Military Withdrawal

With the National Guard and Ready Reserves being called to active duty and U.S. troops being deployed or reassigned to other duty stations, student loan repayment may be one of the issues on the minds of soldiers and their families.

To avoid becoming delinquent on your student loans, consider the following tips:

• Make sure you have information on all your student loans. Student loans can be hard to keep track of, especially if you attended different schools or used different lenders or loan programs. Review your records, contact your school(s), and locate all your student loans.
• Consider a deferment or forbearance. Your deployment, activation, or reassignment may create a situation in which you need to delay repayment of your student loans. Deferment and forbearance are two important tools that allow you to adjust or postpone your loan payments. Your lender may grant a forbearance without a specific request from you if they have documentation showing you are subject to a military mobilization.
• Provide your loan holder with authorization to correspond with your family or representative while you’re away from home. Most loan holders will require written authorization to speak to someone other than you about your loan.
• If you are required to continue making payments, consider electronic payment options, such as online payments or electronic debit. Electronic debit is a service that allows your bank to automatically deduct your monthly loan payments from your checking or saving account and forward it to your loan holder for processing. Some loan holders even offer interest rate discounts if you use electronic debit!
• Will this deployment impact your family budget? Calculate a budget online to determine how you will manage your money during this time.

The U.S. Department of Education has issued guidance about loan relief for student loan borrowers. Provisions apply to borrowers who:

• are members of the National Guard or Ready Reserves who are called to active duty for more than 30 days.
  OR
• are active members of the Armed Forces who are reassigned to other duty stations for more than days 30 days.

If you have loans in an in-school, grace period, or in-school deferment status, you may have that loan status extended for up to three years during your active duty service. If you have defaulted student loans, you may not be required to make payments during your active duty service.

• If your loans are in repayment status, you may be granted a deferment for up to one year during your active duty service. You continue to be responsible for interest that accrues on your student loans while on active duty (though you can choose to have the interest added to your loans to be paid later).

Contact your loan holder for more information. Also, you may want to inquire if your military unit has someone designated to assist you with student loan questions.

Lender Contacts by State

• IL - Lender Code: 829771 - Phone Number: 800.255.4943
• MI - Lender Code: 833077 - Phone Number: 800.660.2875
• MN - Lender Code: 821728 - Phone Number: 800.247.1092 ext. 8100
• WI - Lender Code: 822135 - Phone Number: 800.357.0185

Military Tuition Assistance Return Unearned Funds

Minnesota State University has a policy that returns any unearned tuition assistance (TA) funds on a proportional basis through at least the 60 percent portion of the period for which the funds were provided to the military Service Branch.

Schedule of returns is as follows:

• 15-week Course Withdraw submitted:
  • Before or during week 1: 100% return
  • During weeks 2-6: 75% return
  • During weeks 7-8: 50% return (50% of course is completed)
  • During week 9: 10% return (60% of course is completed)
  • During weeks 10-15: 0% return
• 11-week Course Withdraw submitted, the 60% of course completed at 6.6 weeks
• 8-week Course Withdraw submitted, the 60% of course completed at 4.8 weeks
• 5-week Course Withdraw submitted, the 60% of course completed at 3 weeks
• 4-week Course Withdraw submitted, the 60% of course completed at 2.4 weeks
• 3-week Course Withdraw submitted, the 60% of course completed at 1.8 weeks

As an institution, we will bill the DOD after 60% of the semester has passed to reduce the amount of incorrect TA funds being disbursed by the DOD to MSUM. We will only bill for the amount the student earned given their enrollment and taking into account any relevant withdrawals.

Eligible recipients’ enrollment will be monitored each term by MSUM's Certifying Official, the determination of percentage earned/unearned TA will be done by MSUM Certifying Official, and DOD billing is handled by Business Services.

DOD Voluntary Education Partnership Frequently Asked Questions