<p>Could someone tell me the interest rates for each for the 2010/11 school year, and explain what a "Perkins Loan 1" is? Does interest begin on the Perkins the moment that loan is taken, or after a student graduates/stops attending college? I know that Stafford loan rates are going down for next year, so please post the new rates for subsidized and unsubsidized and whatever the Perkins Loan 1 rate will be. Thank you.</p>
<p>A subsidized Stafford for 2010-2011 is 4.5%.</p>
<p>An unsub Stafford is 6.8% (the unsub rates have not changed).</p>
<p>A perkins is 5%. But I have heard that Perkins loans are changing from being subsidized loans to unsubsidized loans for Perkins offered starting the 2010-2011 school year. (I am not sure if this is a done deal or a proposal right now). Up until now Perkins has been subsidized where the govt pays the interest until graduation plus a 9 month grace period. If it changes to an unsub loan then the student will be responsible for the interest from day 1.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom, thanks. Do you know what the term Perkins Loan 1 means? I wonder if there is going to be more than one type of Perkins Loan. We just got another package, but I did NOT notice interest rates or loan differences defined in this package!</p>
<p>Don’t go just by interest rates - Borrowers who choose certain volunteer work (Peace corps), serves in the military or teaches in a low-income school district may be eligible to have all or part of their Perkins loan canceled.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the Perkins loan 1 means. My daughter has had some Perkins in the past which have been nice as the interest rate was lower then sub Stafford, and there was no origination fee. She does not usually have to have the max in sub Stafford loans so hopefully she will just get sub Stafford this year. My understanding is that subsidized loans are offered first (if eligible) before unsubs. </p>
<p>**northeastmom **- Did you already have the full sub stafford offered?</p>
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**Justamom **- I believe part of the changes to the Perkins may also change this. I think the proposal was to increase the amount of Perkins funding but stop them being subsidized and also stop some of the forgiveness programs.</p>
<p>This packag offers full sub Stafford Loan (3500) for a freshman, 2000 in unsub Stafford, and 1500 of this Perkins Loan 1. BTW, we don’t plan on loading our son up with loans. We would not take out the unsub Stafford in any package. I’d rather send my son to a different school!</p>
<p>how do you get a perkins loan?</p>
<p>sacrecoeur, it is offered sometimes in a financial aid package, ususally to higher need families. Still, you can have a pretty high EFC and see this in a package too. I really do not know how they decide on which loan or combination will be offered to a particular student.</p>
<p>okay thanks. do some schools offer them in a package, while other schools may not?</p>
<p>sacrecoeur, I believe that schools are restricted in the number of Perkins dollars that they are allowed to offer as part of a financial aid package so they are very careful about how much and to which applicant they are offering it as a part of their package. It is a government loan. If I am incorrect, someone can chime in.</p>
<p>I believe that some schools are NOT even given Perkins funds to give out because their overall rate of default on student loans is so high…my current school is one of those. </p>
<p>At any rate, there aren’t much of them to go around.</p>
<p>Sometimes schools will loan to the students directly, usually with very low interest & very low minimum payments upon graduation. I have seen those offered (usually private schools). </p>
<p>Kalman Chany of “Paying for College Without Going Broke” states that those type of loans are usually very attractive with the repayment plans & the interest rate as well. He recommends not turning those type of loans down!</p>
<p>my understanding is that schools have a x amount of dollars in Perkins loans available, but a lot of that money is still being paid off by previous borrowers. For example they may have 200,000 in Perkins loan money but 180,000 of that may be tied up with previous years borrowers so access to funds only becomes available as former students pay off those loans.They can only loan out what is available under that ceiling. When my daughter had a Perkins loan the yearly amount stayed the same, while the Stafford went up every year. For many schools, when the Perkins funds became unavailable they switched to the unsubsidized Staffords. And yes, many schools do have their own loan funds and will loan money directly from the school to the students/families - Gettysburg College does this.</p>