United States Student Loans 2022-23

Award details

King’s College London’s Student Funding Office administers and processes all loans on behalf of eligible students. In order to apply for your loans you will need to follow the instructions below. Please refer to the specialised tabs at the bottom of this page for more detailed advice in a variety of areas.

Please be aware that for this year an additional document, the Annual Student Loan Acknowledgement will be required.

For more information, please see the Annual Student Loan Acknowledgement section on the FSA website.

Award value

You will need to download “US loan Application Form” which will form part of the application pack to send to us. You will also need to send additional documents which are listed below and in the “US Loan Application Form.”

The application form also contains the Cost of Attendance spreadsheet, which will calculate your cost of attendance. You can also access the spreadsheet using the link below.

Before completing these documents, please read the instructions below carefully. We will require all requested documents before we are able to process your loans.

• Download US Loans Application Form 2022-23
• Download US Loans Cost of Attendance Spreadsheet 2022-23

The Student Funding Office is the main contact for queries relating to Federal Student Aid. For further assistance, please contact the Student Funding team.

Types of Loan

The types of Loan are available as listed below. Your loans will be allocated based on your allowances and what you have requested.

Subsidised	For undergraduate students with demonstrated financial need, as determined by federal regulations. No interest is charged while the student is in school at least half-time, during the grace period, and during any deferment periods.
Unsubsidised	For undergraduate and graduate students and not based on financial need. Interest is charged in all periods.
Parent PLUS	For undergraduate students' parents; up to the value of the Cost of Attendance, less any Expected Financial Aid. Subject to credit checks. Interested is charged in all periods.
Graduate PLUS	For graduate or professional course students; up to the value of the Cost of Attendance, less any Expected Financial Aid. Subject to credit checks. Interest is charged in all periods.

The amounts allowed for each Loan are also listed in Table 2.

Year	Dependent Students	Independent Students (and dependent undergraduate students whose parents are unable to obtain PLUS Loans)
First-Year Undergraduate Annual Loan Limit	$5,500—No more than $3,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans.	$9,500—No more than $3,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans.
Second-Year Undergraduate Annual Loan Limit	$6,500—No more than $4,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans.	$10,500—No more than $4,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans.
Third-Year and Beyond Undergraduate Annual Loan Limit	$7,500—No more than $5,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans.	$12,500—No more than $5,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans.
Graduate or Professional Students Annual Loan Limit	Not Applicable (all graduate and professional students are considered independent)	$20,500 (unsubsidized only)
Subsidized and Unsubsidized Aggregate Loan Limit	$31,000—No more than $23,000 of this amount may be in subsidized loans.	$57,500 for undergraduates—No more than $23,000 of this amount may be in subsidized loans. $138,500 for graduate or professional students—No more than $65,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans. The graduate aggregate limit includes all federal loans received for undergraduate study.

Eligibility criteria

Most US students will be eligible for the Federal Loan Program at King’s.

In order to be eligible for Federal Loans you will need to meet a number of criteria.

1. You will need to be a US Citizen or eligible non-citizen.
2. Generally you are an eligible non-citizen if you are:
   • A US permanent resident, with a Permanent Resident Card (formerly known as an Alien Registration Receipt Card or “Green Card”)
   • Conditional permanent resident (I-551C)
   • Other eligible non-citizen with an Arrival-Departure Record (i-94) from the department of Homeland Security showing one of the following categories: “Refugee”, “Asylum Granted”, “Humanitarian Parole”, or “Cuban Haitian Entrant”.
   • If these designations relate to you then you will need to enter your 8 or 9 digit Alien Registration Number (ARN) on your FAFSA.
3. You must have a Valid Social Security Number
4. Be enrolled at least half time in an eligible degree
5. Maintain satisfactory academic progress while studying
6. You are not in default on a federal student loan and do not owe money on a federal student grant, you will also only use federal student aid for educational purposes.
7. You must have a high school diploma or recognized equivalent such as a GED General Educational Development Certificate (GED)

Personal Eligibility

You must be a US citizen or eligible non-citizen (e.g. a Permanent Resident Card holder).

For more detailed advice regarding eligibility for Federal Loans please see our eligibility tab below.

Course Eligibility

You must be enrolled at least half time on an eligible course in order to receive the Federal Loan.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the US government has passed legislation that will allow students to receive US Federal Student Aid where their programmes are temporarily being delivered via distance learning. Please be aware that this only applies to programmes that would otherwise be taught as residential degrees, so courses designated as distance learning on the King’s prospectus will not be eligible.

