News and Updates

Scholarships available for students to study foreign languages

2012-05-16T16:31:45Z

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Tuition scholarships are available for high school and college students, including Penn State students from campuses across the commonwealth, to learn Arabic, through a $105,000 federal grant received by the Penn State Department of Comparative Literature, in the School of Languages and Literatures. Students can earn Penn State credits in a special four-week intensive Arabic course, called the STARTALK Arabic Academy, to be offered June 11 - July 6 on the University Park campus. In addition, scholarships from other sources also are available for high school students who wish to study Turkish, Chinese, or Russian through this summer's Language Institute. These scholarships cover up to 90 percent of in-state tuition.

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Summer Aid Will Disburse After July 1

2012-04-13T16:40:00Z

Before your aid disburses:

You must complete the registration process
Your last summer class must have started
Your part-time indicator must be set if you are taking less than 12 credits

Other aid may disburse before July 1. However, refunds from federal or alternative loan funds will not be available to students until early July.

How to Transfer Your IRS Tax Information Directly into Your FAFSA

2012-04-11T15:55:00Z

If you choose to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to comply with the recommendations, in order to directly transfer IRS tax information directly into your FAFSA, complete the following steps:

Go to www.fafsa.gov and select the “Start Here” button
Log in using the student's: name, PIN, Social Security number, and date of birth
Select the “Continue” or “Make a Correction” button
Select the "Financial Information" tab from the top of the page.

Instructions for the parent to request the parent IRS information:

Go to "Parent Financial Information" page
Answer questions in the first box to determine whether the you are eligible to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool
If eligible, select which parent is providing information on the FAFSA
Enter the PIN for the parent providing the information
Click "Link to IRS"
Review the information displayed and select the “Transfer My Information into the FAFSA” option

Instructions for the student to request the student IRS information:

Go to "Student Financial Information" page
Answer questions in the first box regarding to determine whether you is eligible to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool
If eligible, click "Link to IRS"
Review the information displayed and select the “Transfer My Information into the FAFSA” option
Proceed to the Sign and Submit page

Some schools may require you to complete your FAFSA using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, but it is optional for Penn State.

The brief tutorial below, created by USCB Financial Aid, shows step-by-step instructions on how to submit corrections on your FAFSA using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool.

If you'd like to know more about the tool, FinAid offers a indepth summary on their website.

Federal Loan Interest Rates Change July 1

2012-04-06T17:05:00Z

End of Interest Rebates on Federal Loans

Borrowers should note the removal of the upfront interest rebate on all Federal Direct loans first disbursed after July 1, 2012. Net loan fees for both Federal Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Stafford loans will change from .5 percent to 1 percent; while fees for the Federal Direct Graduate PLUS and Parent PLUS loans will change from 2.5 percent to 4 percent.

Students registered for Summer Sessions will be the first population affected by the increased fees. Remember that the Student Aid Summary in eLion lists your gross loan amounts and the Bursar Tuition Bill in eLion lists your net loan amounts. To illustrate how origination fees will affect your financial aid starting this summer, take a close look at the following examples:

SUBSIDIZED STAFFORD LOAN with 1% origination fee
Gross Amount (listed on Student Aid Summary) Net Amount (listed on Bursar Tuition Bill)	= $1750 = $1733
UNSUBSIDIZED STAFFORD LOAN with 1% origination fee
Gross Amount (listed on Student Aid Summary) Net Amount (listed on Bursar Tuition Bill)	= $1000 = $990
GRADUATE/PARENT PLUS LOAN with 4% origination fee
Gross Amount (listed on Student Aid Summary) Net Amount (listed on Bursar Tuition Bill)	= $10,000 = $9,600

Interest Rate Changes

Barring Congressional action, the fixed interest rate for the subsidized Stafford loans will increase from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. This applies to loans first disbursed after July 1, 2012.

The interest on subsidized Stafford loans disbursed July 1, 2012-June 30, 2014 will begin to accrue once the student graduates or is no longer enrolled at least a half-time. With the new federal changes, interest rates will accrue during the grace period and will be capitalized if unpaid by the borrower.

Subsidized Stafford Loans No Longer Available for Graduate Students

Starting the Fall 2012 semester, the Department of Education will no longer offer subsidized loans to graduate students. Graduate students who are enrolled at least half-time are eligible to receive up to $10,250 in unsubsidized Stafford loans per semester, based on their estimated cost of attendance and other aid received.

Pell Grants

Beginning fall 2012, Pell grant recipients will only be eligible to receive a maximum of 12 full-time semesters of Pell grant or the equivalent. This change will apply to all federal Pell grant recipients regardless of when or where they received their first Pell grant.

Students that are currently receiving a Pell Grant for the 2011-12 academic year and have received their 12 full-time awards will not be eligible to receive a Pell grant starting fall 2012. As before, the semesters are counted based on the portion of a full-time equivalent, so that half-time enrollment is counted as half a semester toward the 12 semester limit.

More information is available at Student Aid on the Web