Loans

Do you recommend a federal loan over a private bank loan?

There are many benefits to federal loans as opposed to private educational loans. One in particular is federal loans are dissolvable if you become permanently disabled or deceased. Also, federal loans have fixed interest rates where most private loans offer variable interest rates that have high or no limts. Therefore, there are some major difference between federal and private loans. With that said, for the current school year, it is possible to obtain a lower variable interest rate on a private loan than what is being offered by federal loans. Therefore, our office does not recommend one loan over the other, but we do recommend that you compare the two loans and choose the one the best fits your needs.

How do I increase/decrease my loans?

In general you can increase your loans at anytime up until a few weeks before the end of the school year. You can increase this loan up to your Cost of Attendance. If you wish to decrease the amount of your loans, you have up until 15 days after the start of the quarter. For the official dates, please review our timeline and dates web page. To either increase/decrease your loans, please email our office with the new requested amount.

If I submit an appeal to increase my cost of attendance, is the loan amount automatically increased?

No. Once your appeal is approved, you will receive an email from our office indicating how much you can borrow and what type of loans you can apply for. If you would like assistance in determining how much additional loan funding you should borrow, our office can assist you.

Who receives my loan funding- me or Ohio State?

Ohio State receives all of your federal and bank loans first. These funds pay your university fess and any remaining funds are then deposited into the student's bank account to help pay for living expenses. Once you have registered for your fall classes, you will then be able to establish your direct deposit to receive this remaining funding.

How am I notified about the denial/approval for my Grad Plus/Private Loan?

Once you apply for the loan, the lender generally contacts you via email or mail correspondence. For the Grad Plus loan our office will also send you an email notification within 2-3 weeks of receiving your application. If you are denied for these loans, you will want to seek a credit worthy co-signer.

How long will it take to process my loan request?

You should generally allow 2-3 weeks for your loans to be processed. In order to maximize your time, be sure you complete all of the necessary steps. Please review our loan pages for the various loans and their required steps.

Is there a limit on how much loan money I can borrow?

We suggest reviewing your budget to determine how much aid you need to borrow. Once that is determine you can compare that number with the estimated cost of education. A student may borrow up to the cost of education, minus all other aid. If you need help determining that figure, feel free to contact our office.

How will my loans pay to the university?

All loans and university/college of medicine scholarship funding is divided up evenly among the quarters you are enrolled. If you are incurring some large one time educationally related expenses, please contact our office.

How do I apply for additional funds?
If after you have reviewed your award letter, you determine additional loan funding is needed,please review our Grad Plus/ Private Loan web page.

How do I defer my loan payments?
If you have loans when entering medical school, most of these loans are eligible for an in school deferment. Therefore, please contact your lender and request that they send you an in-school deferment form. Your lender might also have this form available on their website. If you borrowed federal loans during undergraduate, you can go to the National Student Loan Database System to obtain contact information for your lenders. If you have a private loan, you can pull a free copy of your credit report to obtain their contact information.

Does the eligibility for any loans (federal or private) REQUIRE parent information on the fafsa or on the application for the loan?
To receive federal loans you need to file the FAFSA form at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/. You do not need to include parent information on the FAFSA form if you only want to be awarded federal loan funding. We encourage students to include parent information so that they can be considered for all need based scholarship opportunities. For private bank loans, you do not need to file the fafsa form. In most cases, private banks do not require your parent information or request them as a co-signer. However, if you do not have credit or want to better your interest rate, usually a parent co-signer will be needed.

Are there any additional forms needed to apply for loans other than the FAFSA?
Not initially. Once a student submits the FAFSA they should receive an award letter sometime in mid April to Mid May. However, if there is insufficient information or errors on the FAFSA, our office will ask you to complete certain verification forms to resolve those issues. Also, those students being considered for need based scholarships will be asked to submit various tax forms.