The Office of Financial Aid

Code of Ethics for VCOM Financial Aid

In order to ensure VCOM maintains the highest ethical standards, VCOM as an institution and/or any person involved in providing loan information or assistance to students WILL NOT:

Enter into any revenue sharing arrangement with lenders
Accept gifts from lenders, guarantors, and loan servicers
Receive compensation for consulting services to lenders
Assign lenders to first time borrowers
Refuse to certify a loan based on the borrower’s choice of lender
Participate in opportunity pools with lenders
Accept borrower benefits for students or VCOM as a ploy for marketing
Permit lender staff to assume school call center or financial aid office staff functions
Serve as advisory member or board members for compensation from any lending agency responsible for student loans to VCOM students
Accept philanthropic contributions that are made in exchange for loan volume.

Statement of Ethical Principles

The primary goal of the Office of Financial Aid is to help students achieve their educational potential by providing appropriate financial counseling and resources.

Our commitment:

To help remove financial barriers for our students and make every effort to assist students with financial need.
To be aware of the issues affecting students and advocate their interests at the institutional, state, and federal levels.
To educate students and families through quality consumer information.
To respect the dignity and protect the privacy of students, and ensure the confidentiality of student records and personal circumstances.
To ensure equity by applying all need analysis formulas consistently across the institution's full population of student financial aid applicants.
To provide services that do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, age, or economic status.
To recognize the need for continued professional development and educational opportunities for our staff.
To commit to the highest level of ethical behavior and refrain from any conflicts of interest or perceptions thereof.
To maintain the highest level of professionalism.

Applying for Financial Aid

Financial aid is available to qualified students to assist in paying for expenses directly related to the cost of their medical education. Borrowing money from these programs is a privilege, not a right. Students must remember that a loan is not a gift or grant; it must be repaid. Student loans are to be used only for the student’s education-related and personal living expenses. Over-borrowing can cause a student to default on a loan. Default is the failure of the borrower to make an installment payment when due or the failure to meet other terms of the promissory note. Defaulted loans are reported to national credit agencies, thus affecting credit ratings and future ability to borrow money. If a student’s loan goes into default, the College, the organization that holds the loan and the federal government can all take action to recover the money. The federal government and loan agencies can also deny a school’s participation in the student loan programs or charge students higher fees if the default rate is high. So, for protection of a student’s personal credit rating and the school’s ability to continue to provide financial aid to future students, VCOM encourages students to learn basic budgeting techniques, keep track of the amount they are borrowing and borrow wisely.

VCOM offers the following options for financial aid assistance:

Information to students regarding scholarship opportunities;
Loans through the federal Stafford and Graduate PLUS Loan programs;
Private (Alternate) loans obtained through lending agencies; and
Offering scholarship resources.

An application for applying for financial aid as well as other pertinent forms and information can be found on the VCOM website at www.vcom.vt.edu/financial . Students need to follow these steps if they are interested in receiving financial assistance:

Complete a VCOM application for financial aid. This form can be obtained from the VCOM website's Financial Aid section at www.vcom.vt.edu/financial. Print out the application as well as any other applicable forms, complete the forms and mail them to VCOM Office of Financial Aid, 2265 Kraft Drive, Blacksburg, VA 24060 or to VCOM Office of Financial Aid, 364 Magnolia Street , Spartanburg, SC 29303.
Complete and submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to the Department of Education. The electronic FAFSA form is available on the web at www.fafsa.edu.gov.
VCOM’s school code is G37093 for both campuses. Students must enter this number in the section of the FAFSA that requests the school code in order for VCOM to receive a copy of the Student Aid Report (SAR) from the Department of Education after the FAFSA is processed. The Student Aid Report is necessary for the Office of Financial Aid to be able to calculate financial aid eligibility.
Sign a promissory note with the lender of your choice to open a line of credit for the federal Stafford Loans as well as other loans students may require. This step is completed after the Financial Aid Award Packet is received and the student has applied for the loans through a lender.
Provide verification of the students’ citizenship status, if requested.
Provide any further information that is communicated as being required to evaluate financial need. Students must be sure to respond quickly to any requests for additional information.

In order to qualify for some loans, students must have a good credit record and be credit worthy. Lending agencies vary in the information they use to calculate credit scores. It is the student’s responsibility to assure their credit worthiness for borrowing funds and to resolve directly with the lender or a credit bureau any issues regarding their credit report or credit score.

Determining Financial Need

After the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form has been processed, students will receive a Student Aid Report (SAR) from the Central Processor at the Department of Education.

Students will need to verify the information on the SAR to make sure it is correct and to provide any corrections or additional information that is necessary. For the VCOM-Virginia location, students must designate VCOM’s school code, G37093, on the form so that VCOM will receive information electronically; for the VCOM-Carolinas location, students should designate the VCOM-Carolina school code, E01970.

Upon receipt of the electronic report from the Department of Education, VCOM’s Office of Financial Aid will begin to determine the student’s eligibility for financial aid. Eligibility amounts are based upon the amount calculated in the formula developed by Congress to establish the Estimated Family Contribution (EFC), which takes into account the student’s income, family’s income, assets, taxes and basic living expenses. The EFC may not exactly match the amount the student and his/her family actually contribute toward educational expenses, but it is used to calculate the need for financial assistance.

The VCOM Office of Financial Aid calculates the amount of loans needed by subtracting the Expected Family Contribution (EFC), scholarship funds, and any other amounts of outside aid from the Cost of Attendance. The Cost of Attendance includes expenses directly related to education such as tuition, fees, books and supplies, an allowance for transportation and living expenses. Any amount remaining after scholarships and outside aid is deducted, is the amount of financial assistance you will need to cover your educational expenses.

