How Do You Apply for a Perkins Loan? (No Longer Available)

The Perkins loan is no longer available and the program is no longer giving loans.

One of the biggest things that you have to worry about when considering going to college is the amount of money that costs to attend.

The cost of college tuition has seemingly increased every year but especially overall in the past few decades.

Back in the 1960s, the average cost of tuition was around $2,000. In 2019, the average cost of tuition is somewhere around $21,000.

The cost of private schools is even higher with an average cost of around $45,000. This is a huge increase in the amount of money owed.

Because of this, many students are graduating with thousands and thousands of dollars of student loans. Paying large loans off will take a very long time.

This is a huge reason why many people look into different schooling.

The first thing that people start looking into is how many scholarships and grants that they can obtain. The more scholarships and grants the fewer loans you will have to take out.

Scholarships and grants or amounts of money given to you that you do not have to pay back.

Scholarships are usually given for academics, athletics, and extracurriculars.

There can be scholarships that are given for financial aid, but that is more of what grants are for. Grants can be given out by high schools, colleges, using FAFSA, your county, etc.

A grant is money that you don’t have to pay back.

Grants are given for things you’re great at, or they can simply just be given for financial aid.

If you cannot get scholarships and grants to pay for school then you will have to get loans.

Many students will pick the college that is the least expensive or go to a community college.

Even after filling out as many applications as you can, and receiving several scholarships, you may still have to take out loans.

There are many different types of loans. The two main loans given out by FAFSA are unsubsidized and subsidized Stafford loans.

The main loan that is given out by the U.S. Department of education, is the Perkins loan.

What is a Perkins Loan?

A Perkins Loan is a federal loan given out by the US Department of education. It is meant to assist American college students in funding post-secondary education.

Post-secondary education is the education that you receive at a college, university, vocational school, and technical school.

It’s named after a former member of the US House of Representatives from Kentucky, Carl D. Perkins.

It is a need-based student loan, which means that it focuses on:

  • The amount of your family’s income
  • Your expected family contribution
  • Other scholarships that you may be getting
  • How much aid you need

The Perkins loan is known for having a low fixed interest rate and manageable repayment terms.

This allows financially needy students to be able to finance the cost of higher education.

It can also be used to cover anything related to your education including books, a computer, and housing.

Only participating schools are allowed to hand out these scholarships from the federal government.

The college or university that you may be looking at attending is going to be the lender for this loan. If the school is participating in the Perkins loan program.

The college can determine which students are able to receive a loan and how much is offered to each individual student.

What are the qualifications for a Perkins loan?

The main qualifications to be able to get a Perkins loan is to be a part of a low-income family.

If you are dependent then you would need to have:

  • Low income
  • Enrolled in an undergraduate, graduate, vocational, or technical program at an institution that participates in the Perkins loan program

If you are looking into a university or college that is not associated with the Perkins loan program, then you will not be able to get this Loan.

The reason is the university is technically the lender and not the government.

It is important to consult with your high school, college financial aid office or counselors to see where the loan is available.

It is also important to understand that you must demonstrate a financial need in order to qualify.

There are normally no special circumstances as many people are applying for these types of scholarships.

There are very few of these loans handed out each year. Compare that to how many subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans are handed out by FAFSA.

The Perkins loan is only given out to a select few people each year.

Only half $1 million in Perkins loans were issued in 2014, and the average amount of each loan was only around $1700.

To give you something to base statistics off of, approximately $8 million in direct subsidized loans were issued, and the average loan was over $3,000.

How Much Can I Borrow?

The Perkins loan is going to depend on a large number of factors.

Other than looking into your household income, your income, and other financial factors about your family and how much money they would be able to put into your college education, there are many other depending factors.

The other thing that they will look into first is how much money you need to cover the rest of your college expenses after the aid, scholarships, and grants you were already receiving.

They’re also going to look into how much money they think that your family and yourself I’ll be able to put towards your college education.

This number is obviously going to differ also depending on what type of university that you were looking into attending.

A community college may cost you $4000 a semester, where a top private school may cost you $40,000 a semester.

This number is really going to have a large effect on how much money you need in loans, so they will pay a lot of attention to that.

Then they’re also going to look at the funds are available at your college or university. Some colleges are known for passing out more aid than others.

They want to make sure that they are giving out aid to students who probably aren’t going to receive very much aid in the first place.

If your college or university is known for handing out many scholarships and grants and you have a great reputation, resume, and transcript, then they may not want to give you this type of aid.

And then, of course, they are going to look closely at any other day that you were receiving. Their first focus on pasta and then go from there.

They will look into any sort of grants, scholarships, or loans that you were saving from your high school, your county, your community, etc.

It is important to realize it if you already have a lot of awards given to you, that you may not receive this.

And then another thing that they’re going to focus on is your academic status which means what type of school and you’re going to.

This would mean if you’re going to undergraduate school, graduate school, or professional school.

Overall, if you are an undergraduate school you’re able to borrow up to a total of $27,500. What this means that you have an annual maximum of $5500.

However, if you are a graduate student or a student going to a professional school, then you are able to borrow up to a total of $60,000.

The thing about this is that this total of $60,000 is also including any amount of money that you receive from the Perkins loan during your undergraduate career.

The reason that graduate and professional students are allowed to borrow more is that the cost of graduate and professional school is a lot higher than undergraduate tuition.

The average tuition of graduate school is $30,000.

This means that this is not including any other costs like books, room, and board, etc. most students are paying an average of $30,000-$120,000 a year report for graduate school.

The cost is going to vary on each university in the program itself.

Professional school is definitely the most expensive because most students after four years are spending a total of around $300,000.

Your Perkins loan will automatically be applied to your expenses to the university, and after all of that is paid if there is anything left and you will be refunded anything remaining.