Study in the USA for any part of your course (for example, studying abroad for a semester/full year in the USA, or completing any work towards your degree such as a dissertation while in the USA), is largely prohibited for the purposes of Federal Loans, though you may apply for a private study loan.

No programmes leading to registration to practice medicine (MBBS degrees) or nursing (Nursing programmes leading to registration) can be covered by US Federal Aid. Private loans may be sought in these cases.

We are also unable to provide Federal Student Aid for programmes that are below degree-level; Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma programmes are not eligible for Federal Aid.

Study Abroad

For courses that incorporate a year of study abroad, the partner institution that the student visits must be a participant in the Federal Student Aid programme. Where a student undertakes study abroad at a non-participating institution, or in the USA, then the entire course is not considered eligible for Federal Aid.

If you are planning to take a degree course that incorporates a year abroad, please ensure that you speak to the Student Funding Office.

If you are studying a degree without a compulsory year abroad, but are considering taking an optional study abroad year, then please speak to the Student Funding Office.

Award conditions

Receiving Your Loan

King’s College London has partnered with Western Union to enable us to disburse your loan funds as efficiently as possible.

Prior to the release of your loan funds, you will receive an email from Western Union asking you to register the details of a GBP bank account where you can receive your funds.

Please note, we will not be able to disburse funds to you by draft, so you will need to register bank account details to receive your funds.

As part of the communications, we will provide you with clear deadlines by when you will need to have provided Western Union with your bank details – please ensure you read and adhere to these deadlines in order to avoid any delays to the disbursement of your refund.

Information about opening a UK bank account can be found here.

Your loan will be received by the Credit Control Department who use Western Union to convert the USD to GBP. The fees due are then deducted before the remaining funds are made available for your living and study expenses.

Your tuition fees will not be invoiced in the standard two instalments, being deducted instead from your US Loans disbursement. Any deposit that you have paid towards tuition fees will be deducted in full from the first instalment only.

When you apply for your loan at King’s you are giving permission for us to share some of your personal information with Western Union.

Please open your UK bank account as soon as possible after your arrival in the UK. This will allow you to provide your account details to Western union to receive your funds to a GBP account after the fees have been deducted.

The exchange rate used to convert each USD loan disbursement to GBP is the actual exchange rate on the day that the loan funds are received. The exchange rate used by King’s to calculate the COA is for that purpose only and is estimated to allow for the changes in the exchange rate during the year and to account for the US Federal Government fees deducted from your loan funds.

Although each loan instalment is equal in USD, as the exchange rate will be different on each disbursement date, each loan instalment will be a different amount after it has been converted from USD to GBP.

You will be sent a “Notice Prior to Disbursement” for each of your loan disbursements. This will list the estimated exchange rate of your disbursement and amount due back to you in GBP from USD.

Cost of Attendance

The Cost of Attendance is worked out as:

• Postgraduate: £30,872 for living expenses plus tuition fees per annum.
• Undergraduate: £23,092 for living expenses plus tuition fees per annum.

These figures are based on averages calculated on tab 2 on the COA spreadsheet, they are designed to reflect the higher end of spending we would expect of each student group.

The COA is then converted to dollars with an exchange rate of $1.55 USD - £1GBP. This exchange rate is purposefully high so as to take into account any fluctuations in the exchange rate throughout the year. The exchange rate is set for the whole year and will not change throughout although your actual loans will be paid using the current exchange rate at the time of each disbursement.

It is possible for you to have a specially amended COA if you believe you will need extra funds than those allocated to each student group. This would normally be for students with caring responsibilities or disabilities which mean they must spend more money on travel or accommodation. If you have any questions regarding this please contact the Student Funding Office on Funding@kcl.ac.uk

Visa Regulations/Tier 4

You cannot apply for your Visa more than 3 months in advance of the first day of term. This means the earliest you can apply is 27th June 2021.

Once your loan application has been sent in and fully assessed, we will send you a Visa letter electronically detailing the funds available to you.

For more detailed advice and guidance on the Visa applications please check the following link:

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/campuslife/services/student-advice-support/how/immigration/ec.aspx

Deferment of Prior Loans

Provided you are already enrolled at least half-time in-school at King's College London, you can send your in-school deferment forms for previous US loans to the Student Funding Office for completion.

Please be aware that student loan information (and parents of dependent undergraduates with Parent PLUS Loans) will be submitted to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) via the National Clearing House and will be accessible to authorised users of the data system.

Exit Counselling

The US Department of Education requires that all student loan borrowers complete an exit counselling session whenever you drop below half-time enrolment status, withdraw, take a break in study over 180 days or before you complete your course of study. If you withdraw or take a break in study over 180 days, you may have to return some of your US Federal Loan funds.

