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Office of Financial Aid

Office of Financial Aid home page
Week of September 27th, 2010

Chicago-Kent Full Tuition Scholars and Honors Scholars

Full Tuition and Honors scholarships for continuing students have been updated to reflect actual enrollment.

Update: Perkins Loan Master Promissory Note

Beginning this year, Perkins loans will be processed by ECSI (Educational Computer Systems, Inc.) on behalf of IIT and Chicago Kent College of Law.  ECSI is a service provider specializing in Perkins loan processing.  With the ECSI service, you will have improved access to your Perkins information in a personal, secure account on the Internet.  In addition, ECSI will provide many enhancements to improve and expedite Perkins processing.  If you are a Perkins recipient, please visit the following link for instructions on receiving your Perkins Loan.

http://www.iit.edu/bursar/institutional_and_perkins.shtml

Don't Forget to Accept your Awards

If you have not accepted or declined your loans please do so as soon as possible.  You must use your myIIT account to accept/decline your loans. If you do not accept your loans we cannot process them which will can result in a delayed refund check.

Fall 2010 Disbursement Schedule

Law Students

Disbursement: August 13, 2010

Stuart Students

Disbursement: August 23, 2010

Fall Loan Disbursement Process: Step-by-Step

All loan funds, federal, and private, are sent directly to the school according to the disbursement schedule listed above.

  1. When we receive the funds, we must verify that you are eligible to receive the funds. This process takes 1-3 business days.
  2. The funds are are released and then credited to your tuition account.
  3. If a credit balance exists after the funds have been credited, the Bursar's Office generates a refund check for you. This process takes 5-7 business days.
  4. The Bursar's Office will then notify you when the check is ready to be picked up. iF you have Direct deposit set up your refund will be deposited into your bacnk account

If you have any questions regarding the financial aid funds that have been credited to your account, please contact the Office of Financial Aid.

If you have any questions regarding the status of your refund check or charges on your account, please contact the Bursar's Office at 312-906-5160.

2010-2011 Financial Aid Instructions

In past academic years, the Illinois Institute of Technology participated in the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). FFELP allows students to borrow federal student loans from private lenders (usually banks or credit unions). On March 30, 2010, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 was signed into law. This law includes a provision that eliminates the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) beginning July 1, 2010. For this reason, beginning in the fall semester of 2010 all Title IV eligible higher education institutions, including IIT, are required to participate in the Direct Loan Program (DL). The Direct Loan Program is a federal student loan program that allows students to borrow funds “directly” from the U.S. Department of Education.  DL Subsidized Stafford, Unsubsidized Stafford and Graduate PLUS loans operate in essentially the same manner as in the FFEL program. Students receive the same fixed interest rates (except the Graduate PLUS has a lower interest rate at 7.9%) and have similar repayment options. Payments made by the borrower are sent directly to the U.S. Department of Education’s servicing company.

 Because of this change, all students who borrowed loans in 2009-2010 and plan on borrowing federal loans in 2010-2011 will need to complete new Federal Direct Loan Master Promissory Note(s) (MPN) and Federal Direct Loan Entrance Counseling. If you wish to receive loan funds for the 2010-2011 academic year, you must do the following:

  1. Complete your 2010-2011 FAFSA if you have not already done so. It can take up to 2 weeks to receive a financial aid award notification once your FAFSA is complete.
  2. Log on to the myIIT portal to view your financial aid award.
  3. Complete the Estimated Cost Worksheet. This form helps you determine the amount of Graduate Plus or Stafford loan funds you will need to accept in order to meet your expenses for the academic year.
  4. Accept the amounts of Federal Direct Stafford and Federal Direct Graduate PLUS loans that you would like to receive via the myIIT portal. It is to your advantage to accept the maximum Subsidized and Unsubsidized Stafford loan before you accept the Federal Direct Graduate PLUS loan. Please refer to the Financial Aid Guide on the Chicago-Kent financial aid website for the different types of Federal loans that are available.
  5. Complete a Federal Direct Loan Promissory Note for the corresponding loans that you have accepted. Only one promissory note is needed for both the Subsidized and Unsubsidized Stafford Loan.  
  6. Complete the online Federal Direct Loan Entrance Counseling.
  7. The link to complete the Master Promissory Note(s) and online Entrance Counseling are located at  http://www.kentlaw.edu/depts/finaid/DLforms.html 

Required Document Issues

Please be aware that the process for satisfying your required documents does not begin until you accept your awards via the myIIT portal. It may take up 2 weeks after you accept your awards for your required document status on the myIIT portal to show satisfied. If you have completed your Master Promissory Notes and Entrance Counseling via the Department of Education's website and it has been over 2 weeks since you accepted your loans, please contact our office.

Still Haven’t Received Your 2010-2011 Financial Aid Award?

Has it been 3 weeks since you completed your FAFSA and have not received a financial aid award for the 2010-2011 academic year? If so, follow these instructions to make sure your FAFSA information is sent to the DTC Office of Financial Aid.

