Grad Plus Loans Forum

[swc65]

sorry if this is a dumb question, but do I apply for a Gradplus loan after i receive a financial aid award letter from a school so that I know how much of a Gradplus loan to apply for? I filled out all the fafsa, needaccess and special forms for individual schools, but nothing for gradplus. I do that later, correct?

Yes. You will generally apply after you receive the finaid award letter. The most common application deadline is sometime in May.

[fewds320]

These Grad PLUS loans are keeping me up at night. If I can't be approved for them, I can't go to law school. Period.

All through college I managed to keep my credit score and report nice and clean, so I wouldn't have this problem. Due to some unpredictable crap with the economy, I didn't anticipate I'd spend almost eight months being unemployed after graduation and unable to pay any bills. My FICO scores are now below 500, and I've got two charged off credit cards.

I've not defaulted on any student loan, and I refuse to declare bankruptcy. It's these charged off cards that are confusing me. The rules for the graduate PLUS loan state that "you can't currently be 90 or more days past due on any account" or something. Well, my cards were charged off at 180 days past due. To me, that suggests that if I were to pay them now through the third party collection agencies, they would.. no longer be past due. And I would be eligible for a PLUS loan despite abysmally low credit scores.

The financial aid office seems to disagree though and suggests I write my congressman. Woot.

[swc65]

If you can get a cosigner with good credit, that would solve your problem.

Also, some schools have their own loan funds that they can lend. These are usually very limited, but it is worth asking about.

[vanwinkle]

sorry if this is a dumb question, but do I apply for a Gradplus loan after i receive a financial aid award letter from a school so that I know how much of a Gradplus loan to apply for? I filled out all the fafsa, needaccess and special forms for individual schools, but nothing for gradplus. I do that later, correct?

Yes. You will generally apply after you receive the finaid award letter. The most common application deadline is sometime in May.

I assume you're discussing applying to private lenders who issue government-backed GradPLUS loans. This is no longer going to be the application process; the health care modification bill being debated in the Senate today is going to do away with GradPLUS loans from private lenders in favor of direct government lending. With direct lending you won't have to apply to a lender, you'll just get the loan directly from the institution, so your financial aid award letter is your notice of qualification.

The bill hasn't passed yet, but should in the next couple days, and will go into effect this summer. At that point the issue of having to apply to private lenders for GradPLUS loans will go away entirely.

[swc65]

sorry if this is a dumb question, but do I apply for a Gradplus loan after i receive a financial aid award letter from a school so that I know how much of a Gradplus loan to apply for? I filled out all the fafsa, needaccess and special forms for individual schools, but nothing for gradplus. I do that later, correct?

Yes. You will generally apply after you receive the finaid award letter. The most common application deadline is sometime in May.

I assume you're discussing applying to private lenders who issue government-backed GradPLUS loans. This is no longer going to be the application process; the health care modification bill being debated in the Senate today is going to do away with GradPLUS loans from private lenders in favor of direct government lending. With direct lending you won't have to apply to a lender, you'll just get the loan directly from the institution, so your financial aid award letter is your notice of qualification.

The bill hasn't passed yet, but should in the next couple days, and will go into effect this summer. At that point the issue of having to apply to private lenders for GradPLUS loans will go away entirely.

You will still have to apply through the DoE. The loans come from the government not the school and they are managed by the DoE (except with Perkins Loans). So the school determines which loans you are eligible for i.e. Staff sub and/or unsub, perkins, GradPlus etc. then you apply for the loans through the govt. There is still a credit check involved (although more limited than for private loans). At least that has been my experience with borrowing loans directly from the DoE in UG and from my understanding of GradPlus processes.

[vanwinkle]

sorry if this is a dumb question, but do I apply for a Gradplus loan after i receive a financial aid award letter from a school so that I know how much of a Gradplus loan to apply for? I filled out all the fafsa, needaccess and special forms for individual schools, but nothing for gradplus. I do that later, correct?

Yes. You will generally apply after you receive the finaid award letter. The most common application deadline is sometime in May.

I assume you're discussing applying to private lenders who issue government-backed GradPLUS loans. This is no longer going to be the application process; the health care modification bill being debated in the Senate today is going to do away with GradPLUS loans from private lenders in favor of direct government lending. With direct lending you won't have to apply to a lender, you'll just get the loan directly from the institution, so your financial aid award letter is your notice of qualification.

The bill hasn't passed yet, but should in the next couple days, and will go into effect this summer. At that point the issue of having to apply to private lenders for GradPLUS loans will go away entirely.

You will still have to apply through the DoE. The loans come from the government not the school and they are managed by the DoE (except with Perkins Loans). So the school determines which loans you are eligible for i.e. Staff sub and/or unsub, perkins, GradPlus etc. then you apply for the loans through the govt. There is still a credit check involved (although more limited than for private loans). At least that has been my experience with borrowing loans directly from the DoE in UG and from my understanding of GradPlus processes.

I have never had to apply to the DoE for a Stafford loan, unless you count the FAFSA.