Section 5: Financial Aid:

Finishing the Program and Repaying the Loans

Federal regulations require students to complete exit counseling to help students manage their student loans after graduation and to understand their responsibilities and repayment obligations. Student borrowers who are graduating, leaving school, or who drop below half-time enrollment are required to complete exit counseling. Exit counseling is completed online at StudentAid.gov. Students will be notified via email to both their Walden University email account and their personal email account when they are required to complete exit counseling.  Additionally, the U.S. Department of Education has compiled the Exit Counseling Guide for Federal Student Loan Borrowers in order to assist borrowers.

The timing to complete Exit Counseling is:

• Student is graduating.
• Student is on a leave of absence (course-based program).
• Student did not return from a leave of absence (Tempo Learning® program).
• Student is not enrolled at least half-time (6 credits undergraduate or 3 credits graduate).
• Student did not complete all the courses student was scheduled to complete in the current term/payment period.

The federal government offers several repayment plan options. Some of the options carry a lower monthly payment than the standard repayment, but choosing these other options extends the term of the loan and increases the total amount of interest paid during the life of the loan.

Before choosing a repayment plan, students can use the Loan Simulator to determine which plans they may be eligible for and see estimates on how much they would pay monthly and overall.

For Washington State residents seeking information and resources about student loan repayment or seeking to submit a complaint relating to your student loans or student loan servicer, please visit Washington Student Loan Advocate or contact the Student Loan Advocate via email.

Under certain circumstances, an enrolled borrower is entitled to have the repayment of a loan deferred. During deferment, the borrower is not required to pay the loan principal, and interest on subsidized loans does not accrue. After the in-school deferment, the borrower may be entitled to one grace period of 6 consecutive months. The date that the deferment starts may affect the length of the grace period.

Students who have a valid Social Security Number on file at Walden will have their enrollment here reported and updated monthly with the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). The NSC communicates electronically with the federal and nonfederal loan servicers to ensure that students who remain enrolled maintain the in-school deferments for which they are eligible.

Students who seek to defer repayment of their prior student loans and do not want to rely on the electronic exchange with the NSC must fill out forms to have their enrollment status verified. Students must get the forms from their lender(s) and send them directly to:

Walden University
Office of the Registrar
Attn: Loan Deferment
7080 Samuel Morse Drive 
Columbia, MD 21046
Fax: 1-410-209-8044

The U.S. Department of Education will not accept incomplete deferment forms. Please make sure to complete the required borrower information section as it appears on the deferment form.

If a student has more than one loan holder, they must complete a separate deferment form for each lender/servicer. Students can log in to StudentAid.gov to determine the loan servicer for their loans.

Note: Any deferment paperwork sent to Walden’s Office of the Registrar for enrollment verification is forwarded to the NSC on a weekly basis.