Following the end of each loan year, you will be contacted by the King's College London and asked to complete exit counselling for the year, regardless of whether you have completed your course of study.

To complete your online Exit Counselling session visit the US Department of Education Student Loans webpage.

Other Sources of Funding

There are private study loans available for US students to meet the cost of attending King's. The loans are mainly based on credit history and therefore interest rates vary.

Students at King’s often apply for the Sallie Mae Smart Option Student Loan, please follow the link for more information.

As you may qualify for US Federal Loans, the terms and conditions of US Federal Loans may be more favourable than the provisions of the private education loans.

The total amount you borrow still cannot exceed your COA less your EFA and less any Federal Loans that you have taken. If you apply for a private study loan, you must email funding@kcl.ac.uk to confirm the amount of loan that you require. Loans can only be disbursed after you have enrolled on an eligible course at King’s.

Please note we are currently not able to process AmeriCorps funding as the funding provider is not able to make payments via EFT and we are not accepting physical cheques.

If you are a North Dakota or New Jersey resident then you may be able to borrow a study loan from your State banks - please contact them directly for more details.

If you need an EIN number for tax purposes then King's College London's EIN number is: 98-0547971.

Leave of Absence Policy

In order to continue to receive your loans throughout your study you must be enrolled at least half time on the course.

If you are planning on leaving your course, either on a break in study or to fully withdraw you must inform the Student Funding Office as soon as possible.

Federal rules require us to handle your loan funds in a specific way, for more information on our leave of absence policy please see the policy attached.

Download Leave of Absence Policy Document

Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy

While studying at King’s in order for you to continue to receive your loans throughout your time here you will need to demonstrate “Satisfactory Academic Progress”. The US dept. of Education requires that we make sure that progress is being made prior to each disbursement of your loan.

We will check with your departmental administrators and tutors to make sure that all progress expected is being made.

For full details on what the satisfactory academic progress requirements are please see the attached policy.

Download Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy Document

Study Abroad

For courses that incorporate a year of study abroad, the partner institution that the student visits must be a participant in the Federal Student Aid programme. Where a student undertakes study abroad at a non-participating institution, or in the USA, then the entire course is not considered eligible for Federal Aid.

If you are planning to take a degree course that incorporates a year abroad, please ensure that you speak to the Student Funding Office.

If you are studying a degree without a compulsory year abroad, but are considering taking an optional study abroad year, then please speak to the Student Funding Office.

Where a programme incorporating a study abroad year is approved for Federal Student Aid, enrolment in a program of study abroad approved for credit by the home school may be considered enrolment in the home school for the purposes of applying for federal student financial aid.

Consumer Information Disclosures

The US Federal Government requires that the school provides the following information to students eligible for US Federal Loans.

Contact Information for Assistance in Obtaining Institutional of Financial Aid Information

Prospective and enrolled students can contact the Student Funding Office for assistance in obtaining the institutional or financial aid information required to be disclosed under HEA Section 485(a)(1), Section 485(f), Section 485(h), and Section 485(j).

Student Financial Aid Information

Students can find information about all the need-based and non-need-based federal, state, local, private and institutional student financial assistance programs available to students who enroll at the school on our Fees and Funding pages.

Our US Loans page provides information regarding:

• terms and conditions of the Title IV HEA (Higher Education Act) loans
• criteria for selecting recipients and determining the award amount
• eligibility requirements and procedures for applying for aid
• methods and frequency of disbursements of aid
• rights and responsibilities of students receiving Title IV HEA student financial aid, including the criteria for continued student eligibility and standards for satisfactory academic progress
• terms of loans received as part of the financial aid package, a sample loan repayment schedule and the necessity for repaying loans (Federal Student Aid repayment information available here.)
• procedures and forms by which students apply for assistance
• a statement that enrolment in a program of study abroad approved for credit by the home school may be considered enrolment in the home school for the purposes of applying for federal student financial aid
• the exit counselling information the University collects and provides to servicers.

Facilities and Services Available to Students with Disabilities

Information about facilities and services available to students with disabilities, including students with intellectual disabilities can be found here

Price of Attendance

For details of price of attendance, please see our Cost of Attendance spreadsheet on this page. A breakdown is provided on the "Basis of Costs" tab.

Refund Policy, Requirements for Withdrawal and Return of Title IV Financial Aid

Please see our Withdrawal and R2T4 Policy on this page

Academic Programme (Educational Programme, Instructional Facilities and Faculty)

For instructional, laboratory, and other physical plant facilities that relate to the academic program, please see the course information on our prospectus:

Undergraduate Courses

Postgraduate Courses

Information about facilities relating to your academic programme, and or faculty and other instructional personnel, can be found on our Departmental web pages.

