Financial Aid update: Obtain Economic Hardship Deferment for GRADPLUS & previous consolidation loans soon and changes in Bar Study Loan process This email is being sent to all May 07 Law School Graduates. Please disregard it if you have not received any Educational Loans during your academic career. This and previous financial aid emails are available for review at the Financial Aid Correspondence Archive on line at http://law.indiana.edu/students/finaid/index.shtml Please do not reply to this email – it is for informational purposes only. Thank you for your cooperation and we wish you every success and happiness in our Law career. . The Law School Financial Aid Team / Dan & Jim ***************************************************************** Dear May 07 Graduate: Here is some updated financial aid information that we feel is timely, important and requires your action very soon: I ASAP after May 10th, 2008 Obtain Economic Hardship Deferment (or grace alignment forbearance for GRADPLUS Loans and any previous Consolidation Loans. Since these loans have no grace period, they would go into repayment right after graduation if you do nothing. The “Economic Hardship Deferment”, and more information on the criteria and downloading of the form is available on line at http://www.salliemae.com/manage/postpone.html (if your loans are with Sallie Mae) or check with your lender if you used a different one. This application is easier to complete than the one for the Unemployment Deferment,so we encourage you to complete this one. If you are completing the “Economic hardship deferment Form”, and are unemployed, then: 1) just list “0” as the amount of earnings, and 2) leave the page requesting information about your employer blank and proceed through the form. The calculation is somewhat complex, but basically to qualify, the annual payments for your educational loans must be equal to or greater than 20 % of your Adjusted Gross Income and your adjusted gross income minus my annual loan repayments on your This deferment can then be used to:
1) defer your previous consolidation loan, until November when your Federal Stafford loan for this year would go into repayment, or until your new consolidation loan is processed in October, or 2) defer your final Consolidation Loan for up to two years, if you qualify. If you do not qualify for either of these “Deferments”, you can always apply for a forbearance to: 1) delay the start of repayment for your previous consolidation loan, until November when your loan for this year would go into repayment, or until your new consolidation loan is processed in October, or 2) delay the start of repayment of your final Consolidation Loan. This can be done at the same site, or by calling Sallie Mae to request it at 1-888-272-5543 (if your loans are with Sallie Mae) or check with your lender if you used a different one. II Sallie Mae no longer offers Federal Consolidation Loans. Sallie Mae has very recently withdrawn from the Federal Loan Consolidation market. So, you no longer need to decide which program to use – you will simply have to use the Federal Direct Consolidation Program. For that reason, you will not want to consolidate your Federal Loans until sometime in October – before your loans go into repayment in November. Doing so earlier would result in the loans going into repayment immediately after consolidation and you would lose the reminder of the grace period. I will very shortly be sending out revised information on all of your repayment options including the Federal Direct Consolidation Loan Program. Look for that email, since you need do nothing more at this time than obtain that Economic hardship Deferment on your GRADPLUS and previous Consolidation Loan.
III The Access Bar Study Loan is temporarily unavailable. The Access Group Bar Study loan is unavailable for an estimated two weeks due to their website’s being updated to reflect changes in both their Bar Study and other private loans.
Currently, you can visit their website at www.accessgroup.com and just leave your email address and they will notify you once the Bar Study Loan application website is back up and running, which we believe will be around in late May. Or, you can just wait and apply for the Access Group Bar Study Loan in June. You can apply for up to $20,000 within nine months of graduation (through next January).
IV You can arrange an appointment to review your individual repayment options by signing up outside my door in Law School, Room 016D. I would be happy to review your specific loan repayment situation with you at an individual appointment. Please sign up for two consecutive appointments.
This will give me an opportunity to prepare your specific information and us plenty of time to thoroughly discuss your options.
We hope this information is helpful in planning your financial aid strategies and look for our next email that will contain all of the most up-to-date repayment and deferment information. Thank you, Dan & Jim The Law School Financial Aid Team