Student Loan Question(s)?

ParkerBC,MSN,RN, PhD, RN · Jul 30, 2011

Your school should create a package for you regarding your financial aid award. In that package, you will be able to determine whether or not the Pell Grant will pay for everything. As far as your loan, the school will offer it to you. You can chose to accept any part of it. For example, if your school offered you 2625.00 in loans, you can elect to only use 750.00 if you want.

Okay, so what to do if you’re waitlisted. You have several options made available to you because it is a government loan. If you are not working, you can request a hardship forbearance. You are correct in that you can take an additional 6 hours to prevent the loans going into repayment. If you are considering doing the LPN to RN bridge, then take some of the gen ed courses required for the RN.

I hope I answered your questions. If not, let me know.

Good luck to you!

Iridescent Orchid, CNA, LPN · Jul 30, 2011

Thank you tons. :) I think you answered everything that I needed to know! I will get with my FA office to figure out where to go from here. If it turns out that I am waitlisted, I will definitely seek into the general courses, because I most certainly plan to bridge.

I think the only question I find myself asking now is, say I take your scenario of borrowing $750.00, then I get accepted into the program in January - am I able to seek an additional loan amount if it's demonstrated that I need it, considering it wouldn't be over the capped annual amount? I figured the answer is most likely yes, but haven't been able to find any information regarding this currently. :)

Thank you again for such a nice and thorough answer!

ParkerBC,MSN,RN, PhD, RN · Jul 30, 2011

here is a link to the amount of federal loans that can be borrowed: http://www.finaid.org/loans/studentloan.phtml

let’s say you are a 1st year dependent students. you are permitted to borrow up to 3500.00 for the academic year. so, if you borrowed $750.00 during the fall term, you have $2750.00 of available funds to you for spring. you will have to check with financial aid because summer terms come out of that bucket too. i am not sure when your school’s academic year begins.

what i do like about federal loans is that whoever applied for one does not need to take an inquiry on their credit report nor show verification of income. it makes getting the loan very streamlined.

you’re more than welcome. good luck in your future endeavors.

Butterfly0328 · Jul 30, 2011

On more thing you may want to remember as well is that a portion of a Direct Access loan will be subsidized, meaning the government will pay the interest-not you as the borrower. The above poster is also correct in that you will have a few options to defer the loan via a unemployment/hardship forberance. But the suggestion to just take some general classes you will need to take for the LPN-RN is a great idea to prevent the loan from going into repayment. Contact the FA office for any questions you may still have. I am sure they will be more than happy to help. Good luck

Iridescent Orchid, CNA, LPN · Jul 31, 2011

Thanks you guys, both of you have answered all the questions I had on the matter. I really appreciate it! I'll talk to my FA office on my next steps. I'm glad you've shed light on the account of if I don't get into the program in January. At least I would be working towards my RN requirements. That's the main concern I had. I definitely didn't want to make a mistake and head into my grace period for repayment status.

Thanks again ya'll! :)

Butterfly0328 · Jul 31, 2011

You are very welcomed. My current job involves processing student loans for a major bank, so I have some knowledge of the many options available to the borrower. If you do have any other questions I will try to answer them, but of course the FA office at the school you will be attending is also the answers you may be looking for. God bless:)

mermcm83 · Jul 31, 2011

Go to the financial aid office, they will have a few things for you to fill out, including checking off how much you would like to take out if you havent already. You have an option to send the money back, or only use a portion of what is needed. Like someone else said, if for any reason I dont meet the requirements for that semester, financial aid is usually really good with granting me a forbearance...which i have had to do a couple of occasions, just follow up with them, and they will take care of you. Some ppl make the mistake of ignoring it, and that will definately hurt you, i.e. my boyfriend who years later began getting garnished when all he had to do was call them! But anywho, it is a fairly easy process in my opinion, you will be fine (just talk with FA office in person) Good Luck!