dealing with adverse credit and GradPlus approval Forum

[RangerSam]

Hello,

I am currently in the process of clearing debts on my credit report in order to get my GradPlus loans approved. From my understanding, this is the biggest setback in getting approved.
Anyone here has recent experience dealing with this issue? I would rather clear all the debts/collection indications that are sitting on my credit report and only then applying for the loans but I was wondering if this is the best way to go?
Also, some of the agencies and credit card companies told me that they only report once a month to the credit bureaus. I do get the letters that my account has been paid in full though so I have 'proof of payment'. I read a few threads here a while back saying that GradPlus wants these for their records in order to approve you in the case where you have paid but it's still not showing on your report.

Is there anything else I should know about approval with adverse credit? I assume that within the next week or so the few adverse items that I have will be paid, but I want to know if there are other things I need to know about the whole GradPlus process when it's not a clean cut case.

thank you!