  1. Go to www.fafsa.ed.gov and view your Student Aid Report (SAR).
    • Make sure the Downtown Campus school code is listed on your FAFSA. The IIT school code is E00773 (Listed as Chicago Kent, but this is the correct school code both Kent and Stuart Graduate School of Business.) Once you update the school code to the correct school code it will take 1 to 2 weeks to receive a Financial Aid award notification.
  2. If you have the correct school code listed on your FAFSA, check your SAR comments. Your SAR comments will let you know if the data that you entered on your FAFSA has caused an error that prevents your FAFSA information from being transmitted to the school. If there is a problem with the data that you entered on your FAFSA, please update the data elements requested. Once you update the information it will take 1 to 2 weeks to receive a Financial Aid award notification.
  3. If your comment codes are showing no problems and you have E00773 listed as your school code please contact the Office of Financial Aid so that we can find out why you have not received an award.

Reminder:Direct Deposit

Please be aware that the university now allows students the option of having their financial aid refunds direct deposited into their checking or savings account. The university encourages all student to sign up for direct deposit. Click here for more information on the new TouchNet service.

Update: Federal Loan Exit Counseling Online

For students that missed the group exit counseling sessions last week please complete the Federal Loan Exit Counseling Online on the National Student Loan Database System (NSLDS). Click here for the exit counseling on NSLDS: http://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/. The presentation from the exit counseling session is located here. After you complete this requirement you can stop by our office to pick up your loan summary from NSLDS.

For more general information about choosing repayment plans please watch the "Picking your Plan" video. This is a presentaion that was hosted by the Office of Financial Aid and recorded last year. It has general Repayment information that graduating students may find useful.

New Requirements for the Private Loan

In compliance with Title Z, three disclosure statements will be sent to all students applying for private education loans. These forms will be sent out before the loan can be disbursed. Also, a self-certification form will need to be completed by the student or financial aid office.

New forms and procedures:

  1. Application Disclosure- You will receive this form as part of the online application process, before you fill out the application. If you apply by phone you will receive this disclosure within  3 days. This contains general information about ranges of rate, terms and fees.

  1. Approval Disclosure- You will receive this form after final approval of the loan by the lender and before the school certification request is sent to the school. It contains specific information about the approved loan, including the approved loan amount, rate and estimated repayment schedule. This disclosure statement must be accepted by you either by calling the lender or logging onto the lenders website. If you do not accept this Approval Disclosure within 30 calendar days of receipt the loan approval or the loan will be cancelled and you will have to reapply.

  1. Final Disclosure- You will receive this form after your Approval Disclosure is received by the lender. It contains previously disclosed on rate, fees, default, and repayment terms. It also gives you the 3 calendar days to cancel the loan prior to the first disbursement date.

    1. Rescission Period- This is your final opportunity to cancel the loan without penalty and gives you time to evaluate your needs for the private loan. You have 3 days after you receive your Final Disclosure. Your loan will not be disbursed until this period is over. The first date the loan can be disbursed is the 7th day from the date the lender mails the Final Disclosure.

  2. Self-Certification Form- Your lender will provide you with a blank Private Education Loan Applicant Self-Certification form. This contains details about federal loan availablility and encourages you to seek out federal loans before applying for federal loans. This form must be completed and signed by the applicant and returned to the lender before the loan can be disbursed. You have 180 days to complete this form back and send it back to the lender, or the loan will be cancelled. If you need help in completing the form please contact our office.

2010-2011 FAFSA Application Available

The 2010-2011 FAFSA application is available for completion. You can use this FAFSA on the web Worksheet to help with your FAFASA application. http://www.ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/attachments/FOTWWorkshEn1011.pdf. To complete the FAFSA form go to www.fafsa.ed.gov and list the IIT Downtown Campus school code: E00773.

Also distribution of 2010-2011 Renewal FAFSA Reminders Begins January 15, 2010. Students who are renewal-eligible for 2010-2011 and who qualify for reminders by January 11, 2010 will be sent Renewal Reminder notifications. Eligible students who provided e-mail addresses on their 2009-2010 records will receive 2010-2011 Renewal Reminder e-mails. Renewal-eligible students whose records do not have valid e-mail addresses, or whose Renewal Reminder e-mails are returned as undeliverable, will be mailed 2010-2011 Renewal Reminder letters, provided there is a deliverable mailing address.

Using the myIIT Portal to view your Award

For information and instructions about logging into the myIIT portal to view your 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 financial aid award please click here.

REFUND CHECKS

Refund checks are generated by the Bursar's Office and are available to be picked up at their office (Room 290) approximately 5-7 business days after a credit has resulted in a student's account.

The Bursar's Office will send the student an email when a refund check is available.

Free Credit Report

Did you know that you are now able to receive a free credit report once every 12 months? We encourage students to review their credit reports annually to check for inaccuracies and identify any suspicious activity.

To receive your free credit report, please visit the following link: http://www.annualcreditreport.com. This central site allows you to request a free credit file disclosure, commonly called a credit report, once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Please be aware that other sites may advertise free credit reports, but this is the only site that is sponsored by the federal government and the three nationwide credit reporting agencies. Other sites may charge fees.

Office Hours - Suite #230

Monday-Thursday ~ 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Friday ~ 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m

Phone: (312) 906-5180 - Fax: (312) 906-5274


 

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