The Federal Perkins Loan Program provided money for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students with financial need. Perkins Loans are low-interest federal student loans for undergraduate and graduate students with “exceptional financial need”.
The Perkins Loans program ended on Sept. 30, 2017. As a result, students can no longer receive Perkins Loans.
Unlike other student loans, in the case of Perkins Loans the student’s school is the lender not a bank or the government. The loan is made with government funds, but the school contributes a share of the loan. This means that the student applied for the loan through the school and repaid to the school usually through a loan servicer. Different loan servicers may be hired to service Perkins Loans than for other federal loans.
Perkins Loans repayment typically begins nine months after the student graduates or drops below half-time enrollment in school. The longest repayment term for Perkins Loans is 10 years.
Perkins Loans are only eligible for income-based repayment if they are consolidated into a Direct Loan.
With Perkins loans, undergraduate students were allowed to borrow a maximum of $5,500 annually and $27,500 over the course of their undergraduate career.
Perkins Loan maximums:
- Undergraduate student per year: $5,500
- Undergraduate student total: $27,500
- Graduate student per year: $8,000
- Graduate student total: $60,000