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Student Financial Aid Bulletin
for Summer 2010

 February 2010

 

 

Financial Aid for SUMMER Attendance

You must complete a CMU Off-Campus Programs (OCP) Summer Financial Aid Application to apply for financial aid to cover your expenses associated with attending CMU, off-campus, summer school courses. Submit the application as instructed on the form.  Applicants will be packaged accordingly if they meet any one or all of the following criteria:

  • 2009-2010 Pell Grant eligibility (Undergraduate students only based on eligibility)

  • remaining federal student 2009-2010 loan eligibility (See Annual Loan Limits)         

  • DEPENDENT students – You (and/or your parents) may also be eligible for the federal Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students and alternative loans from private lenders.    

  • Minimum enrollment requirements to be eligible for summer financial aid: 

    • Undergraduate students must be enrolled in 6 credit hours

    • Graduate students must be enrolled in 5 credit hours   

  • Graduate students may be eligible for the federal GRAD/Professional (PLUS) Loan http://financialaid.cmich.edu/forms/summer/PLUSGradApp.pdf or alternative loans from private lenders.      

  • CMU’s Title IV School Code is 002243     

  • Guest students attending CMU Summer Sessions are not eligible for aid from CMU
Activating Federal Loans
ATTENTION: Returning Central Michigan University students who have previously borrowed a Federal Direct Loan while attending CMU do NOT need to complete another Master Promissory Note or loan counseling.
 
NEW BORROWERS: To receive your Federal Direct Student Loan, you must first complete a Master Promissory Note (MPN), the legal document you must sign agreeing to pay back your loan, and complete loan counseling.
 
Please start the process to receive your Federal Direct Student Loan as soon as possible, by following the steps described in the pages below. You should allow 15 business days for processing this information to CMU. Select from one of the loan types below to access the steps needed to activate the loan.

Federal Direct Student Loan Subsidized and Unsubsidized
Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS LOAN)
Federal Direct Graduate/Professional (GRAD PLUS LOAN)
 
Annual Loan Limits for 2009-2010
The Federal Direct Student Loan Annual Limits are listed below. Returning CMU students who have used their annual limit for the Fall/Spring Semesters in 2009-2010 will not have Federal Direct Loan eligibility remaining for the summer semester. 
 
Transfer students who have prior school federal loans for 2009-2010 will be assessed Summer eligibility based on how much of their annual limit remains at the time of transfer. A transfer student may have reached their limit in combined loans between colleges. For example, a student attending XYZ University in the Fall semester used $10,250 in graduate level federal loans then transfers to CMU Spring semester where they use another $10,250 in federal loans. This student has no remaining federal loan eligibility for Summer semester as they have reached maximum annual loan limit. 
 

 

Maximum Subsidized and/or Unsubsidized Loan Amount
for a Full Academic Year

Credit Hours Earned

Dependent Student

Independent Student
  Subsidized/Unsubsidized/Total

Subsidized/Unsubsidized/Total

Freshman (0-25)

$3,500 + $2,000 = $5,500

$3,500 + $6,000   =  $9,500

Sophomore (26-55)

$4,500 + $2,000 = $6,500

$4,500 + $6,000   =  $10,500

Junior (56-85)

$5,500 + $2,000 = $7,500

$5,500 + $7,000   =  $12,500

Senior (86 +)

$5,500 + $2,000 = $7,500

$5,500 + $7,000   =  $12,500

Graduate/Professional

N/A

$8,500 + $12,000 =  $20,500

 

NOTE: The loan limit cannot exceed cost of attendance minus other financial aid received (e.g. Scholarships, Tuition Assistance, MiWorks! or any other outside resources).
 
Financial Aid and the CMU Payment Plan
Follow this link for more information on the CMU Payment plan: www.cel.cmich.edu/paymentplan.
 
Important Info for Student Loan Borrowers
Two new federal loan programs could drastically reduce your monthly student loan payments, and provide loan forgiveness. If you go to www.IBRinfo.org, you can get more information about those programs and sign up for e-mail updates. That way when repayment begins, you’ll already know your options and won’t have to go digging for this article.
 
One of the new federal programs is Income-Based Repayment. It will cap monthly payments at a reasonable percentage of income for borrowers with heavy debt burdens or low incomes, and forgive any remaining debt after 25 years. This means that if you’re underpaid, underemployed, or unable to work due to illness, your student loan payments won’t break the bank, and could be as low as $0 a month. The program covers almost all federal loans made to undergraduate and graduate students.
 
The other program is Public Service Loan Forgiveness. If you are considering a career in public service, such as working for the government, as a public school teacher, or for a nonprofit organization, you might qualify for this program. It forgives remaining federal student loan debt after 10 years of qualifying payments and employment. This means that you can afford to take a job helping others, even if it doesn’t pay well and you have a lot of debt. If you plan to go to graduate school or have debt from graduate school, Public Service Loan Forgiveness could save you thousands of dollars.
 
More information about both programs, including Frequently Asked Questions and a calculator that estimates your monthly payments, is available at www.IBRinfo.org.
 
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON REQUESTING Parent PLUS LOAN DEFERRAL
After the Parent PLUS Loan has been disbursed to the student's account, the parent borrower must call the Direct Loan Service Center at (800) 848-0979 to request a deferral of loan payments. The parent borrower will be requested to provide the student's Social Security number. The borrower must choose between paying interest monthly, quarterly, or allowing the interest to be capitalized quarterly. If the student has no booked loan with Direct Loans, the parent will be asked to submit a letter on school letterhead indicating the student's expected graduation date, the student's Social Security Number and the parent borrower's Social Security Number. CMU will fax this information to the Direct Loan Service Center on behalf of the parent. EDUCATION RELATED DEFERMENT REQUEST
 
Be Wary of Private Loan Offers
The growing problems with private loans has led the House Education and Labor Committee to question the $85-billion-a-year student loan industry by asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the unfair and deceptive practices that lenders use to market their products and services to students. Following is a quote from the announcement of their request.
 

"Every day, millions of students receive marketing letters from private lenders – letters that are often intentionally designed to confuse or mislead students. These tactics are nothing short of predatory lending. No company should be able to get away with using aggressive scare tactics to profit off students who are already taking on enormous amounts of college loan debt. Just like any other group of consumers, students and their families deserve to be protected from any fraudulent or manipulative marketing practices."

 
College students are cautioned to be suspicious of unsolicited loan offers. Student loan debt can accumulate quickly and result in a lifetime burden of high payments and credit denials for automobile purchases, credit cards, and home mortgages. Private loans also can reduce eligibility for more desirable federal, state and college aid programs. To avoid these problems, read and understand the terms and conditions of all loans.
 
Deceptive marketing tactics are not illegal in the world of private student loans. It is always in a student’s best interest to explore federal loan options before applying for private loans. Here are some simple rules to follow when considering a private loan.
 
  1. All students should file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to determine eligibility
    for grants, work-study, federal loans, and other desirable forms of student aid.    
  2. Students should only consider a private education loan if they have reached their federal loan borrowing limit.
      
  3. Undergraduate students and parents should compare private loan costs with costs for the Federal PLUS Loan.
      
  4. Graduate students can borrow under the Federal Graduate PLUS Loan and should compare PLUS costs to private education loan costs before applying for a loan.
       
  5.  The financial aid offices at colleges and universities are staffed with knowledgeable people with years of experience who will be happy to answer your student aid questions.
 


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