However, you need to understand that the money that you were being refunded is also going to have to be repaid in the end.

Paying Back the Loan

As for paying back the loan, the interest rate of a Perkins loan is 5%. And normally the repayment. It’s up to about 10 years.

This means that if you’re making consistent payments on time, there should be no other charges for this loan.

However, just as any other loan if you were late on payments, you’re going to be charged late fees.

You may also be charged extra fees because of the Perkins loan in the importance of it was of you receiving it. After you get your degree you’re going to have a grace period.

As time after graduation or you do not have to pay off the loan yet. They do this to help you take time to actually find a job and be able to repay this loan.

They are not out to get you and they do not want to have to be charging you all of these extra fees and late fees.

This is why they’re going to give you a grace period of nine months to be able to find a job. You need a job to pay off your loan.

This will only work for you if you have been attending school at least as a part-time student.

Most schools are going to say that you are a full-time student if you are taking at least 12 credit hours.

You are a part-time student if you are taking somewhere between six and 12 credit hours.

One nice thing is that this grace period will still apply if you drop out of school or leave school.

The sooner that you start paying this loan back the better. If you can make larger payments you will save on interest.

This is because of the longer that you have the loan out, the more interest that you will be accumulating and having to pay for.

Another great thing about paying back your student loans promptly as that helps you maintain a really strong credit score.

Good credit is very important for you as you move forward into being an adult with a full-time job.

If something comes up and there is a problem arising where you think that you will not be able to start making your payments.

The Perkins loan at the end of the nine-month grace period you can apply for a deferment to postpone the repayment.

Apply for a deferment if you feel that you are unable to afford these payments.

You can apply for any type of reason even if you are employed.

What is the deferment period for a Perkins loan?

Here is the first thing to know about deferred loans when it comes to the Perkins loan. The schools are going to have to determine what documents the borrower must provide in order to apply for this.

This is because the universities or colleges are the lenders of this loan.

The U.S. Department of Education is giving this money to your college. This money is used to lend out to students who need the Perkins loan.

It can be very different depending on your location and university on what is needed for a deferment.

A borrower is going to be able to defer repayment on this type of loan for up to three years.

This is normally regardless of the date of disbursement any provisions or if the borrower is unable to find full-time employment.

Perkins loans are automatically deferred during periods when a borrower is in any sort of situation that will qualify him or her for loan cancellation.

In this instance, the borrower does not need to apply for deferment and the schools can grant concurrent detriment for up to 12 months.

It is important to understand that during a time of deferment, you are not going to be required to pay anything basically.

You’re not gonna be required to pay the loan principal and interest is not going to accrue.

After each period of government, you are also going to get a grace period of six months.

The deferment and the grace period, are not counted as part of the original time allotted for the repayment of your loan.

This is very important to understand and it can be a helpful opportunity. Especially if you are in a situation where you are financially unstable after college.

Does deferment hurt your credit?

If you end up deferring your student loans, specifically your Perkins loan, it is not going to affect your credit.

Basically what happened is that a deferred loan is going to be listed on your credit report.

Basically, if you defer your loans, it is not going to increase or decrease your credit score at all.

All it is going to do is be on your credit report which will be seen by anyone that is looking out in the future.

This means that any future lenders that are giving you loans for a car, a house, or more student loans are going to see that you had deferred a loan at one point in your life.

The deferment itself is not going to hurt your credit score, however, this loan, in general, is going to have a huge impact on your credit score.

So if after the deferment you end up having late payments, then it is going to end up affecting your credit score.

It is basically just important to understand that no matter if you do for this loan or not, the loan itself is going to have a huge effect on your credit score.

This also may be one of the first bag things that are going to affect your credit score, so you mustn’t screw up your credit early on in life.

They’re going to be many more things that you want to take out loans for and that you were going to need a good credit score in order to get.

More than likely you are still going to be wanting to get loaned out for cars, houses, apartments, etc.

You may even be wanting to try to go back to school which you may need more loans for again.

Can you still get a Perkins loan?

As of 2017, federal Perkins loans are no longer available. If you had received a Perkins loan before the state, then you’re still going to receive it.

However, if you have not then you are not going to be able to receive it now.

Perkins loans were handed out for 60 years of operations.

Although this loan ceases to exist, it lasted two years longer than it was originally supposed to. It was originally supposed to end in 2015, but it ended up ceasing to exist in 2017.

The Perkins loan was the government’s oldest and most popular student loan program. The United States was known for having this amazing low-interest student loan program.

Just because this loan is no longer available does not mean that there are still not many options for help.

In recent years FAFSA has increased the amount of money that it has given away. This has increased the amount of money given away in the Pell Grant.

Some many colleges and universities have taken huge Santas toward financial stability for college students.

There are still many options out there for you as long as you are looking for them and working hard.

Difference Between Perkins Loan and Stafford Loan

Both types of these loans are provided for low-income students and our low-cost loan programs.

The main difference is that Perkins loans are only awarded to students who have exceptional financial need.

Any sort of Stafford loan can be available to anyone of any rate of income.

Stafford loans are available to all students regardless of how financially needy they are.

This is why so few Perkin’s loans were handed out compared to Stafford Loans.

Overall, the Perkins loan was a great opportunity. It opened up many doors to encourage colleges, universities, and the government does you have more opportunities like it.

Even though it is not around, schools are working hard to hand out more money, and have more scholarships, so that the loans do not need to be as big for students.

Many alumni are also giving back to students from their high school and college to help with debt.

This loan was a great opportunity, but it was definitely not the only one.

Make sure to take advantage of all of the opportunities around you when it comes to scholarships, grants, and loans.

Look into every place that you can find them.

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