Loan FAQs

You may be qualified for a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan and/or a Federal Graduate PLUS Loan, Federal Work-Study, and/or a private loan. As long are you are enrolled half-time or greater in a degree granting program and making satisfactory academic progress, you are generally guaranteed a Stafford Loan up to $20,500 for an academic year. The standard allocation for Work-study is $3,000 per academic year and based on your financial need. The Federal Direct Graduate PLUS loan is credit-based supplemental loan that helps students meet the cost of your education expenses for the academic year. Students can borrow up to the full cost of education minus other financial aid received. Interest is charged and credit checks are required. This loan is intended to supplement the Stafford Loan and Work-Study up to the cost of attendance for your program. If you are a veteran or the spouse or child of a veteran, you may be eligible for education benefits offered through the Department of Veterans Affairs. A full description of federal and private loans as well as veterans benefits can be found here.

As an international student, you are not eligible for US federal loans. You may be eligible for a private loan with a creditworthy US citizen or US permanent resident cosigner.

Columbia University provides federal student loan funding through the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program. Student loan borrowers will acquire loan proceeds from the Department of Education. Private lenders no longer provide student federal loan financing. Student Financial Services provides a list of suggested lenders for those interested in non-federal educational loans (i.e., private loans).  Please read the disclosure information on these pages carefully. For the Direct Loan Program, you will need to complete Master Promissory Notes (MPNs) for the Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford and Graduate PLUS loans. Additionally, entrance counseling is also required for all Direct Federal loan borrowers. These requirements can be fulfilled online at StudentLoans.gov. Master Promissory Notes can be completed online via SSOL.

You may log into Student Services Online and determine if GSAS has received your FAFSA. This information can be found under "Document Tracking." Your Federal Student Aid Report (SAR) should list Columbia's federal school code (002707). If the code has been listed on your FAFSA, then it is very likely your application has been sent to Columbia University.

Once you have registered for six or more points, have been assessed tuition and fees, have had your loan certified and fully processed by the Financial Aid Office and you have completed all requirements (see above), the university's Financial Aid Office can authorize a loan disbursement to your student account held by Columbia’s Office of Registration and Student Financial Services. Your student account will be credited with your loan funds. After charges have been paid, you will be eligible to receive any remaining credit balance as a refund.

Once your loan has been certified and fully processed, the university's Financial Aid Office can authorize a loan disbursement to your student account. After charges have been paid, you will be eligible to receive any remaining credit balance as a refund.

Borrowing limits are affected by borrowing caps as set by individual federal and private loan programs, the official cost of attendance (COA), and your federal financial need as determined by the FAFSA. Students generally can borrow from various loan programs that together provide enough loan proceeds to cover the entire COA. Federal and private student loans, or a combination thereof, cannot exceed the COA. Generally, the Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford is supplemented with credit-based loans like the Federal Graduate PLUS or private loans. Please visit the Graduate Financial Aid section of the Student Financial Services website to obtain detailed summaries of the various loan programs.

Newly admitted and continuing students matriculating in the Fall should submit their Financial Aid documents by June 1 to receive priority processing. We ask that students anticipate between four and six weeks of processing time for their loan requests. Application requests received in August may have longer processing times because of the increased volume of financial aid applications during this period.  We ask that you provide the Financial Aid Office a minimum of thirty days to fully process your loan request. Loan funds generally arrive shortly after this initial processing period. Incomplete requests will require additional processing time. You may log onto SSOL to determine if you are missing financial aid documents. Also, please see above to determine what forms are required. Complete loan application requests received within less than thirty days of the due date cannot be guaranteed to arrive on time.

Summer-term financial aid applicants must submit their application materials to the Financial Aid Office by April 15 to ensure timely disbursement of their loan proceeds by the Summer Fee Deadline.

Once you have been formally admitted to GSAS and have accepted your offer of admission, you may review your financial aid award letter on SSOL when the following documents have been received by GSAS Office of Financial Aid: