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 

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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!