There’s a good chance you are a student who is struggling with student loan debt. Student loan debts are considered to be one of the greatest burdens you can carry. However, with the drastic increase in the number of universities and student loans, is a surge in the number of ways you can handle debt. This includes student loan refinancing and student loan forgiveness.
Income-driven repayment plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) seem to be sought after. However, you need to have a minimum of ten years of payments before you can qualify for loan forgiveness. Fortunately, there are grants to pay off student loans.
Which are the Best Grants to pay off Student Loans?
Here are some grants that may benefit you:
Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program
This Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program is known to take care of close to 85% of the student loan debt of registered nurses, nurse faculty, and advanced practitioner nurses. You must first serve in a Critical Shortage Facility (CFS) to ensure you qualify for this repayment program. You can also work in an accredited nursing school. You can expect Nurse Corps to pay 60% of your debt for two years if your application for this grant is approved. You also have the option to extend this payment period by a year and have another 25% of debt paid for.
Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program
The Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program is known to forgive a maximum of $17,500 of a teacher’s student debt on certain loan types that qualify. To ensure you are eligible, you must work in a low-income educational agency or school that is eligible for this, for a minimum of five years.
You must also have a bachelor’s degree, accompanied by a full state certification as a teacher. As mentioned, you need to work for at least five years, so you cannot send in applications until you have taught for five years.
National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Programs
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Loan Repayment Programs are funded programs that can repay a maximum of $35,000 every year to clear the debt of medical researchers in specific fields. There are a total of eight programs for researchers, five for researchers who that NIH does not employ, and three for the researchers who are employed by NIH.
The programs for researchers who are not employed by the NIH are extramural programs, and those that are meant for NIH employees are intramural.
The extramural programs are Pediatric research, Clinical research, Contraception and infertility research, Health disparities research, and clinical research for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. The intramural programs include General research, Aids research, and
clinical research for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.To ensure that you are eligible, your loans must be at least 20% of your base salary.
Department of Justice Attorney Student Loan Program
It is no secret that law school is ridiculously expensive. While you can get paid well after you have established yourself, chances are you will be crippled by student debt until then. Fortunately, there are a few grants to help law students through this ordeal. One of those grants is the Attorney Student Loan Program (ASLRP).
The ASLRP will pay $6,000 of the student loan every year for three years. You need to have a minimum of $10,000 of student loan debt to qualify for this grant. Additionally, you need to commit to serving in the Department of Justice for a minimum of three years.
Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant
The Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant compensates the children of soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan while defending the US. You may be eligible for this grant if you were under the age of 24 or were in university at least part-time at the time of the death of your loved one in battle.
Student Loan Refinancing
As you can see above, there are numerous grants that you can choose from. Student loan refinancing is another option you can entertain in your pursuit to ease the burden of handling student loan debt.
Student loan refinancing allows you to get a new loan at different, hopefully, favorable rates of interest. You can usually refinance both your federal and your private loans.
Should you go for Student Loan Refinancing?
Ask yourself the following questions to determine if student loan refinancing works for you:
Do you have High-Interest Student loans?
Did you borrow a Private Student Loan
Private loan lenders tend to have their own set of rules and criteria that may not always work for you. Student loan refinancing should help you save some money.
Do you have an Impeccable Credit history?
If this is the case, why not go for student loan refinancing. Student loan refinancing can improve your chances of getting student loans at ideal interest rates, which is a privilege most borrowers do not have due to a weak credit score.
In conclusion, there are a variety of options that you can consider to simplify the process of student loan debt repayment. Be sure to get in touch with a loan servicer like MyFedLoan and plan accordingly.
