To start the repayment process, all Financial Aid Students must complete Exit Counseling on the studentloans.gov website.
Exit Counseling:
Exit Counseling is required to be completed the week prior to graduation. The Financial Aid Administrator will send out a letter of reminder to all financial aid student. If Exit Counseling is not completed the student will not be able to graduate. If a financial aid student withdrawals or takes a LOA he/she must complete Exit Counseling first.
Repayment:
During the Exit Counseling activity the student will set up their initial repayment plan. Payments will start 6 months after graduation.
Students should Register on the NSLDS Student site to update contact information and see all their Federal Loan information.
https://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds/nslds_SA/
There are several repayment plans, if the student does not choose one he/she will be placed on the Standard Repayment Plan that will schedule you to have your loans paid off in 10 years. Click here to read more information on repayment plans. https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans
Delinquency/Default:
If the student is in repayment and has a life event where he/she cannot make their payments, the student must stay in contact with the loan servicer. The loan servicer will work with the student to set up a payment schedule that works best or see if deferment might be an option. Keeping in mind federal loans will still accrue interest during deferment. Contacting the loan servicer before going delinquent or go into default is key.
Delinquency: Loan becomes delinquent the first day after a missed payment. The student must contact their loan servicer to clear up any delinquent interest charges before the loan becomes up to date again. When delinquency goes 90 days past due with no payment this delinquency will be reported to all 3 major credit bureaus.
Default: Loans goes into default when delinquency has gone past 270 days without making a payment. If the student goes into default the Department of Education can garnish wages and take the loan amounts that are due from the students tax refund. To see all consequences for going into Default please visit https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/default#default.