{"id":124,"date":"2011-09-06T19:45:07","date_gmt":"2011-09-06T23:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/finaid\/?page_id=124"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:13:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:13:29","slug":"federal-direct-loans","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/finaid\/graduate-students\/federal-direct-loans\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate Federal Direct Loans"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>For Updates on Graduate Federal Borrowing, please visit our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/finaid\/how-aid-works\/federal-financial-aid-updates\/\">Federal Updates page<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<p><span>The <\/span><b>Unsubsidized Loan<\/b><span> is a federal student loan offered by the U.S. Department of Education to help eligible students cover the cost of higher education. The student borrower must be a U.S. citizen or eligible noncitizen and be enrolled at least half-time in a degree program. Unlike the Graduate PLUS Loan or most private credit-based loans, a credit check is <\/span><i><span>not <\/span><\/i><span>required. More information, including maximum loan limits, can be on the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/studentaid.gov\/understand-aid\/types\/loans\/subsidized-unsubsidized\"><span>Federal Student Aid website<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span> <span>Some students in medical programs qualify for higher than standard <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/osfs\/resources\/types-of-aid\/loans\/fedstuloans\/\"><span>loan limits<\/span><\/a><span>. If you would like to borrow an Unsubsidized Loan, you should submit the <\/span><span>FAFSA<\/span><span> and <\/span><span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/grad\/25-26-grad-federal-direct-loan-request\/\">Graduate Federal Direct Loan Request Form<\/a>. First-time borrowers should also complete Entrance Counseling and a Master Promissory Note.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The <\/span><b>Graduate PLUS Loan<\/b><span> is a federal student loan offered by the U.S. Department of Education to help eligible\u00a0<strong>prior borrowers<\/strong> cover costs of higher education after the student has exhausted their Unsubsidized Loan eligibility. The student must be a U.S. citizen or eligible noncitizen, be enrolled at least half-time in a degree program and must have previously borrowed a Grad Plus Loan. Unlike the Unsubsidized Loan, a credit check is required. Credit eligibility is based on the<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/finaid\/files\/2017\/06\/plus-adverse-credit_3-2015.pdf\"> <span>PLUS credit criteria<\/span><\/a><span>, which is less stringent than the criteria used by most private lenders. But some borrowers may qualify for a lower interest rate by borrowing from a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/finaid\/graduate-students\/credit-based-loans\/\"><span>private credit-based lender<\/span><\/a><span>. More information can be found on the <\/span><span><a href=\"https:\/\/studentaid.gov\/understand-aid\/types\/loans\/plus\/grad\">Federal Student Aid website<\/a>. If you would like to borrow a Graduate PLUS Loan, you should submit the <a href=\"https:\/\/studentaid.gov\/h\/apply-for-aid\/fafsa\">FAFSA<\/a> and complete the <a href=\"https:\/\/studentaid.gov\/plus-app\/grad\/landing\">Direct PLUS Loan Application<\/a>. First-time PLUS borrowers should also complete Entrance Counseling and a Master Promissory Note.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For Updates on Graduate Federal Borrowing, please visit our Federal Updates page. The Unsubsidized Loan is a federal student loan offered by the U.S. Department of Education to help eligible students cover the cost of higher education. The student borrower must be a U.S. citizen or eligible noncitizen and be enrolled at least half-time in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1393,"featured_media":0,"parent":10111,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/finaid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/finaid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/finaid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/finaid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/finaid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/finaid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11979,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/finaid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/124\/revisions\/11979"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/finaid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/finaid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}