03.08.10 | What happens to your federal loans in the summer?
How does the song go? “Summertime…and the livin’s easy?”
That’s all well and good, but if you’re unsure of your federal loan status for the summer months, your “livin’” won’t be so easy in the springtime.
One question we get a lot in our financial aid forums concerns Stafford loans and the summer. And really there are two possible answers.
The first is that your Stafford loan covers the “academic year.” In some cases that can include the summer. Your school may elect to use that specifically for the fall and spring and leave it to you to pay the difference in the summer.
The second possibility is that taking summer courses will actually borrow from next year’s financial aid package. So for example, if you receive $10,000 per academic year from the government, and you use $2,500 of it for summer courses, you will have $7,500 for the next fall and spring semester.
In both cases, you should contact your school’s financial aid office for more information.
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