Repaying loans while on postdoc fellowship?

[Psychmeout]

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Hello SDN folks!

In September, I will begin my postdoctoral fellowship at a university. Is it possible to receive some form of deferrment since I am on a two-year fellowship? I spoke with my lender and she said that as long as I ask the financial aid office to fill out the forebearance form I should be fine. The confusing part of this is that I am not really a student at the university. I am classified as a fellow and not sure if financial aid can assist me since I am not taking actual classes. Has anyone gone through this process? Any information would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

 

[Cosmo75]

I'm also starting a 2-year post doc this fall. Someone on here said that you can keep your loans in deferment while on fellowship (Jon Snow I believe). I was doing some reading about my loans, and came across this:

https://www.mygreatlakes.org/borrower/content/borrower/deferment_faqs.html

The 3rd row...

I'm not sure what an "approved" fellowship is. I also am not sure if this is specific to my lender or if things will be different depending on who gave you your loans.

I'm on the fence about remaining in deferment. I can afford the payments once my grace period is up, and I'm thinking I want to start paying so I don't rack up 2 more years of interest without making any progress toward the principle.

Just an FYI, due to the economic meltdown consolidation of loans has gotten to be a bigger PITA than in the past. There are considerably fewer lenders that are offering this.

 

[Psychmeout]

I'm also starting a 2-year post doc this fall. Someone on here said that you can keep your loans in deferment while on fellowship (Jon Snow I believe). I was doing some reading about my loans, and came across this:

https://www.mygreatlakes.org/borrower/content/borrower/deferment_faqs.html

The 3rd row...

I'm not sure what an "approved" fellowship is. I also am not sure if this is specific to my lender or if things will be different depending on who gave you your loans.

I'm on the fence about remaining in deferment. I can afford the payments once my grace period is up, and I'm thinking I want to start paying so I don't rack up 2 more years of interest without making any progress toward the principle.

Just an FYI, due to the economic meltdown consolidation of loans has gotten to be a bigger PITA than in the past. There are considerably fewer lenders that are offering this.

Thank you for this information. I am pretty sure that formalized fellowships would qualify (?)

 

[Cosmo75]

I would think so.