How do you pay for college?

For domestic students

From my minimal knowledge loans generally work in a manner where you borrow said amount of money and then have to pay a certain amount back by a set date or else it you will owe money and it will affect your credit score. This varies greatly by loan and the plan you are on. I think your school is the one that picks which ones you need, at least that is what it looks like from my experience since it's part of most aid packages. The loans included in aid provided by colleges should also be federal (these usually have better advantages and are more forgiving).

Since the loans are included in your aid by your school it will be in your name. This means if you don't pay the minimum amount set in your loan information it will impact your credit badly. There are loans specifically for parents of college students (federal ones along with private but private should be avoid is what I'm told) and in those cases keeping up with it would be their responsibility and would affect them badly if they don't pay on time.

Aid is usually something like this:

Federal grants-makes up most of it

school specific scholarships/other aid from your school

work study

federal loans-will generally make up the lease percentage of your aid.

I would recommend you look at the fafsa website as they have a lot of 100% credible information on the matter which should be up to date. Also sorry if I didn't explain very well. Let me now if I can try to help more!