Increased Aggregate Loan Limit for Certain Health Professions Students Due to HEAL Phaseout

To assure that your Common Manual remains current, please record this document on your LPM/LPB index, and retain it in Appendix E of your manual.

Effective July 1, 1996, the Department increased the annual loan limits on unsubsidized student loans in the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program and the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program for certain health professions students who are unable to borrow HEAL Program loans because of the phaseout of that program. However, the Department did not, at that time, increase the aggregate loan limits in the FFEL and Direct Loan programs for those borrowers.

It has been brought to the Department’s attention that some eligible health professions students may be unable to borrow the increased annual loan amounts during the 1997-98 academic year unless the aggregate loan limits in the FFEL and Direct Loan programs are increased for those borrowers. To ensure that these students may continue to borrow the increased annual unsubsidized amounts during the 1997-98 academic year and beyond, the Department is increasing the aggregate loan limits in the FFEL and Direct Loan programs for eligible health professions students.

For those health professions students who are eligible to receive the increased annual unsubsidized amounts based on the criteria described in LOSFA LPBs dated September 5, 1996 and January 7, 1997 [Dear Colleague letters GEN-96-14 and GEN-97-4], the new aggregate loan limit for unsubsidized loans will be $189,125 less the aggregate amount of any subsidized loans made to the student.

In order to provide a reasonable aggregate loan limit for those health professions students who qualify for the increased annual unsubsidized amounts, the Department chose an amount that would permit a student to receive the current maximum FFEL Program and Direct Loan Program annual loan limits for four years of undergraduate study and four years of graduate or professional study, plus the increased unsubsidized annual loan limit for the four years of graduate or professional study. The Department believes that the increased aggregate limit of $189,125 will permit eligible health professions students to borrow sufficient amounts under the FFEL and Direct Loan programs to finance their educations.

If you have questions concerning these increased aggregate loan limits, please contact the Customer Support Branch for Student Financial Assistance Programs at 1-800-4ED-SFAP (1-800-433-7327) from 9 am to 5 pm, Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. After hours, you may leave a message for a returned call the next day.

You may also fax your questions to 202-260-4199, or send them via electronic mail to: csb@sfa.ed.gov.

If you send your questions by fax or electronic mail, please be sure to include your name, the name of your institution, and your phone number.