There is no standalone federal Direct Student Loan request form to download, sign, and mail. You request a Direct Loan electronically through a short sequence: file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at StudentAid.gov, wait for your school to send an award letter, accept the loan amount you want on the school’s financial aid portal, and finish Entrance Counseling and a Master Promissory Note (MPN) at StudentAid.gov. The acceptance step is what functions as your “request.”
Direct Loans move through your school rather than directly from the Department of Education to you. That structure is why no single form exists: each stage handles a different piece of the request.
Start With the FAFSA
The FAFSA is the entry point. You complete it at StudentAid.gov using your FSA ID, which acts as your legal electronic signature for federal aid. Dependent students also need a parent to have an FSA ID and sign the application.
The form pulls federal tax data directly from the IRS through a data-sharing agreement, so the prior-prior year’s tax information needs to be available. For the 2026–2027 FAFSA, that means 2024 tax data.
You can list up to 20 federal school codes on one submission, and each school you list receives your information and builds its own aid package from it. The federal deadline for the 2026–2027 FAFSA is June 30, 2027, but state programs and individual colleges often exhaust their funds well before that. File as soon as the application opens.
Once processed, the FAFSA generates a Student Aid Index (SAI), which replaced the old Expected Family Contribution starting with the 2024–2025 award year. Your school combines the SAI with its cost of attendance to build your aid package.
Who Can Request a Direct Loan
Federal regulations at 34 CFR § 668.32 set the baseline eligibility rules. You must be a U.S. citizen or an eligible non-citizen, such as a permanent resident, and you must have a valid Social Security number. You need to be enrolled or accepted for enrollment at least half-time in a degree or certificate program at a school that participates in the Direct Loan program.
You also have to maintain satisfactory academic progress under your school’s published standards, which usually cover a minimum GPA and a pace requirement for completing a set percentage of attempted credits each term. Falling below those thresholds can cut off loan eligibility until you appeal or recover your standing.
Direct Subsidized Loans carry an extra limit: you cannot receive them for more than 150 percent of the published length of your program. For a four-year bachelor’s degree, that is six years of subsidized eligibility. After that, unsubsidized borrowing is still available up to the annual caps.
Accept the Loan Offer From Your School
After the FAFSA is processed and your school builds an award letter, the loan offers appear on the school’s financial aid portal. This is the step that functions as the actual loan request. You can accept the full amount, reduce it, or decline any loan entirely.
The award letter separates subsidized loans from unsubsidized loans. With a subsidized loan, the government covers the interest while you’re enrolled at least half-time and during your grace period. With an unsubsidized loan, interest starts accruing immediately. If both types are offered, accept the subsidized portion first.
You are not required to take the full amount offered. Borrowing less saves you interest, and if grants, scholarships, work-study, and savings already cover most of your costs, there is no benefit to accepting money you don’t need.
Complete Entrance Counseling and the Master Promissory Note
Before your school can release any funds, first-time borrowers have to finish two items at StudentAid.gov: Entrance Counseling and the Master Promissory Note.
Entrance Counseling takes about 20 to 30 minutes. It walks through how federal loans work, what your repayment options will look like, and what happens if you default. The requirement applies before the first disbursement of your first Direct Subsidized or Unsubsidized Loan. If you have previously received a Direct Loan or a loan under the older FFEL program, you can skip this step.
The MPN is the binding contract in which you agree to repay the amount borrowed plus interest. You sign it electronically with your FSA ID. Before starting, gather reference information for two people with different U.S. addresses who have known you for at least three years; the first must be a parent or legal guardian. For each reference, you need name, address, email, phone number, and relationship to you.
One signed MPN can cover multiple disbursements for up to 10 years, as long as your school is authorized to use it that way. Most students sign a single MPN as a freshman and never need to sign another one for later undergraduate loans at the same school.
What Happens After You Request the Loan
Once you have accepted the loan, completed Entrance Counseling, signed the MPN, and your school has certified your enrollment, the money disburses. Funds arrive in at least two disbursements per academic year, typically at the start of each semester or payment period.
The disbursement goes to the school first. It is applied to tuition, fees, and on-campus room and board owed to the institution. If any balance remains after those charges, the school pays the credit balance to you directly.
Federal regulations at 34 CFR § 668.164 require your school to issue the credit balance refund as soon as possible, and no later than 14 days after the balance appears on your account. If the credit balance existed before classes started, the 14 days run from the first day of class. Schools deliver refunds by direct deposit, check, or a campus debit card, depending on their setup.
Keep in mind that Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans carry a 1.057 percent origination fee, which is deducted proportionally from each disbursement before the money reaches your school. So the amount that lands on your student account is slightly less than the face value of the loan, even though you owe the full amount.
If You’re a Graduate Student Starting in 2026 or Later
The request process above still applies, but the loan types available to graduate students are changing. The federal Graduate PLUS Loan program is being eliminated for new borrowers, defined as anyone who has not received a Direct Unsubsidized or Graduate PLUS disbursement before July 1, 2026. New graduate borrowers instead have higher Direct Unsubsidized limits and new aggregate caps.
A narrow exception exists for students who were continuously enrolled in the same program at the same school as of June 30, 2026, and who received a Direct Loan disbursement for that program before July 1, 2026. Those students may continue borrowing under Graduate PLUS for up to three additional academic years, or until they complete, withdraw from, or stop enrolling in that program, whichever comes first.
If you are a current or incoming graduate student, confirm with your school’s financial aid office which category you fall into before you accept loans. The difference between being a new borrower and qualifying for the exception can shift tens of thousands of dollars in available funds.