Awarding Financial Aid

After determining a student’s financial need and eligibility, the next step in the process is the Financial Aid Award Notification, which is sent to the students’ VCOM email address. VCOM will send a Financial Aid Award Notification email detailing the financial assistance that is being offered to students who are accepted for enrollment. Students need to respond by any deadline in the Award notification as to whether they wish to accept, revise or decline the offer. Revisions to the Award will need to be approved by the VCOM Office of Financial Aid and verified. Students will need to respond even if they are declining financial assistance.

Loan Information

Many students need assistance with their educational expenses. Scholarships are the first consideration for financial assistance, however, there is a lot of competition for scholarships and sometimes the amount awarded is not enough to cover the cost of attending school entirely. The second choice for covering these expenses is through loans. One type of loan program is the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) which is a government loan program that includes three types of financial assistance to students for educational expenses, the federal Subsidized Stafford Loan, the federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loan, and the federal Graduate PLUS Loan.

Federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loans

These federally guaranteed loans are administered and processed by the United States Department of Education through the Direct Lending Program. The interest rate is fixed at 6.8% and will not change throughout the life of the loan.

A student must file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and a VCOM Financial Aid Application to be considered for a Stafford loan

Award of this loan is not need-based. Interest begins accruing on the federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loan on the date of disbursement and continues to accrue even while a student is enrolled in school and during other periods of deferment or forbearance.

The maximum annual Unsubsidized Stafford Loan amount available to medical students is $47,167.

A credit check is not required for approval of Stafford Loans.

NOTE: The total maximum aggregate principal debt a medical student can have from all federal Stafford Loans is $224,000.

Federal Graduate PLUS Loan

This federal educational loan is administered by the United States Department of Education through the Direct Lending Program. The interest rate is fixed at 7.9% and will not change throughout the life of the loan. Interest starts to accrue on the date of disbursement and continues to accrue even while a student is enrolled in school and during other periods of deferment or forbearance.

Eligibility for the federal Graduate PLUS Loan is calculated after eligibility for the federal Stafford Loan is subtracted from the student’s Cost of Attendance (COA). The maximum annual federal Graduate PLUS Loan amount available to medical students is equal to the COA minus all other aid.

A credit check by the Department of Education is required for approval.

Lenders

VCOM does not endorse or promote and particular lenders. It is the student’s right and responsibility to choose their lender from any of the FFELP participating lenders. VCOM does maintain some comparative information on lenders on the VCOM website at www.vcom.vt.edu.

It is recommended that a student research the available loan options from multiple lenders before choosing a lender. Students should carefully keep track of all the money they borrow and be aware of the amount that will have to be repaid when interest is added.

Financial Aid Entrance and Exit Counseling

Entrance and Exit Counseling provide borrowers with important information about their obligations and debt management.

Scholarship Information

A partial list of scholarships available to medical students (with contact information) is available through the Office of Financial Aid website at: www.vcom.vt.edu/financial. Throughout the year, the Office of Financial Aid will provide updates when they are available to this information.

Loan Repayment

Several options for repayment and deferment of payment of loans are available to students. Listed below is a brief description of the different options:

Level Repayment: Student repays loan in equal monthly installments over a ten-year period. This is, in general, the least expensive way to repay your loans because the amount of accumulated interest and the length of repayment are kept to a minimum.

Graduated Repayment: Monthly payments begin small and increase over time. Since the initial payments are applied mostly to the interest and not to the principal, in the long-run the borrower pays more through this method. However, it does appeal to some borrowers who need more time to adjust to making the monthly payments.

Income Sensitive Repayment: Payments can be adjusted to the borrower’s current annual income. Payments are based on a percentage of your gross monthly income, so the plan must be renewed each year. The total amount of interest the borrower pays may be substantially higher than the other methods of repayment.

Extended Repayment: This option is available to new borrowers who accumulate outstanding loans totaling more than $30,000. A fixed annual or graduated repayment amount is established and the repayment period extended for up to 25 years.

Loan Deferment

Borrowers who qualify may defer (postpone) principal payments on their federal loans. Private loans are never eligible for deferments. The following are some of the deferment options available:

• In-School - Borrower attends school at an eligible institution at least half-time.
• Unemployment - Borrower is seeking employment, but has not been able to secure full-time employment.
• Rehabilitation Training - Borrower participates in a full-time rehabilitation training program.
• Graduate Fellowship - Borrower is studying full-time in an eligible graduate fellowship program.
• Economic Hardship - Borrower is experiencing an unusual economic hardship.

Loan Forbearance

Temporary, unexpected hardships that do not qualify for a deferment may be approved by a lender for forbearance. This is at the discretion of the lender and is usually for a temporary situation. Forbearances may be available on all loans, both federal and private. Principal payments are postponed or reduced, but interest continues to accrue. Interest may be paid during forbearance or it can be capitalized at the end of the forbearance period.

Loan Consolidation

A borrower with multiple federal loans or multiple lenders for federal loans may want to consider the option of loan consolidation to help in managing their finances. Loan consolidation combines all the federal loans into one loan and stretches the repayment period from ten years to up to 30 years. This process can significantly reduce your monthly loan payments, however, extending the term of your loan increases the total interest you accrue and the total amount that you are required to repay. Additionally, federal loans that are already at fixed interest rates may not be good candidates for consolidation because the consolidation interest rate calculation will round the rate up to the nearest 1/8th of a percent, resulting in more interest charges over the life of the loan.

VCOM College Catalog