Student Loan Deferment

Criteria for Deferment

To have a federal student loan deferred, a student

• must be formally accepted to a graduate degree program (or SPLED Instructional I program).
• must be registered for at least 5 credits for the semester (Fall or Spring or Summer, Sessions I & II; i.e. a half time student).
• must be "enrolled" by doing one of the following:
     •  paid toward a Session I class 
     •  had a waiver/authorization processed if taking a student loan
     •  filed the bill or company tuition deferment and paid $25 deposit, or 
     •  confirmed your eBill. 

Any of these confirm your scheduled courses making you an "enrolled" student.

To Process a Deferment

Request an education deferment from the servicer of your loan.

• This is where you make your payments -- AES in Harrisburg, Sallie Mae, Direct Loans, etc.
• Either call your servicer and have them send you a deferment form to complete and return or visit their Web site.

Fill out the "Academic Verification"  form

• You must be "enrolled" at Penn State to be reported for our current semester (see above).
• Go to eLion to request an Academic Verification.
• Verfication is a free service for enrolled students and is mailed based on information you provide.
• You will need to fill in these fields:

1)  Your name and Penn State I.D. Number
2)  The address of your servicer.

The Verification of Enrollment is sent to the servicer via U.S. Mail.

National Student Clearinghouse (NSC)

To simplify the student loan and enrollment verification process, an industry-sponsored non-profit consortium, the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) was established. 

The NSC is Penn State's agent for confirming enrollment status of student financial aid recipients.  Periodically the Office of the University Registrar reports the enrollment status of its students to NSC.  NSC is responsible for providing status and deferment information on behalf of Penn State to guaranty agencies, lenders, servicers, and the Department of Education's National Student Data System.

The NSC process identifies those borrowers who

• withdraw from school and need to begin repayment.
• return to school and may be eligible for a deferment.
• continue in school and are eligible for deferment extension.
• graduate.

For Future Semesters

• To be sure that you are continuously deferred during your graduate program, check with your servicer, and follow deferment directions for each semester you are half-time (5-8 credits).
• Check that you are at least half-time (5-8 credits) and have taken the action to become an "enrolled" student at PSU before classes start to have your record updated at NSC by Penn State. 
• For students using a graduate federal student loan, each semester you borrow will automatically defer your graduate loans.  But you should double check that the servicer is deferring your undergraduate loans, particularly if your undergraduate loans were from a different lender.

If you stop borrowing graduate loans but are still attending half-time at PSGV, you can request an education deferment for your graduate loans by following the directions above.

For more information, contact the Financial Aid Office.