Updates Surrounding Financial Aid and COVID-19

- Secretary DeVos Suspends Federal Student Loan Payments (upon request by student), Waives Interest During National Emergency under certain circumstances. Read here for more details: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USED/bulletins/2823e37?fbclid=IwAR3mD6rleu_bXwqTLCQMnKXHPgp4ixm47toymT6LMLD7Hnb-Dvv-PF4l5EA

-Federal Work-Study update: Tulane is currently reviewing the guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Education concerning the possibility of continued payment of FWS wages. As soon as the Financial Aid Office is informed of Tulane’s decisions on whether or not unearned FWS wages for will be available, we will update this posting, so please check back for an update.

-Additional Aid due to COVID-19 travel: Your financial aid budget already includes a travel allowance for expenses associated with your return home for the spring 2020 semester, so no additional cost adjustment is expected due the timing of your return home occurring earlier than expected. However, please check with your financial aid office to see if you have any other remaining eligibility (fall 2019/spring 2020 loan increase due by April 15, 2020).

- Federal student loan interest rates are set as fixed rates to be effective for all loans disbursed from July 1 through June 30 each year. Details regarding the rates for federal loans disbursed during the current 2019-2020 year can be found here: https://financialaid.tulane.edu/types-of-aid/loans/federal-direct-subsid.... The latest decrease in interest rates by the Federal Reserve may ONLY impact the effective rate on new loans that are disbursed in the upcoming 2020-2021 year, and the U.S. Department of Education will announce sometime in late May/early June the federal student loan interest rates effective as of 7/1/2020 through 6/30/2021. We fully expect for the loan rates to be lower than current rates and we will provide updated information when it becomes available.