Undergraduate Stafford loans are available only to students who have not yet received their first baccalaureate degree. If you already have a Bachelor's degree, you will not be eligible for the Stafford loan if you enroll as an undergraduate student.

If you don't already have a Bachelor's degree, you could obtain the Stafford loan as an undergraduate student even if you have attended college as a graduate student. (It is technically feasible to have a graduate degree without an undergraduate degree, although this is quite rare.)

The aggregate limits for graduate and undergraduate Stafford loans combined are $138,500 for graduate and professional students, $224,000 for medical school students. Other than that, the graduate loans would not count against the undergraduate Stafford loans, which have an aggregate limit of $31,000 for dependent students and $57,500 for independent students.

Note that if you are a graduate student taking some undergraduate classes, you are eligible for the graduate Stafford loan limits if you are admitted to the graduate program and you are taking classes (graduate or undergraduate) on at least a half time basis that are counted for credit to the graduate program. If you are merely taking undergraduate classes as preparatory work for graduate school but not as part of a graduate program or are not yet enrolled as a regular student in the graduate program or your full enrollment is contingent on taking the undergraduate classes, you are not eligible for the graduate loan limits.

Stafford loan limits are complicated. For more information on the loan limits, see the chart at www.finaid.org/loans/studentloan.phtml