Plans to improve academic programmes will be communicated to you by your academic department.

Textbook Information

Information regarding the course schedule for the subsequent academic period, information regarding the required recommend textbooks and supplemental materials and information about student numbers will be provided by your Academic Department in their pre-registration information.

Entrance Counselling for Student Loan Borrowers

Prior to the first disbursement, borrowers will be provided with comprehensive information on the terms and conditions of the loan and of the borrower’s responsibilities through entrance counselling. King's require all students to demonstrate that they have completed entrance counselling on the Federal Student Aid website prior to their loan being approved

Privacy of Student Records – Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

The EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR, and associated UK data protection legislation) sets our the legislative framework for managing personal data. This includes student records. Information about King's College London's Data Protection policies can be found on our policy hub.

Full policy documents are available on our Governance site.

When handling your Federal Student Aid request, the Student Funding Office must request specific information from you in order to comply with regulations governing US Federal Student Aid. Any sensitive data will be held in compliance with GDPR and Federal Student Aid regulations

National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS)

Schools that enter into an agreement with a potential student, student, or parent of a student regarding a Title IV, HEA loan are required to inform the student or parent that the loan will be submitted to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), and will be accessible by guaranty agencies, lenders, and schools determined to be authorized users of the data system.

Code of Conduct for Educational Loans

All agents within King's College London responsible for the administration of Federal Student Aid are prohibited from the following:

• Revenue-sharing arrangements with any lender
• Receiving gifts from a lender, a guarantor, or a loan services
• Contracting arrangement providing financial benefit from any lender or affiliate of a lender
• Directing borrowers to particular lenders, or refusing or delaying loan certifications
• Offers of funds for private loans
• Call centre or financial aid office staffing assistance
• Advisory board compensation

US Loans Privacy Notice

Who Are We?

We are the Student Funding Office, part of King’s College London, and are responsible for processing your request to use Federal Student Aid to fund your studies at King’s.

If you need to contact us about this privacy notice, please email funding@kcl.ac.uk

Why do we process your personal information?

As part of the US Loans process we will ask you to provide us with information directly, and we will also access information from your FAFSA application, and information relating to your application for study and your current academic status. We process your personal information for a number of reasons:

• To determine your eligibility for Federal Student Aid
• To originate your loans
• To comply with the external reporting, pre-disbursement checks and annual audit requirements set out by the US Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid regulations
• To enable us to receive and disburse your loan funds with our Credit Control team and our business partners, Western Union

What is our ‘legal basis for processing’?

Our legal basis for processing your personal data is that it is necessary to deliver the agreement we have with you to process your US Loans request.

Do you have to provide your personal information and what are the consequences of not doing so?

You must provide the personal information requested in the US Loan application form in order for us to be able to process your request to use Federal Student Aid to fund your programme of study at King’s. If you do not provide this data, you will not be able to use Federal Student Aid to fund your studies.

Do we share your information with other organisations?

Your personal information may be shared with our business partners Western Union, in order for them to handle loan payments from the US Department of Education and to distribute your loan funds.

Your personal information also will be shared with the US Department of Education in order to originate your loans and fulfil our regulatory obligations as a Title IV Loan provider.

Your personal information may be shared with the firm KPMG, who will carry out an annual audit to ensure that we are in compliance with the US Department of Education’s regulations.

Your personal information may be shared with other departments within King’s College London, such as your academic department and our Credit Control team, in order for us to process your loan payments and carry out mandatory pre-disbursement checks.

What are your rights and who can you contact if you have a concern?

To find out more about how the university deals with your personal information, including your rights and who to contact if you have a concern, please see the university’s core privacy notice at https://www.kcl.ac.uk/terms/privacy.aspx

Application process

Step 1: Complete Your FAFSA

Each student must first complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). FAFSA applications can be completed online a the US Department of Education’s FAFSA website.

Once you have completed the FAFSA, this will generate a Student Aid Report (SAR). You must enter King’s School Code G09085 in order for King’s to have access to your SAR.

After applying, you must check the “Comments about Your Information” section on your SAR. Instructions on resolving any issues are provided under the “What you must do now” section on your SAR and you must ensure that all issues are resolved and you supply any additional documents mentioned in that section (for example, documentation of your citizenship status) when you submit your application.

You will receive an email acknowledgement from King’s that you have entered our school code on your FAFSA. This email will give you some further instructions and will be sent from 6th June onwards.

Please note we will not be able to process your application until you have firmly accepted an unconditional offer of study.

