Federal Direct Student Loans
The Federal Direct Subsidized and/or Unsubsidized loan is a student loan, commonly referred to as a Stafford loan, where the US Department of Education Direct Loans acts as the lender.
The type of Federal Direct Loan a student receives is determined by the Office of Financial Aid based on information provided in your FAFSA.
Subsidized loans do not accrue interest while the student is enrolled in school. Unsubsidized loans do accrue interest while the student is in school. A student can either make payments for the accruing interest while they are in school or they may capitalize the interest to repay when they begin repayment for their loans. Upon origination of the unsubsidized loan, a Direct Loans servicer will contact the borrower about selecting an interest repayment option. Please see information below on how to obtain the loan servicer information.
Repayment for this loan begins 6 months after graduation or 6 months after a borrower ceases to attend Providence College at least half time. For more information about this loan, please visit https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/ .
Requirement Information for First Time Borrowers
If you have been awarded a Federal Direct Subsidized and/or Unsubsidized Student Loan by the Office of Financial Aid there are two requirements that you must complete. They are signing a Master Promissory Note (MPN) and completing Entrance Counseling, both of which are done online. Both requirements only need to be completed once and are good for all of your years at Providence College.
To complete these requirements online, visit https://studentaid.gov
Once on the site, click on the green Log In bar in the white box in the upper right portion of the screen.
Next, you need to sign in with the requested information. You will need your FSA ID to log in.
After you have logged in, the site will ask you for your email address in the box on the right of the screen. If you would like to receive your loan correspondence electronically, check the box next to this request and click on the update button.
Next, click on Complete Entrance Counseling. The site will lead you through the counseling session. After you have identified yourself as an undergraduate or graduate student and have chosen Providence College as your school, you will need to read through 16 pages of information regarding your student loan. There is also a quiz on this information.
After you have viewed the 16 pages and passed the quiz questions, you will need to click on the blue link titled Click here to view the Borrowers Rights and Responsibilities for Direct Loans. Once you have viewed this document, click the submit button. This will bring up the Congratulations! You have successfully completed Entrance Counseling for Direct Loans. Please print a copy of this for your records. Providence College will receive an electronic confirmation of your completion.
Next, click on You can submit a Master Promissory Note. On the next page, for the type of loan, click on Subsidized/Unsubsidized. You will be prompted to enter in your personal information. Next, select Rhode Island for the state and Providence College for the school. Click continue.
You need to enter in two references. The references cannot share the same address or phone number, cannot have a non US address and they must have known you for at least three years. If they do not have a phone number, enter N/A. Click continue.
Next, the MPN will go over all of the terms/conditions of the loans. You must click on the plus (+) sign by each section to review each section. You will not be allowed to continue until you have reviewed each section. After you have reviewed each section, you will need to check the box next to the statement that you have received all the information for the MPN. Then click continue.
The last step is to review and sign your MPN. Review the document and make sure all information is correct. Then fill in your name and click the sign button. To view the MPN, click on the HTML version link. Please be sure to print the confirmation page for your records. Providence College will receive an electronic confirmation of your completion.
If you need any assistance with the https://studentaid.gov website, please contact Direct Loans at 1-800-557-7394.
Repayment Information
The US Department of Education Direct Loans is the lender for Federal Direct Loans. Direct Loans go into repayment 6 months after a student graduates or 6 months after a student ceases to attend school at least half time. The repayment is handled by a Federal Loan Servicing Agency. You can obtain your servicer information at https://nslds.ed.gov.
