NIH Loan Repayment Program

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oneday1 said:
Got email for financial review on 5/18. How good of an indicator is this for funding? I've been told that if it makes it to this point the odds are good but I don't want to get my hopes up prematurely
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Financial review is a good sign. I just received financial review for my 3rd renewal. Every time my application was selected for financial review, the LRP was funded. My first application was not funded (and didn't review financial review). Good luck!
 
OKPsychTrauma said:
It was under my impression that financial review would not be required if it was a renewal. Any guidance/clarification? Thanks!!
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It's my first renewal so not sure if it's normal to ask for financial review for renewal applications. They essentially ask for a recent statement of all remaining loans (similar to what we send for LRP payment verification).
 
Does anyone know how they decide how much to fund if you are selected? Is it dependent on your loan burden so that if you have >100k they would give you the 50k/year, or do they sometimes offer less? I'd be thankful for any amount, I'm just curious and haven't been able to find a clear answer!
 
krrobin said:
Does anyone know how they decide how much to fund if you are selected? Is it dependent on your loan burden so that if you have >100k they would give you the 50k/year, or do they sometimes offer less? I'd be thankful for any amount, I'm just curious and haven't been able to find a clear answer!
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Sometimes they offer only one year of LRP instead of two. So yes, the amount can be less.
 
omega007 said:
It's my first renewal so not sure if it's normal to ask for financial review for renewal applications. They essentially ask for a recent statement of all remaining loans (similar to what we send for LRP payment verification).
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It's normal to ask for financial review for renewal applications. I'm halfway through my first renewal and they asked for those documents when it was processed last year, just like with the new applications. Seems silly since they already have that info every quarter but they want it anyway.
 
OKPsychTrauma said:
Sometimes they offer only one year of LRP instead of two. So yes, the amount can be less.
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Just putting this info here again incase future applications need it. When you apply and your institution verifies your salary, they can verify it for one year or two years. They must verify it for two years in order to be considered for a two-year LRP. That doesn't mean you'll get a two-year LRP but if they only verify one year of salary you can only get a one-year LRP. I had to specifically ask my institution to verify two years worth.
 
Has anyone heard about financial review from NIA? I submitted my first health disparities renewal app, but haven't heard anything back yet at all.
 
Scholar12345 said:
Has anyone heard about financial review from NIA? I submitted my first health disparities renewal app, but haven't heard anything back yet at all.
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A friend of mine did health disparities/NIA and she heard last week. Although I'm starting to feel like they aren't letting folks know by institute... I could be wrong.
 
epiguy7 said:
Just putting this info here again incase future applications need it. When you apply and your institution verifies your salary, they can verify it for one year or two years. They must verify it for two years in order to be considered for a two-year LRP. That doesn't mean you'll get a two-year LRP but if they only verify one year of salary you can only get a one-year LRP. I had to specifically ask my institution to verify two years worth.
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Is there a way to know if they verified one or two years?
 
SWPsych100 said:
A friend of mine did health disparities/NIA and she heard last week. Although I'm starting to feel like they aren't letting folks know by institute... I could be wrong.
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Thanks so much for this info! Could you say a little more about what you mean when you say: "Although I'm starting to feel like they aren't letting folks know by institute... I could be wrong." What makes you think this? Thank you so much!
 
Scholar12345 said:
Thanks so much for this info! Could you say a little more about what you mean when you say: "Although I'm starting to feel like they aren't letting folks know by institute... I could be wrong." What makes you think this? Thank you so much!
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I had a couple of friends asked for financial review by the same institute about a month apart.
 
allaboutthepoo said:
does your project period end in 11/30/2023? does that have any indication on whether or not its a 1 vs 2 year award?
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My LRP renewal application lists my project end date as 11/30/2023 although I applied for 2 year renewal (should end 06/2024). Not really sure what this means. Do they ever fund 1.5 years (6 quarters) for renewals?
 
epiguy7 said:
Just putting this info here again incase future applications need it. When you apply and your institution verifies your salary, they can verify it for one year or two years. They must verify it for two years in order to be considered for a two-year LRP. That doesn't mean you'll get a two-year LRP but if they only verify one year of salary you can only get a one-year LRP. I had to specifically ask my institution to verify two years worth.
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From what I can tell, all new awards are two years per the website, but renewals can be one or two years. I was more curious about whether or not they would ever, for example, elect to offer 20k/year instead of the max based on your debt level. From reading online though I believe it's kind of an automatic 1/4 of the debt that's eligible (up to 50k/year).
 
