TAMPA – Since Congress passed the higher education legislation on March 25 schools that receive federal student loans will now have to switch from private lenders to the U.S. Education Department within three months and The University of Tampa has already made the change.
According to Jackie Latorella, UT’s director of financial aid said that UT already implemented direct lending and distributed their first set of direct loans this semester well ahead of the July 1 deadline.
Latorella also said that Stafford loans will also be administered through the direct lending program beginning this summer.
Since the direct lending has already been put into place, current UT students that will continue to borrow federal Stafford loans will be required to sign a new Master Promissory Note (MPN) and Student Refund Authorization.
The MPN can be signed online at studentloans.gov.
The Refund Authorization form may be downloaded from the Financial Aid Forms page of the UT website and sent directly to UT’s Financial Aid Office.
Latorella said that new Stafford Loan borrowers will also be required to complete loan entrance counseling, which can be done at studentloans.gov.
Charlie Hambos can be reached at chambos@ut.edu.