Looking for a student loan? The Direct Loan Program is one of the Federal Student Aid (FSA) programs offered by the Department of Education, and it provides students with a simple, inexpensive way to borrow money to pay for education after high school. You apply for FSA by filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid; you can use the paper FAFSA, but we recommend using the online version, FAFSA on the Web at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/.