I am a first-time, extramural applicant to the LRP. Here is my general timeline, in case it is helpful for others: 12/09/2021: assignment to NIAID; 05/10/2022: council review completed; 05/18/2022: request for loan documentation; 05/24/2022 - financial vetting process notification (approved!).

I am not sure when the NIAID generally makes final funding decisions. Does anyone here have an idea? Staying hopeful. Good luck, all!
 
krrobin said:
From what I can tell, all new awards are two years per the website, but renewals can be one or two years. I was more curious about whether or not they would ever, for example, elect to offer 20k/year instead of the max based on your debt level. From reading online though I believe it's kind of an automatic 1/4 of the debt that's eligible (up to 50k/year).
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No, I've never heard of them offering random amounts like that. There's a calculator on their main website you can use to see how much you'd get and they follow that exactly. The only limit is the limits per award which I believe is currently $100k, it got upped from $50k a few years ago. During your initial 2-year award they pay off half your loans, that's standard. The renewals are a bit more confusing as they pay off half of your loans per year of renewal. So if you have $100k left during a 2-year renewal, they'd pay off $50k over the first year, then another $25k over the second year.
 
Heard from NIA on 5/17 about financial review for a new application, uploaded documents and had to correct documents per email on 5/24. Waiting to hear if corrected documents are actually correct 🙂
 
After the financial review, how long does it usually take to hear the final decision?

I'm a first-time applicant to NIDA. Had complete review status change on 4/11 -> Loan info request on 5/16. They're still reviewing my loan info.
 
md_mph said:
After the financial review, how long does it usually take to hear the final decision?

I'm a first-time applicant to NIDA. Had complete review status change on 4/11 -> Loan info request on 5/16. They're still reviewing my loan info.
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In my experience (I'm on 3rd renewal), after financial review was requested/cleared in May/June, I didn't get official notice until early to mid August. Good luck!
 
Hi all, I received an email saying I was selected for financial review on May 13th. I submitted all of the documents by May 23rd. My status still says "Council Review Completed" with a date of April 20th. Is that what I should expect? I was hoping to see something clearly stating my financial documents had been received.
 
mindfulmutant said:
I am a first-time, extramural applicant to the LRP. Here is my general timeline, in case it is helpful for others: 12/09/2021: assignment to NIAID; 05/10/2022: council review completed; 05/18/2022: request for loan documentation; 05/24/2022 - financial vetting process notification (approved!).

I am not sure when the NIAID generally makes final funding decisions. Does anyone here have an idea? Staying hopeful. Good luck, all!
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I am just updating this to say that I received a message "Institutional Business Official Salary Verification Confirmation" today. Did anyone receive this, either before or after financial vetting? I thought salaries were somehow verified during the application, but I suppose they have to be re-verified if they have changed since then.
 
Jennylee2010 said:
Hi all, I received an email saying I was selected for financial review on May 13th. I submitted all of the documents by May 23rd. My status still says "Council Review Completed" with a date of April 20th. Is that what I should expect? I was hoping to see something clearly stating my financial documents had been received.
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Hi Jenny. When I submitted my financial documents, I called the LRP information center to ask about their receipt, and they pointed me toward the Available Actions > View LRP Documents link, where I could verify if they had all been uploaded myself. I only received an email notification once the vetting process was completed, but not when they received the documents. My status has also not changed from "Council Review Completed" (5/10/2022). I hope this helps, and good luck!
 
mindfulmutant said:
Hi Jenny. When I submitted my financial documents, I called the LRP information center to ask about their receipt, and they pointed me toward the Available Actions > View LRP Documents link, where I could verify if they had all been uploaded myself. I only received an email notification once the vetting process was completed, but not when they received the documents. My status has also not changed from "Council Review Completed" (5/10/2022). I hope this helps, and good luck!
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Thank you for the reply! Shortly after I asked I got an email with an issue on one of the documents I submitted. I resubmitted, and now the documents say approved in the system.
 
Just got notice that my LRP from NIGMS was renewed! My era commons status never changed. I just got an email.

