Loans FAQs

Students and their families may explore federal and private loan options.

Federal Loan options include student loans and parent loans. The federal student loans available for student borrowers include the Federal Direct Stafford Loans. Federal loans that parents can borrow are part of the Direct Loan Parent PLUS program. Please explore our federal loan pages for more information on these loan options.

There are also many private student loan options there are a number of credit-based options, including the Federal Direct Parent PLUS Loan, the NU Loan for Parents, and a variety of private loans. Please explore Parent Financing Options for details.

The first step to applying for a federal student loan is completing the FAFSA for the upcoming year and ensuring you have sent it to Northwestern University using our code 001739.

Students are eligible to receive up to $5,500 in Federal Direct Stafford Loan(s) for their first year. Application information will be posted to our website in June, and any applications should be completed by July 15. This will allow plenty of time for the family to complete loan applications and for Northwestern to process the loans prior to the first bill released on August 10.

Families considering the Federal Parent PLUS loan should wait to apply for this loan option once the federal application opens June 1. This loan type does require a credit review for the parents as part of the application process. Completing the application earlier may result in the application being considered for the incorrect year, and the credit check may expire before the loan can be released.

Students and parents who accept federal student loans will also have to complete Entrance Counseling and a Master Promissory Note as part of the loan application process as well. The student checklist on CAESAR will be updated to reflect these to-do items after the student accepts their loan offer.

Our office recommends students and families explore the studentaid.gov site for more information as it is an excellent resource for all questions relating to federal student loans.

Interest begins accruing once the loan has disbursed. Disbursement typically occurs about one week before the start of classes. So, the loans are earning interest while the student is in school.

For the Direct Subsidized Loan, the Department of Education pays the interest on the loan while the student is enrolled at least half-time and for a six-month grace period after the student leaves school. As such, students are not responsible for paying the interest that accrues during this period.

For the Unsubsidized Direct or the Parent PLUS loan, the borrower is responsible for paying the interest that accrues during all periods: from time of disbursement through the loan's lifetime.

For Direct Stafford Loans, when a student graduates or leaves school, the student has a six-month grace period in which they do not need to submit payments on the loans. If a student drops below half-time enrollment, this can also kick off the six-month grace period. After this grace period, repayment begins.

For Parent PLUS loans, parents may request in-school deferment to postpone repayment until the student graduates, leaves the school, or drops below half-time enrollment. However, if a parent does not request deferment, they will be expected to begin making payments after the loan is fully disbursed.

Remember that even if payments are not due, the loans are still accruing interest from the time they are disbursed. Please reference the above question about interest accrual for more information.

Payments are usually due monthly, and payment plans typically range from 10 to 25 years. Please reference the studentaid.gov site for current information regarding deferment, payment plan options, and more.

A student or their parents may have many private loan options available to them. Some loans may be available to the student (with or without a cosigner), whereas other loans are in the parent's name. Northwestern University does not endorse any one private lender over another. We do offer a list of preferred lenders as a starting point for students and families conducting research.

The summer before the school year begins is the best time to apply for a private loan. We encourage students and families to apply for any private loans by July 31.

Our office does process loans after the July 31 date and throughout the school year. If you submit a loan application during the school year, please allow our team two weeks to certify and post the loan to the student’s account.

During the busy summer processing season (June-July), we aim to apply loans to student accounts by mid-August. If loan applications are submitted in August or September, please allow us three weeks for processing and posting as this is our highest volume time of year.

For loans applications completed during the academic year, please allow our team two weeks to review the loan and apply the private loan to the student's account. If after two weeks you still do not see the loan on your student's account, feel free to reach out to our office via email (undergradaid@u.northwestern.edu) so we can look into your status.

The Northwestern Loan is a low interest rate educational financing option with flexible repayment terms. The Northwestern Loan approval rate is extremely high. There is no application fee and most Northwestern Loans do not have an origination fee. Northwestern Loans for US students have no origination fee, and loans for international students have origination fees of 0 - 5%, depending upon the program. Graduate professional students and undergraduate international students are the primary borrowers of Northwestern Loans. Parents or legal guardians are the primary borrowers of undergraduate parent Northwestern Loans. Northwestern Loan funds disburse directly to the student's tuition and fees account.

