Hi all! For anyone in the HDC program or thinking of entering into the counseling profession, Professor Andy Finch just sent this information out. Peabody has some amazing scholarships available for entering grad students, and there are always stipends for teaching assistants and research assistants. My point is that a good bit of your tuition can be funded without having to turn to student loans. But for those of us that still needed some extra assistance, there seems to be help coming our way. This information came out last year, but they seem to have added guidelines. Hope this is helpful!
Professional counselors who have incurred debt via federal student loans may qualify for certain new loan repayment and loan forgiveness programs. Income-Based Repayment (IBR) is a new way to make your federal student loan payments more manageable, starting in July 2009. Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a new program for federal student loan borrowers who work in certain kinds of jobs. It will forgive remaining debt after 10 years of eligible employment and qualifying loan payments. (During those 10 years, the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan can help keep your loan payments affordable.) Thirdly, professional school counselors working in certain low-income schools may be eligible for the “Loan Forgiveness for Service in Areas of National Need” program. Under this program, the federal government will forgive up to $2,000 in Federal Stafford Loan or Federal Direct Stafford Loan debt, for each school year or calendar year of full-time employment in area of national need, up to 5 years, for a maximum of $10,000 per eligible borrower.
Details…
http://www.ibrinfo.org/files/IBRinfo_brochure.pdf
Also, ACA has published a document entitled: Student Loan Forgiveness Programs for Counselors (August 2008), which is available in the members-only area of the ACA website. Here’s that link: http://www.counseling.org/PublicPolicy/TP/ResourcesAndReports/CT2.aspx
-Kristina DePue
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