And to answer someone’s question re: the date of the award ending in November - mine also said that, but the renewal is for 2 years!
 
mindfulmutant said:
I am just updating this to say that I received a message "Institutional Business Official Salary Verification Confirmation" today. Did anyone receive this, either before or after financial vetting? I thought salaries were somehow verified during the application, but I suppose they have to be re-verified if they have changed since then.
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Hi again! I was cc-ed on an email on Friday to the business official saying I am still being considered and asking them to confirm my current salary. This was just a few days after my financial documents were approved.
 
mindfulmutant said:
I am just updating this to say that I received a message "Institutional Business Official Salary Verification Confirmation" today. Did anyone receive this, either before or after financial vetting? I thought salaries were somehow verified during the application, but I suppose they have to be re-verified if they have changed since then.
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I received the same email (IBO Salary Verification Confirmation) before I submitted my loan documentation. I'm guessing they must batch send the IBO salary request, SSN request, and loan documentation request at the same time. Guessing my IBO must have just been more timely than I was.
 
Praise Jesus! I got an email 8/1 AM stating I was selected for a NIDA Clinical Research LRP! This is my second attempt at a new award. I feel flabbergasted!

For future applicants, below are my dates:
11/18/21 - Application submitted (I'd highly recommend submitting at least 1-2 days earlier; I had a terrifying ASSIST-related tech snafu that nearly prevented my submission)
4/11/22 - Status changed to "Council review completed"
5/16/22 - Loan info request received (I'd recommend requesting your loan info from servicers right after you submit your application in November. I had another terrifying experience - loan servicer said they couldn't find my master promissory note! After a million calls & emails to my loan servicer, my alma mater's loan office, StudentAid, and FOIA, by Jesus' amazing grace I found a supervisor at a previous servicer who was willing to access it from a central loan system even though I'm not their customer anymore)
5/27/22 - Loan documentation submitted
6/16/22 - More loan info requested
6/17 & 6/21/22 - Second round of loan documentation submitted
7/1/22 - Received confirmation that loan documents approved
8/1/22 - Notification of award via email (FYI nothing on the grant banner changes. If you open the application, the notification is listed under correspondence, with the dates listed out of order - this is how I initially found out about the award).
 
md_mph said:
Praise Jesus! I got an email 8/1 AM stating I was selected for a NIDA Clinical Research LRP! This is my second attempt at a new award. I feel flabbergasted!

For future applicants, below are my dates:
11/18/21 - Application submitted (I'd highly recommend submitting at least 1-2 days earlier; I had a terrifying ASSIST-related tech snafu that nearly prevented my submission)
4/11/22 - Status changed to "Council review completed"
5/16/22 - Loan info request received (I'd recommend requesting your loan info from servicers right after you submit your application in November. I had another terrifying experience - loan servicer said they couldn't find my master promissory note! After a million calls & emails to my loan servicer, my alma mater's loan office, StudentAid, and FOIA, by Jesus' amazing grace I found a supervisor at a previous servicer who was willing to access it from a central loan system even though I'm not their customer anymore)
5/27/22 - Loan documentation submitted
6/16/22 - More loan info requested
6/17 & 6/21/22 - Second round of loan documentation submitted
7/1/22 - Received confirmation that loan documents approved
8/1/22 - Notification of award via email (FYI nothing on the grant banner changes. If you open the application, the notification is listed under correspondence, with the dates listed out of order - this is how I initially found out about the award).
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I ran into the missing promissory note issue a few years ago, with my initial LRP application/award. For anyone else encountering this, the magic phrase is "the Dept. of Education ombuds' office said I do not have to pay the loan if you cannot produce the promissory note" - that's word-for-word what the DoE told me to say. If your loan servicer cannot produce a promissory note, then they cannot prove you owe anything. They will move heaven and earth to find the promissory note.
 
So it looks like there was a massive outpouring of folks announcing LRP awards from NHLBI yesterday on Twitter, mostly pediatric and clinical. Does that mean those of us who didn't hear back probably didn't get it? I submitted a health disparities renewal...Haven't heard anything, and my application status is listed "Council review completed." But weirdly my last LRP contract is still marked as active in my awardee portal despite it technically ending on 6/30? Lol the mixed messages are killing me (even though I'm still assuming I didn't get it).
 
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