Student Loans and Financial Aid
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What students do
- Calculate total repayment cost on a loan using the simple-interest formula
- Compare federal and private student loans across rate, protections, and forgiveness
- Map three graduates' loan situations and explain who pays the most and least
- Read charts on interest accrual during school and monthly payment by repayment term
What it covers
- Grants and scholarships, federal loans, and private loans, and the order to use them in
- Subsidized vs unsubsidized loans and what happens to the balance while you're still enrolled
- Standard vs income-driven repayment and the tradeoff between monthly payment and total interest
- The FAFSA process and why filing early matters
Learning targets
- Explain the difference between federal and private student loans
- Identify key components of a loan including principal, interest rate, and term
- Calculate total repayment cost using the simple-interest formula
- Compare repayment plan options and their long-term financial impact
- Evaluate whether borrowing for education is worth the investment
From one teacher to another
Three loan files land on students' desks at once: Maria's $120,000 at a state university, James's $60,000 after starting at community college, and Aisha's $200,000 with $35,000 of that borrowed privately at 9.50%. Working as the financial aid counselor, they run the same simple-interest formula across all three and watch identical loan amounts land on wildly different total costs depending only on the repayment term. I don't have to tell them federal comes before private after that, the numbers already did it.
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