Parents no longer need to wait to apply for the Parent PLUS loan for the 2009/10 academic year.

The Federal Department of Education has announced the cancellation of the Competitive Loan Auction Pilot Program for Parent PLUS loans. 

Per the Federal Department of Education:  During the 2009-10 and 2010-11 award years, Parent PLUS loans under the Federal Family Education Loan program may be made by any eligible lender to parents of students attending eligible educational institutions in any State.

For more information about the Parent PLUS Loan program or to view a partial list of lenders who offer the Plus loan please visit our web site at:  http://www.missouristate.edu/FinancialAid/plus.htm 

The Office of Student Financial Aid in conjunction with the Missouri Department of Higher Education (MDHE) will be presenting  “The Bear Essentials”, a seminar on best financial practices.  The seminar will provide students with excellent tools to aid in surviving these rocky financial times.

The topics that will be covered in this seminar include:

¨     Creating a Spending & Savings Plan

¨     Understanding Your Credit Report

¨     Financing Your Education

¨     Mastering Money Management

¨     Calculating Your Future.

Students will have three opportunities to attend “The Bear Essentials”.  The dates, times and venues for these sessions are:

Monday, April 27^th at 6 p.m. in PSU room 308

Tuesday, April 28^th at 6 p.m. in the Blair-Shannon Grand Lounge

Wednesday, April 29^th at 6 p.m. in the Hammons House Basement

Don’t miss this opportunity to gain the skills you may need to survive today’s unstable financial times.

A long-time lender associate, SmartFUNDS has announced they will no longer be participating in the Federal Family Educational Loan Program (FFELP) effective immediately.  How does this affect MSU students? Nearly 900 of our current students use SmartFUNDS  as the lender for their current student loan; these students will be required to select a new lender and to sign a new Master Promissory Note (MPN) with that new lender for the next term in which they borrow a Federal Stafford Student loan, whether it be the summer or fall semester of 2009.

These students will be given the opportunity to select a new lender when they receive their award letters for either of these semesters.  The new lender selected will not be able to disburse any loan funds to the school on a student’s behalf until they have received and processed a MPN for that student, so it is vital that a student follow through with this requirement.  In an effort to help our students select a new lender, we encourage them to visit our web site for information about lenders who continue to participate in the FFELP program.  The web address for our partial lender list is http://www.missouristate.edu/FinancialAid/lenderlist.html , or a student can select a lender not on the list as long as that lender is a FFELP associate.

Please note, selecting a new lender will in no way change the terms of a student loan; the interest rate and repayment requirements will remain the same no matter which lender is selected.

The U.S. Department of Education has launched a new website, College.gov, dedicated to informing students about higher education.  As their website states, “this site is intended to be the go-to source for information and resources about planning, preparing and paying for postsecondary education.”  This site was designed in conjunction with students focusing on information they are most concerned about when it comes to dealing with college, so it should prove to be a great resource.  Check it out on our links page under the U.S. Department of Education Website link!�

UPDATE               UPDATE               UPDATE               UPDATE               UPDATE               UPDATE

CHANGES PENDING FOR THE PARENT LOAN PROGRAM (PLUS) FOR 2009/10:

Congress has voted to change the way FFELP PLUS loans will be processed in the future.  This change will affect only NEW PLUS loan borrowers starting in 09/10.  A new policy is being established that will assign one financial institution to be the PLUS lender within each state; that lender will be designated to process all PLUS loans for all schools in their state.

Several details regarding this new process are pending final determination, including who will act as Missouri’s lender.  Therefore, we strongly recommend that any parent considering a PLUS loan for the 2009 school year delay applying until we are able to provide definite procedures for doing so. 

The Federal Department of Education will notify financial aid offices mid-summer on the status of the new procedure.  Until we receive that notification, we will be required to “hold” all PLUS applications we may receive, which could result in multiple inquiries on a parent’s credit report.  For that reason, we are encouraging our PLUS applicants to simply wait until further notice to apply.  Students and parents should review our website on a frequent basis; we will keep our students notified as we are provided more information.  For future updates and additional information, visit our website at   http://www.missouristate.edu/FinancialAid/plus.htm

Acknowledgement letters are being mailed to students who have submitted their 2009/10 FAFSA.  Please read your letter carefully; if we require additional documentation from you, a list of the required information is provided on your letter.  Follow the instructions on how to access forms on our web site and return all documents to the Office of Student Financial Aid as soon as possible.  A quick response from you will help us serve you better.

This action will be new to those of you who are used to accessing your financial aid information on the web.  In early April, this information will be available on My Missouri State along with other data about your personal financial aid record.  However, we didn’t want to delay our request for these documents so we chose to notify you by mail as early as possible.  We encourage you to take advantage of the early alert and start mailing copies of those tax forms now!

Trying to figure out how much money you will need for the upcoming school year?  There are three new links on our website that can help you estimate your costs and how much financial aid you will need to cover them.  Take a look at the Missouri State Office of Student Financial Aid website  and click on the “Costs” drop down box on the left hand side.  There you will find three options: Online College Cost Calculator, Missouri State Cost Information, and Financial Aid Cost Worksheet.  These are all useful tools for helping you get the most out of your financial aid package.

Welcome to our Financial Aid Blog!  We’re excited about taking this opportunity to communicate with our students on a more personal basis than allowed by e-mail; we anticipate using this space to keep you updated on what’s going on in our world.  We’ll remind you of upcoming deadlines, provide hints on how to avoid those dreaded long lines, pass on the latest changes in the student loan industry…in other words, you can use this source to make your life easier!  We hope you visit our Blog page often, and that it proves successful in that goal!

 Sincerely,

 Vicki Mattocks,
Director Office of Student Financial Aid