Please review the conditions and terms of any loan before you indicate your acceptance. See the Student Loan Program Chart, paying careful attention to whether you have been offered a subsidized or unsubsidized loan. Remember that unsubsidized loans mean that you (or your parents, if it is a Parent Loan) pay the interest on the loan while you are in school and throughout the life of the loan. You may always borrow less than we are suggesting on the offer letter. Just indicate the reduced amount you want to borrow on MyUW when accepting your aid or notify our office.

All loan programs require that you sign a promissory note, promising to repay the loan, before funds can be disbursed to you.

The Annual Student Loan Acknowledgment (ASLA) is available at studentaid.gov. Who should complete the ASLA? Borrowers accepting a subsidized/unsubsidized loan, a PLUS loan for graduate/professional students, or a PLUS loan for parents. Borrowers are acknowledging that they understand their responsibility to repay the loan and that they understand how much they owe and how much more they can borrow.

The Federal Health Profession/Nursing Loans require your electronic signature on a master promissory note available on MyUW. You will need to sign only once for all Health Profession/Nursing Loans you borrow at the UW. These loans will be repaid to the University’s loan servicer after you leave school.

If you wish to accept a Federal Direct Subsidized Stafford Loan or the Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan, simply check your acceptance on your offer notice on MyUW. If it is your first Direct Student Loan at the UW, you also need to electronically sign a master promissory note at https://studentaid.gov (you will need to sign only once for all Stafford/Ford Loans you borrow at the UW). If you have not been offered a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan and would like to use these funds to replace your family contribution, please notify our office. These funds are repaid to the Federal Direct Loan program’s servicing agency after you leave school.

The Federal Direct Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) enables parents to borrow for their dependent undergraduate children. The maximum amount borrowed may not exceed the difference between the school’s determination of the cost of attendance and assistance received including scholarships and other benefits. The PLUS Loan has no interest subsidy and interest accrues while the student is in school. If your parent wants to borrow this loan, you would accept the loan on the offer notice on MyUW. Your parent borrower will complete an electronic application (not available until May for each school year) indicating the amount they want to borrow and sign a master promissory note electronically at https://studentaid.gov. If the amount your parent wants to borrow is different than we have currently listed on your offer notice, indicate the total amount you want to borrow on the electronic application. A credit check is done at the time of completion of the electronic application and master promissory note. If the credit check is denied, your parent borrower will be given options for completion of the Parent Loan process. If your parent has placed a security freeze on their credit file, it will need to be temporarily removed while this process is completed.

If your parent borrower wants to make changes to the amount originally applied for at https://studentaid.gov, notify our office if you want to borrow less and we will reduce the amount in the system. If you want to borrow more than your original application, then your parent borrower needs to go back to the website and complete another application for the additional amount. We will download your parent application data from this website and update your UW student record.

Repayment of the PLUS loan begins 60 days after the loan is fully disbursed. Deferment of the payment of the principal while you are enrolled at least half time is available. However, interest continues to accrue and your parents may want to make the interest payment quarterly or monthly to keep the overall cost down. They can request the deferment of principal payment from their Direct Loan Servicer.

Graduate PLUS (GPLUS) borrowers sign their promissory note online at https://studentaid.gov/. Each year the government’s direct loan servicer performs a credit check. If you have placed a security freeze on your credit file, it will need to be temporarily removed while this process is completed. If your loan is approved, funds will disburse to your student account. If your credit is denied and you obtain an endorser for your loan, you will need to sign a master promissory note for each GPLUS loan that is endorsed.