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US Loans Application

We will not know you wish to apply for Direct Loans until you submit your application pack to the UCL Student Funding Office.

Please familiarise yourself with the various elements of the Direct Loans Program at the US Student Loans website but follow our instructions below about how to apply for the loans. The processing of Direct Loans at a school outside the US is slightly different than within the US.

Please follow the step-by-step instructions below in order to make an application:

Complete Your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

You will need to complete the FAFSA, which can be done online through the FAFSA website. You will need the following information to successfully complete the application:

  • A Federal Student Aid ID number;
  • Your Social Security Number;
  • Your tax return (if you filed one);
  • Your parents’ income tax return for the prior-prior year (dependent undergraduate students only);
  • UCL’s Federal School Code G06695 (or 00669500).

After the U.S. Department of Education processes your FAFSA, you will receive a Student Aid Report (SAR). Please retain the SAR for your records and be prepared to provide it to us if we ask. UCL will not be informed that you have completed a FAFSA.

Master Promissory Notes

Each year a Master Promissory Note (MPN) must be completed for the Direct Subsidised/Unsubsidised Loan and another, separate MPN for the Direct PLUS Loan. MPNs completed for other schools and previous school years are invalid. Please complete the MPN(s) electronically via the US Student Loans website. To complete a Direct Loan MPN electronically you must have your Federal Student Aid PIN. After you complete your MPN(s), please send us a PDF copy in your application pack.

Entrance Counseling

You must complete Direct Loan Entrance Counseling the first time you take out a Direct Loan at a new institution. You can complete Direct Loan Entrance Counseling electronically via the US Student Loans website, you will need your Federal Student Aid ID. After you complete your entrance counseling, it would be helpful if you could send us a copy of the notification with your application pack. A screenshot of the confirmation page will suffice.

PLUS Loan and Credit Check

To request a PLUS loan please complete the Direct PLUS request electronically via the US Student Loans website, you will need your Federal Student Aid ID. After you complete your Direct PLUS Request, the U.S Department of Education will conduct the credit check and notify you of the results. It would be helpful if you could enclose the notification of outcome of the credit check letter in your application pack.

This credit check will determine your eligibility for a Direct PLUS loan. If you are required to find an Endorser, you will need to send us the Endorser Addendum and the endorser's SSN. You may also need to complete a new Direct PLUS MPN.

Working out your Cost of Attendance

You may find it helpful to use our Cost of Attendance Spreadsheet to determine how much money you will need to take out as a Direct Loan for the academic year:

 

We advise students to use this before applying for a loan in order to find out what level of loan they will be taking on. You also might find it useful to adjust the costings of your year if you have a maximum loan figure in mind. 

Please note that any cost of attendance figure produced by the spreadsheet is a guide figure for budgeting purposes and should not be taken as a guarantee of funds. Medical costs and any extenuating circumstances are not included in the spreadsheet and can be discussed with the US Loans team separately.  

Application Pack to send to UCL

Please download and complete the cover sheet (see below). You need to tell us how much you wish to borrow and this cannot be higher than your Cost Of Attendance. For confirmation of how much your tuition fees are, please check here.

Direct Loans are expensive so do not borrow more than you need. In particular, do ensure you carry out a thorough research into accommodation costs.

In section 2 we need you to give us the US Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) Code of your intended course. You can search for it on the CIP User Site here. Find the code which closest matches the subject of your intended course.

You must include the following documents in your application pack as PDF files:

  • Copy of Entrance Counseling completion report;
  • Copy of MPN for each loan (for example - if you are applying for the Sub/Unsub loan and the PLUS loan you will need to include a copy of both MPNs);
  • Copy of PLUS loan credit check notification (PLUS loan applicants only).

Please email the above documents to us-cdn-loans@ucl.ac.uk and use the subject line "Direct Loan Application Pack"

UCL's Confirmation to you

After we review your application for a Direct Loan, we will contact you by email confirming the loans available to you. We will then, if you request it, issue you with a Notification of Student Loans letter, which has been approved by the UK Border Agency as proof of student funding for visa purposes. You may wish to check with the UK Border Agency whether you are a "low risk" applicant and so may not be required to provide evidence of adequate funding on applying for your visa.