Step 2: Stafford Loan Entrance Counselling

It is a Federal requirement that any US student who receives a Federal Loan should first complete the Entrance Counselling at the US Department of Education’s Student Loans website. Remember that you will be required to take a screen shot or attach the completion certificate to your email application.

King’s require that you complete the counselling each academic year even if you have had a Federal Loan previously.

Step 3: Select Loan Amount Using COA

You will be able to select your COA and the Loan amount you wish to borrow in the “US Loan COA Spreadsheet.” The full breakdown of how the COA is worked out is on the second tab of this spreadsheet.

Tuition fee amounts are available at the online prospectus. Please find your subject area and look at the “Applying, fees and funding” tab under “Key Facts”.

The maximum amount you can borrow will be your COA less any Expected Financial Aid (EFC), which includes bursaries, scholarships, grants and awards. VA Benefits are not counted as aid. Remember that you do not have to borrow the maximum amount available to you, as the College uses the COA to determine a reasonable limit to the amount that you can borrow.

In accordance with US Department of Education Federal Student Aid regulations, the cost of attendance will be the same for students in residence as those for whom part of their course is being delivered remotely in response to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. Students are strongly encouraged to perform their own financial assessment to ensure that the amount of loan they request reflects their individual circumstances.

You can use the “US Loan COA Spreadsheet”, which will also convert the COA to USD and subtract your expected financial aid.

Step 4: Apply For Your loan

If you have firmly accepted an unconditional offer then you can complete your Stafford and PLUS loan applications by e-signing your Master Promissory Note (MPN) at the US Department of Education’s Student Loans website. You must e-sign a new MPN for each loan you take at a foreign school as the multiple loan feature of the MPN only applies to loans whilst at US Schools.

Students apply for a Federal Stafford Loan first and the maximum amount available can be determined from the “Types of Loan” tab below. If additional funds are required after the maximum Stafford has been borrowed, you then apply for a PLUS Loan or your parent applies for a PLUS Loan if you are a dependent undergraduate. Independent undergraduates who need to borrow more than their maximum Stafford will need to apply for a private study loan.

Step 5: Email Your Application To Us

Email all your documents as attachments to funding@kcl.ac.uk with subject header “US Loan Application Documents” followed by your name.

The “US Loan Application Form” has the full list of documents to attach and the full instructions. It will also contain the information on the loan amounts you wish to borrow.

Every application email should have the following attached:

• US Loan Application Form
• Screenshot of Entrance Counselling confirming your name and the date passed
• Stafford MPN,
• Screenshot or document confirming you have completed the Annual Student Loan Acknowledgement (this must show your name)

and, if taking a PLUS Loan too:

• PLUS MPN
• PLUS credit check acceptance (screenshot or PDF of letter)
• If you are going to receive a Parent PLUS Loan, a screenshot or document confirming your parent has completed the Annual Student Loan Acknowledgement (must show the name)

Endorser Addendum (if you needed an endorser for your PLUS Loan because your credit check was not accepted)

Next Steps

It is your responsibility to repay your loan. Exit Counselling will provide you with more details but you can click here for more information.

Once we have received all your loan application documents, we will aim to process and approve all loans within 3 weeks. We will then generate an electronic loan confirmation letter to send you providing details of your loan for the year.

All Federal Loans must be disbursed directly to King’s in four equal instalments for postgraduate students and three equal termly instalments for undergraduates. The dates are listed below:

• 14th October (provided you have enrolled before the start of term)
• 20th January
• 14th April
• 16th June (Postgraduates)

If your course term dates do not match the standard King's academic year due to adjustments made because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the above dates may be changed to reflect your period of enrolment.

Please ensure that you have sufficient funds to cover your expenditure until you receive the refunded portion of your loan for study and living expenses after fees have been deducted.

Below are a series of detailed explanations of issues relating to Federal loans. Everything from regulations, disclosures, Loan types and eligibility are explained in further detail to help you with the process of applying for your Loans.

Prior to each disbursement, you will receive a notification of the funds you will receive and be asked to confirm whether you would like to make any changes to the loan amount. To do this, you will need to complete the US Loans Change Calculator and return it to the Funding Office at funding@kcl.ac.uk.

At the end of your studies, at the end of your loan period, or when the student borrower ceases at least half-time study, King's College London will contact you to request that you completed Federal Student Aid exit counselling. If you fail to complete exit counselling, we will provide you with a copy of the US Department of Education's exit counselling guide.

Disclaimer

The College has tried to give students an early opportunity to begin their research of student funding. Although every effort has been made to ensure that information provided is both helpful to prospective candidates and accurate at the time of its publication, it is possible that some information may be outdated or superseded before the start of the 2022-23 academic year.