How does US federal student loan aid work compared to UK loan?
I dont know the UK system. Heres a synopsis of the US system for undergraduate loans: All dependent students are limited to about $30,000, and most students do end up under this amount Beyond that cap, there are federal loans for parents and private loans (which typically require a co-signer), the terms of which depend on the lender and you The loans are not due until six months after graduation (or leaving college) If you are unemployed, you can apply for forbearance, which (if approved) means that you do not make payments and do not get penalties, but you do still accrue interest In rarer cases (e.g., serious illness), you may qualify for deferment, which means no interest accrues for the time period There are graduated repayment plans for people with limited incomes, but these normally extend the lifetime of the loan repayment The interest rates are modest; right now, theyre 2.75% for undergraduate, which is the lowest that they have been, but theyve never insane like they were in the 80s and 90s There are programs to provide loan relief if you are making payments on an approved plan for 1025 years (depending on the program), but these programs are new and few people have yet seen their remaining balances discharged You cannot normally discharge US students loans (federal or private) through bankruptcy (there are very rare cases where it has happened) Right now, all federal student loans are in administrative deferment, meaning no one is accruing interest or being expected to make payments