says that does not mean that the student may need that extra help.  

Students should all be able to access the subsidized loans, for it will help ease some of the financial stress off of college students. This allows students to try and save money over the course of their college years to put towards their loans after school. Also, the six-month grace period allows students to focus on getting settled and finding a stable job, so they are able to pay their loans on time.

College graduates are the future of America. The least that can be done is to make it easier for students to get out of debt quickly; so more money can be poured into the economy sooner. College is expensive and other costs that college students have do not make it any easier. By allowing all students to have access to subsidized student loans, students are able to focus on what counts, getting a good education and not, “how am I going to pay that interest rate this month.”