Repaying Your Loans
Most student loans enter repayment upon graduation or separation from Northwestern, whereas some parent loans require payment while the student is still in school.
If you take a break in your studies with Northwestern for more than six consecutive months, your loans may enter repayment. These same loans may be put back into deferment if you enroll again. Reach out to our office if you have ceased enrollment (but not graduated) or plan to take a break, and you have questions about your start date for loan repayment.
You should contact your loan servicer for repayment obligations specific to your loans:
- Your Federal Loan servicer can be found in your studentaid.gov portal
- Northwestern Loans
- Private Loans
Tools for Loan Repayment
A variety of options may help you manage or meet your monthly loan obligations.
Federal loan consolidation is a debt-management tool that allows you to combine all of your eligible federal education loans (not any private loans) into a new loan with a single payment. This may lengthen the payback period up to 30 years and reduce your monthly payment. Most borrowers consolidate their federal loans after graduation or separation date during the post-school grace period, during repayment, or during a period of deferment or forbearance.
Consolidation should be considered carefully.
You may give up some valuable features or benefits of your student loans by consolidating, such as Perkins Loan deferment or cancellation provisions.
Applies to Perkins Loans, Federal Direct Stafford Loans and some private loans
Deferment is the postponement of repayment on the loan's principal and interest for a period of time.
Specific conditions must be met to qualify for a deferment, and provisions vary by loan type. Some loans offer deferments for continued enrollment, for borrowers who are unemployed and seeking employment, demonstrated economic hardship or active military service.
For subsidized loans, like the Direct Subsidized Stafford Loan and the Perkins Loan, the government may pay the interest during deferment. Contact your loan servicer or your individual promissory notes for details.
If you are a currently enrolled student and need information about securing a deferment for educational debt borrowed prior to Northwestern, please follow our deferment instructions below.
Deferment Instructions
You may be eligible to defer payment on prior educational loans while you are enrolled at least half-time as a student at Northwestern. Contact your loan servicer to determine if you qualify for a student deferment.
In many cases the deferment will occur automatically. However, it is the borrower's responsibility to ensure the accurate status is reflected on his/her loan.
The deferment process depends on the loan type:
Federal Direct Loans (Stafford and Grad PLUS) and Alternative Loans
- The University Registrar sends your enrollment information to the National Student Loan Clearinghouse once a month.
- The Clearinghouse notifies your lender/servicer that you are enrolled.
- If your lender/servicer sends you a deferment form, simply submit it to your current school's registrar office.
Federal Perkins Loan
- Contact your former school (from which that Perkins Loan was borrowed) to obtain a Student Deferment form (your former school is your lender for Federal Perkins Loan).
- Complete the "Student Section" of each deferment form as directed.
- Bring or send each deferment form to your current school's registrar's office.
- Your registrar will complete the form and send it to your former school.
- Contact your lender(s) by telephone 6-8 weeks after school begins or after submitting the form to your registrar (whichever is later) to verify that your student deferment has been processed.
Your Responsibilities While in Deferment
- Notify your lender(s) of any change in circumstance (e.g., change in address, phone number, name, enrollment status) that might affect your deferment(s).
- Contact your lender(s) immediately if you continue to receive requests for payment after school has started and/or you have submitted a Student Deferment form. Your Registrar may need to send an enrollment history to your lender(s) to verify your eligibility.
Applies to Perkins Loans and NU Loans
Forbearance is the temporary cessation of payments or reduced payments for a certain period of time to relieve a borrower's financial hardship during loan repayment. Ordinarily, the length of time that you request for forbearance, other than for medical residency forbearances, cannot exceed six months at a time.
Forbearance provisions vary. Some loans offer forbearance during periods of financial hardship or during medical residency. Other forbearances may be available for certain loans.
For Northwestern Loan (NU Loan or Endowed Loan), you may receive the following types of forbearance:
- Medical Forbearance Request: If you graduated from the Northwestern University medical school and are in a medical residency program or a fellowship program required for training, and you are having difficulties making your loan payments, you may receive a forbearance that allows you to postpone payments. Contact Heartland ECSI and they can assist you in completing a Medical Forbearance.
