Financial Aid

The US Government provides families access to federal student loans. Details can be found on the Direct Loan website.

ALL students borrowing from the Federal Direct Loan Program are required to sign a Master Promissory Note (MPN) and complete an Entrance Counseling for their Direct Loan.  Federal loan funds will not be credited to your PSU bill until these items are completed.

1. ENTRANCE COUNSELING SESSION: The online counseling session assures that you understand your rights and responsibilities when borrowing federal loans. 

2. MASTER PROMISSORY NOTE (MPN):  The MPN is your promise to repay your federal direct loan. MPN’s can be signed with your Federal Personal Identification Number (PIN). To retrieve, or apply for your Federal PIN, go to http://www.pin.ed.gov. The Direct Loan MPN is valid for ten years.

Please note: When you sign into the StudentLoans.gov website, use your Federal PIN and personal information.  Once logged in, please proceed to follow the links for Complete Entrance Counseling and Complete Master Promissory Note. Your MPN is not considered complete until you reach the screen with the following message: Thank you for submitting the MPN. You may view/download the PDF version of your completed MPN.

Eligibility requirements:

(1)  Students must be matriculated (enrolled in a degree seeking program) and enrolled at least half-time (6 credits or more per semester ).

(2)  Students cannot be in default on any Federal Loans.

(3)  Aggregate loan limits cannot be exceeded.  Dependent undergraduate students are eligible for up to $31,000 (no more than $23,000 of which may be subsidized).  Independent undergraduate students and dependent students whose parents are ineligible for a Federal PLUS Loan are eligible for up to $57,500 (no more than $23,000 of which may be subsidized).

All Federal Direct Subsidized or Unsubsidized loans disbursed after July 1, 2012 will be charged a fee of 1.051%.   The fee  will be applied before any loan funds are disbursed.

There are currently several different servicing agencies that your loan may be serviced through.   To verify who is currently servicing your loans, please visit http://www.nslds.ed.gov/ and choose ’Financial Aid Review.’  Press ‘Accept’ twice.  Log in using your social security number, first two characters of your last name, date of birth, and PIN that was issued to you from http://www.pin.ed.gov/.

Click on the number in the first column under ‘Loans’ for details regarding your loan.  Note: If you have more than one loan you will have to click on each number associated with each loan.  This will show the loan, the school you received the loan through, the disbursement amounts and dates, and it will also display the servicer agency information.  Sometimes a loan can be transferred to a different servicer.  Therefore, you will want to view the ‘Current Servicer’ listed to find out who is currently servicing your loans.  For any repayment inquiries regarding your loan, please contact the number listed under your current servicer.

Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans

The Federal Direct loan awarded may be subsidized and/or unsubsidized, as described below:

A subsidized Federal Direct loan is awarded on the basis of financial need.  Interest will begin accruing at the time you are no longer enrolled in school at least half-time.  The interest rate for loans disbursed after July 1, 2012 is 3.4%.

An unsubsidized Federal Direct loan is a non-need based loan. You will be charged interest (6.8%) from the time the loan is disbursed until it is paid in full. If you allow the interest to accrue (accumulate) while you’re in school, or during other periods of non-payment, it will be capitalized. This means the interest will be added to the principal amount of your loan at the time of repayment.

Note (1):  Federal direct loan limits apply.

Note (2): If your class level changes during the year, you may be eligible for an increase in your Federal Direct Loan. For example, a second year student might begin the fall semester with 19 credits and have Federal Direct Loans totaling $5,500. During the fall semester, the student earns 12 credits, for a total of 31 credits by the beginning of the spring semester. The spring loan award could then be increased from $2,750 to $3,250 upon request.  If you wish to request an increase in your loan amount, please contact us.

Not sure how much your monthly payments will be?

Use one of these repayment calculators to help you plan - FINAID.org or the Department of Education.

Note: The longer your loan is in repayment, the more interest you will pay. Calculations are estimates. Values may not reflect the actual amount computed by the Direct Loan Servicing Center.

You may access your prior loan information on the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) website. This site contains all of your federal Title IV financial aid history, including both grants and loans.

You may also view your PSU Loan History online to estimate the total amount borrowed in Federal, Private and PLUS loans while at PSU. This information pulls student’s loan history accessed from the PSU portal and displays it to help each student understand the impact of loan debt upon graduation and repayment.  Students can track this information beginning their first year at PSU through the time they graduate.

Information about loan discharge and cancellations can be found on the Department of Education website.

The Federal Student Aid Ombudsman of the Department of Education helps resolve disputes and solve other problems with federal student loans. Please do not hesitate to contact them at 877-557-2575 should you feel they can be of assistance.