Continuing students

• Review the eligibility criteria above to make sure you continue to be eligible to receive US Loan. 

• If you are planning to take part in a period of studying away from the University of Edinburgh, even if academic approval has been granted, there are strict criteria to satisfy regarding US Loan eligibility. Please submit a Study Abroad form as soon as possible. 

• Financial Aid staff will check your eligibility and inform you whether you are entitled to receive Federal Aid during your study abroad. 

International Schools That Participate in the Federal Student Loan Programs

Submit a Study Abroad Form

• Complete a  Free Application for Federal Student Aid form using the school code G06839, this code may also appear as 00683900 and applies to all students including those studying at the Edinburgh College of Art.

Apply Free Application for Federal Student Aid

Video link - Submitting a FAFSA

• This form lets us know that you have submitted a FAFSA, completed your MPNs and Entrance Counselling or if you have applied for a Private Alternative Loan 
• Once we receive this, we will begin processing your loan request. 

• The electronic MPN process must be completed in an entire session. If you exit the website without completing the MPN, you will need to start over. The session should take about 30 minutes online.
• E- sign your Federal Direct loan MPN, using your Federal Student Aid ID to log in.   Follow the five-step process to sign your MPN, either as an Undergraduate student or as a Graduate/Professional student or as a Parent of a Dependent Undergraduate student.
• For Graduate PLUS or Parent PLUS loans a separate MPN is required, if applicable. As PLUS loans are subject to a credit check, MPNs for PLUS loans must be signed using a US postal address. An overseas address will automatically result in the credit check being pended.
• Although you may have signed an MPN previously, loans at foreign schools require a new MPN each year.

• Please choose the University of Edinburgh as your school and complete your Entrance Counselling.

• Based on the information from your FAFSA, and details of your program of study, Financial Aid staff will provide you with an individual COA spreadsheet. This will be based on the duration of your programme, tuition fees, visa costs, flights and living expenses. 
• Please check and return the completed COA spreadsheet to studentfunding@ed.ac.uk, this must be returned as a pdf or excel spreadsheet attachment. 
• Please also let us know of any scholarships/other loans you may have in place as this will impact your borrowing limit, and forward on your Scholarship Award Letter.
• Costs relating to spouses or dependants will not be considered apart from the cost of formal childcare for dependants during class time, study time and commuting time e.g. nursery/child-minder/after school club costs.
• Please note, the maximum borrowing amount on your COA may vary each academic year, due to a change in theoretical exchange rate, a change in programme number of weeks and visa and health immigration surcharge cost being included for New students. 

Example COAs:

Cost of Living Calculator

• Once your loans have been originated you will receive a Funding Confirmation Letter (Financial Aid Award Letter) from the Scholarship and Student Funding Team once your loans are originated which details the loan amounts and the disbursement dates.
• Please read the accompanying email carefully as it contains important information regarding actions to be taken before loans can be disbursed.
• This Funding Confirmation Letter (Financial Aid Award Letter) should be used to satisfy visa requirements.

• We strongly recommend that you open a traditional UK bank account.  If using some of the popular digital bank accounts, please note, there may be issues with your disbursement.
• A number of high street banks allow you to open an account while still in an overseas country.
• If you do not enter bank account details, please note, a USD cheque will be issued should there be any surplus funds. We will email you to let you know that there is a cheque to be collected from the University. Please note, the cheque can take a few days to arrive to the University.

Open a UK bank account

Guide to international student bank accounts in the UK

• It is important you also confirm to our Finance Section that you are intending to take out US Loans for tuition fee purposes.  Please do this as early as possible.

• In order to receive US Loans, you must be fully matriculated onto your programme of study, this involves:
  • Accepting the University Regulations
  • Confirming attendance with your School
  • Completing international check-in
  • Completing Registration

• Please can you ask the loan borrower of the Parent PLUS loan to confirm by email that they give their Parental Consent for any surplus funds resulting from the Parent PLUS loan, after the necessary amounts for tuition fees have been retained by the University of Edinburgh, to be passed directly to you. Please use the subject line for the email as: “URGENT- Parent PLUS consent”. Please note - the funds cannot be released until this has been provided.

• If you are using a UK or US Bank account, you will be receiving two emails nearer to your first disbursement date to your student email account which will contain further details about how to sign up for electronic transfer.
• Please note that as we are moving to a new Payment Manager system with Convera, you will need to submit bank details again, even if you have already done so in the past. 

• If during your studies you wish to reduce, cancel or increase (up to but not exceeding the maximum amount shown on your COA) your US Loan borrowing amount, please submit an Increase/Decrease/Cancellation Request Form.
• We require at least two weeks notice before any scheduled disbursement to allow adequate time for any necessary changes to be made. 
• You can do this up to six weeks before the end of the loan period end date of your programme of study.

• This only applies to students in their final year of their programme of study, or those who choose to withdraw during their studies.