- Forbearance Request: If you are experiencing financial difficulties and need to request a forbearance that can allow a temporarily postponement of principal payments from your loan, contact Heartland ECSI who can assist you in completing a Forbearance Request.
Interest on the loan continues to accrue during a period of forbearance and all unpaid interest is capitalized at the end of the forbearance period. At the end of your forbearance, your payment schedule will be adjusted accordingly to repay the loan within the original term. Monthly loan payments will be higher following the forbearance. Refer to your individual promissory notes for details.
Federal Direct Loans
For information regarding forbearance under the Federal Direct Loan program, please visit the U.S. Department of Education's website.
Applies to Perkins Loans and Direct Loans
Loan cancellation is the removal of the obligation for the borrower to pay a portion of or all of the loan's unpaid balance and accrued interest. Cancellation is available only if specified conditions of the particular loan are met, and the required certification is provided. Some cancellations include deferment of interest or a postponement of payments. In some cases, 100% of the principal can be canceled over several years.
Only certain loans have cancellation provisions and differ depending on the type of loan you have. Some loans offer cancellations for service in certain fields or geographical areas or to underserved populations. Contact your loan servicer or refer to your individual promissory notes for details. More information is also available on Northwestern's Financial Wellness website.
Repayment Resources
There are a number of resources available online to student loan borrowers designed to help navigate their debt, evaluate their options so that they can make educated borrowing decisions, and establish realistic repayment plans for the future. We have outlined some of them below.
Financial Awareness Counseling provides tools and information to help understand financial aid and help in managing finances. In addition to helping students with budgeting and credit information, the counseling tool also helps student loan borrowers calculate estimated monthly repayment amounts under various repayment plans, the pros and cons of loan consolidation and loan forgiveness, deferments, and forbearance information.
When you first borrowed federal student loans, you were required to complete online entrance counseling before your loans could be disbursed. Financial awareness counseling is part of an ongoing effort to help you "put all the pieces together" by providing tools and information while you are attending school to assist you in managing your finances. Topics covered in this step-by-step guide include:- Your current loan balance
- How to plan ahead, spend wisely and borrow less
- Tax benefits for education
- Protecting your credit and identity
- Estimated monthly repayment amounts under various repayment plans
- Pros and cons of loan consolidation
- Loan forgiveness, deferments, and forbearance
Start Your Counseling Session
To begin your online financial awareness counseling session, visit the Federal Student Aid website, sign in with your FSA ID and select "Complete Loan Counseling." Then select " Financial Awareness Counseling." The process will take approximately 20 to 30 minutes.
Please note that you must complete the entire session once you begin. If you close your browser before receiving confirmation of successful completion of the session and then return later, you will need to start over from the beginning. Once you have successfully completed the session, your To Do List in CAESAR will be updated to "Completed!" within 5 business days.
Your tuition and fees and the following resources in CAESAR may be helpful in completing the session:
- Northwestern University Customer Account at Account and Payments > View My Account.
- Estimate of Costs link at Financial Aid > Accept/Decline Financial Aid.
- Loan totals at Financial Aid > View NU Financial Aid History.
- Click on the third tab "Debt Summ - Loan Type" at the top of the page.
- Note: When you sign in to the financial counseling tool, your total federal student loan debt from all institutions will be retrieved from the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). You may add any loans that are not yet reflected in NSLDS.
The National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) is the U.S. Department of Education's central database for student aid. The database provides a list of all federal loans received by a student and will also provide the name and contact information of the student's federal loan servicer. When visiting the website, select "Financial Aid Review."
Federal Student Aid's website was designed to help students in finding the right repayment plans for their federal student loans. This website also provides information on loan consolidation, loan forgiveness and cancellation information and repayment calculators to help estimate payment amounts.
If you have any questions, please contact your Financial Aid Office.