Loan Information
Most graduate students who require loans to help bridge the gap in meeting your education costs apply for one of the following federal student loans:
- Federal Direct Student Loan
- Federal Direct Graduate Plus Loan
Applications for both of these loans can be found at www.studentloans.gov. There is no deadline for applying for loans: you may apply at any time during the academic year. In order to apply, however, you must complete the FAFSA at www.fafsa.ed.gov.
Current loan limits for 2013-14 are:
- Federal Direct Student Loan - $20,500 annually @ 6.8% fixed interest; 1% origination fee.
- Federal Direct Graduate Plus Loan - Cost of attendance less awarded grants and loans @ 7.9% fixed interest; 4% origination fee.
Additional private educational loans, while a last resort, are available to credit-worthy students through a number of private lending institutions. For more information on these loans, contact Student Financial Services.
Please carefully review and project your tuition, fees, and living expenses needed as a graduate student and the amount of overall loan required to meet these expenses. While we understand that each student is unique and has unique financial circumstances, we strongly encourage students to borrow the least amount of loan/s possible. With proper planning, you may require much less than the maximum allowed based upon the basic budget (cost of attendance) used in our aid determination for you.
The Federal Student Aid website regarding Direct Loans has extensive information for planning, including budgeting and repayment calculators at:
