Available Financial Aid Counseling
The government offers online counseling opportunities for student borrowers. The benefit of completing the counseling directly with the government is that they can access your federal loan history from the National Student Loan Data System to help you determine your federal loan borrowing.
Types of Counseling Available:
- Financial Awareness Counseling – This counseling tool helps to identify your overall loan balance, provides definitions of some loan terms, offers tips for responsible borrowing, mentions current loan interest rates, helps you estimate your repayment and helps to create a sample budget.
- Entrance Counseling – This is a reminder of what your rights and responsibilities are as a person borrowing federal student loans. This session goes into detail on the terms and conditions of federal loans. All borrowers are required to complete Entrance Counseling before they receive their first federal student loan disbursement.
- Exit Counseling - This tool provides important information to prepare for repayment of your federal loans. If you have federal loan, you must complete exit counseling if you drop below half time (6 credits), graduate or leave school.
Please note that the UMass Lowell Money Management Mentors are also available for in-person appointments to discuss responsible borrowing, budgeting, credit, banking and other items. Find out more about the UMass Lowell Money Management Mentors.