The Northwestern Loan is a not-for-profit program that is funded privately by the University and administered by Northwestern University Student Finance. Student Finance services the Northwestern Loan from application through repayment until it is paid in full. See also Northwestern Loan General Information.

Interest begins accruing once funds are disbursed to the student. Disbursement typically occurs about five days before the start of classes. The loans are earning interest while the student is in school.

Repayment of both principal and interest begins within 45 days of the initial disbursement and can extend up to a maximum of ten years. As such, the parents are responsible for making payments on the loan while their child is in school. A detailed repayment schedule is provided to the parent borrower(s) as part of the promissory note process.

The conditional approval decision will take up to 24 hours. If additional information is needed in order to approve your loan someone from Student Finance will contact you by the end of the next business day. In that situation, your final decision will take longer than 24 hours.

Final approval occurs when the Financial Aid Office has approved the amount you applied for on your loan application and Student Finance has verified loan information. Once your loan has reached a status of final approval, promissory notes will be signed electronically by the student/co-maker.

The proceeds of the loan cannot be disbursed until the beginning of the first term covered by the loan regardless of when your loan was approved. The disbursement schedule for your loan is printed on your Financial Aid Award Notice.

Follow these steps to make sure your loan funds are available at the beginning of the term:

• Apply online.
• Submit your application early.
• Respond promptly to calls or emails about your Northwestern Loan application. Although the Northwestern Loan approval rate is very high, we may need additional information for some applications.
• Once approved, you must complete a promissory note before the loan can be fully processed. Students and parents that do not complete this requirement will not be able to utilize the loan option.

If you follow the above guidelines there should be sufficient time for approval of your loans and disbursement of funds to your tuition and fees account by the first day of the term. If you have indicated on your Financial Aid award notice that you have accepted the loan, an anticipated loan credit for the loan will appear on your fall term invoice.

A co-maker is someone who shares equally in the responsibility of repaying the loan.

• For the undergraduate parent Northwestern Loan, the co-maker is usually the parent or guardian. If the co-maker is NOT the parent or guardian, we prefer that the co-maker is someone the student has known for at least 5 years and has a work history of 2 or more years. The co-maker is expected to meet the total responsibility of repayment of the loan.
• Be aware that in the event that the co-maker defaults, the student will become responsible for repayment of the loan.
• For student loans, the student is expected to meet the total responsibility for repayment of the loan. In the event that the student defaults, the co-maker will assume total responsibility for repayment of the debt.
• The student's spouse or domestic partner may not be a co-maker on the student's loan.

Although the parent or legal guardian is the primary borrower for an undergraduate Northwestern Loan - Parent, the student is receiving the financial benefit of the loan. All proceeds are applied to the student's tuition and fees account. The parents or legal guardians are accepting responsibility for making the payments.

You can apply for the Northwestern Loan using one or two co-makers. If your primary co-maker does not wish to be solely responsible as co-maker on your loan, you may want to add a second co-maker to the loan. Two co-makers share the co-maker responsibility of the loan, one as a primary co-maker, one as a secondary co-maker.

Certain graduate and professional students may apply for the Northwestern Loan without a co-maker. In order to be approved for a Northwestern Loan without a co-maker, you need to have a positive credit history. The amount of time you have had credit, the amount of credit you have, your payment history, and the amount of or existence of such things as revolving credit accounts, delinquencies, defaults, bankruptcies, liens, etc. are taken into account. If, for whatever reason, you are not approved based on your credit alone, you will be able to apply with a co-maker. Student Finance will contact you if this is necessary.

