They ask your parents’ jobs and employer (and education) in the Parent section of the Common App.
Yes, look at the terms of the Direct Loans. Some of us still cal them Staffords. The max a freshman can borrow as a student loan is $5500. Initially, it generally goes to your student account, for the college to use. A Parent Plus loan, same.
The college doesn’t disburse, so to say. It approves you for the DL. That’s the one and only.
Federal work study, as said, gets some $ back from the govt. Kids get a paycheck and many use that for the “personal” category. Some jobs are grunt, some are more interesting. Some kids can do dept research on their WS. My godson worked an admin job that led to his first post-grad employment. My kids both got into a program that pays for comm service (and it did factor in their later jobs.)