Your credit history is a record of your past and present indebtedness. This information is obtained from one or more national credit bureaus. Your credit report may include information about your previous credit performance, current level of indebtedness, length of credit history, types of credit in use, pursuit of new credit, accounts in collection, defaults, bankruptcies, liens, judgments, charge-offs, and other applicable information. A creditworthy person is one who has a positive credit history and meets other requirements as determined by the lending institution. You can obtain a copy of your credit report from Trans Union at www.transunion.com or (800) 888-4213, Experian at www.experian.com or (888) Experian (888-397-3742), Equifax at www.equifax.com or (800) 685-1111.

Your Northwestern University email address is the official form of communication between you and the University.

Your NU email address is assigned to you either once you apply or once the school receives your enrollment deposit. If you do not know or remember your Northwestern email address you can look it up in Northwestern's online directory.

Your gross annual income is the total amount of your income before taxes, insurance, and other benefits, etc. are deducted. Please include income from all sources such as salary, interest, dividends, rental income, royalties, social security, pension, commission, child support, etc.

A reference is someone you have known for at least 5 years who will know your whereabouts if we need to contact you in the future. Each reference must have a separate address and phone number. We prefer a reference with a US address.

Your Financial Aid Office sends the financial aid award notice to you after your application for financial aid has been processed.

You can find the amount of NU Loan funds you were awarded in the Financial Aid Offer section of your Financial Aid Award Notice. The NU Loan amount is highlighted on the Sample Award Letter. On your loan application, you may apply for less than you were awarded. However, if you would like to apply for more than you were awarded, you must contact your Financial Aid Office for approval.

Other educational loans that you expect to borrow for this academic year may include private or alternative loans from lenders other than Northwestern University, such as CitiAssist, Access, Signature, etc. Do not include any federal loans or the Northwestern Loan in this amount.

• Prior NU Loans is the total amount of Northwestern Loans (University Parent-Student Loan, University Alternative Loan, Kellogg International Loan, etc.) you have borrowed in prior years, not including this application. Northwestern Loans for prior years were known as the:
  • University Parent-Student Loan (UPSL, PUPSL)
  • Graduate/Professional Alternative Loan (GPAL)
  • University Loan (Need-based and Optional, SUPSL)
  • University Loan for Medical School (MUPSL)
  • University Alternative Loan (Kellogg International)
• Prior Federal and Other Loans from Northwestern is the total amount of Federal loans and Alternative (Other) loans, not including the Northwestern Loan, you have borrowed while attending Northwestern University as both an undergraduate and graduate student. Federal loans include Stafford, Perkins, and Consolidation loans. Alternative (Other) loans are also known as private loans and include loans such as Sallie Mae, Discover, and Wells Fargo.

All Other Loans is the total amount of Federal loans, including Stafford, Perkins, Consolidation loans, and private or alternative loans, such as Sallie Mae, Discover, Wells Fargo, etc., you have borrowed while attending schools other than Northwestern University.

Contact your school or department's Office of Financial Aid.

Northwestern wants to provide you with improvements to products and services as well as take full advantage of technology advancements. As an effort to serve you better, ECSI, a student loan management service is partnering with Northwestern to provide student loan servicing needs to loan borrowers. ECSI supports student and parent borrower. ECSI has an enhanced payment service to you with real time transaction processing, easy navigation and automated address changes and more.

• Your Payment Options
• Understanding Loan Benefits
• Repayment Options
• Forgiveness Benefits
• Your Billing Statement
• Go to ECSI to https://heartland.ecsi.net/index.main.html#/access/studentLoanAccounts
• Feel free to speak to a customer service advocate toll-free (888) 549 3274, Monday to Friday 7:30 am to 9:00 pm EST

Starting in 2018, Northwestern has partnered with Heartland ECSI to provide the student tax statement. To receive the statement, contact ECSI.

You may access Heartland ECSI to obtain your:

• 1098 T Tuition Statement
• 1098 E Student Loan Interest Statement
• Go to ECSI to https://heartland.ecsi.net/index.main.html#/access/FAQtaxDocuments 
• Feel free to speak to a customer service advocate toll-free 866 428 1098, Monday to Friday 7:30 am to 8:00 pm EST