Financial Aid FAQ

Application

Federal Aid can come in the form of grants, loans, and/or work study. Institutional scholarships are offered through the Tuition Assistance Program. Outside scholarships may be sought through various search engines. Military education benefits may be available for active or retired military members.

Click on the type of aid in which you are interested on the financial aid page.

Luther Rice's federal school code is 031009.

Eligibility depends on various factors and you may see the application requirements on the financial aid page. After you apply, you may contact the Financial Aid Office to discuss the possible types of aid for which you may be eligible.

If you have completed your FAFSA and been accepted into Luther Rice, check your email for updates or requests for needed information.

No, you do not have to borrow the maximum amount of federal loan funds. You can downsize your loan amount before you accept it within the Financial Aid Portal. Please borrow as little as possible to minimize your debt level.

A Master Promissory Note is a promissory note you sign that acknowledges your responsibility to repay all loans incurred during your education. The signed MPN is good for 10 years so you will not need to complete one every year. Visit www.studentloans.gov to sign your MPN for a federal subsidized/unsubsidized loan.

Send an email to the Financial Aid Office FinancialAid@lutherrice.edu that includes your name, student ID, and the additional dollar amount you would like to borrow.

WHAT IS LUTHER RICE'S COHORT DEFAULT RATE?

The Cohort Default Rate (CDR) is the rate of students who entered repayment during a certain time period and defaulted on their student loans. Luther Rice's CDR for 2021 is 0.0%.

You may apply for a private loan with a private lender. Luther Rice does not endorse any particular lender. Please note: you may qualify for federal loans, though, which may have more favorable terms than a private loan. Contact the Financial Aid Office if you have questions.

PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENT

Professional Judgments (PJ)

The Financial Aid Office facilitates a Professional Judgment application for a student if the situation (e.g., dependency override, income reduction, medical expenses etc.) dictates that an adjustment should be made to the student’s financial aid information.  If the PJ applicant is selected for verification, that process must be completed before a PJ is issued.  The Financial Aid Office will retain all documentation used to substantiate the PJ.  The decision of the Financial Aid Director is final.

Types of Professional Judgements

  1. Special Circumstances refer to the financial situations that justify an aid administrator adjusting data elements in the estimated Cost of Attendance (COA) or in the EFC calculation. Examples include, but are not limited to, loss of a job, divorce or separation, medical expenses not covered by insurance, death, etc.
  2. Unusual Circumstances refer to the conditions that justify an aid administrator making an adjustment to a student’s dependency status based on a unique situation (e.g., human trafficking, refugee or asylee status, parental abandonment, incarceration), more commonly referred to as a dependency override.

A student may have one or both a special circumstance and an unusual circumstance. Students must have an appropriate year FAFSA submitted before an appeal is considered. To request an appeal, please complete, sign, and submit the Professional Judgment Form with a letter of explanation and the required documentation found in each description, to the Financial Aid Office via My Secure File Transfer within MyCampus  If you would rather mail or fax your documents, the contact information is below. Please allow 2-3 weeks for our response after all documentation has been received.

Luther Rice College & Seminary

ATTN: Financial Aid

3038 Evans Mill Rd

Lithonia, GA 30038

Fax: 678-990-5388

 

Federal Aid Funds

The aid comes to the school, is then applied to your student account, and a refund is processed to you of any excess monies.

Luther Rice automatically refunds any excess financial aid funds within 14 calendar days of the funds being applied to your student account. If for some reason you need to request a refund, you may do so at My Campus

Click here to view information pertaining to federal student loan interest rates.

Refunds are disbursed through BankMobile Disbursements on a weekly basis.  For more information about BankMobile Disbursements, visit this link: http://bankmobiledisbursements.com/refundchoices/.  To view our third-party servicer contract for refund management, click here.

Refunds are typically processed weekly and you may visit the Financial Aid Calendar to see the initial refund date for a term.

 

Book Vouchers 

Yes, book vouchers are available for an aid recipient scheduled to receive aid in excess of the cost of his classes. The voucher is only valid through the Luther Rice book servicer, Akademos, and may be used to purchase books before a student receives his aid funds. See the Financial Aid Calendar for dates and instructions.

 

Withdrawals From Classes

When a financial aid recipient receives loan or grant monies and withdraws or is withdrawn from all of his classes, a portion of those funds may need to be returned to the Department of Education. Luther Rice will send the unearned financial aid to the Department of Education and apply the balance onto the student's account. If the student withdraws before aid has been disbursed, a post-withdrawal calculation may be performed. For a Post-Withdrawal Disbursement, the Financial Aid Office notifies the student of the aid amount, the responsibility of repaying a loan, and requests an acceptance from the student before any loan funds are disbursed.

 

Loan Repayment

We’ve teamed up with Solutions at ECMC to answer all of your student loan repayment questions. Solutions is a service of the non-profit organization ECMC and is dedicated to helping students manage educational loans. Their resources are available to you free of charge. To contact a Solutions Student Loan Repayment Advisor, email or web chat, or call them at 1-877-331-3262.

Student loan borrowers should realize the importance and necessity of repaying funds they borrow. Please visit this Department of Education site to view information about loan types, repayment amounts, and other information.

 

Prior Financial Aid and Other Institutions

You may visit https://studentaid.gov/ to view the student loans and/or grants you have received while at Luther Rice or during all of your academic career.

Luther Rice encourages you to borrow responsibly and wants to make you aware that loan funds can quickly add up. Undergraduate students may borrow up to $57,500 (subsidized/unsubsidized loans) and graduate students up to $138,500 (subsidized/unsubsidized loans) during their academic careers.

In most instances you will need to do nothing because Luther Rice regularly updates students' enrollment statuses with the National Student Clearinghouse. Lenders, in turn, obtain borrowers' enrollment statuses with the Clearinghouse. If for some reason you need to verify enrollment, please visit the Clearinghouse or submit a completed In-School Deferment form (you can obtain it from your loan servicer) to the Luther Rice Financial Aid Office. You may also use the Clearinghouse website for any organization (insurance company, employer, apartment complex, etc.) that needs verification of your enrollment.

Luther Rice does not engage in any consortium agreements with other institutions so you could not consider another institution's course toward your enrollment at Luther Rice for financial aid purposes.

 

Contact Financial Aid

FinancialAid@LutherRice.edu

770-484-1204 ext. 5755

Fax: 678-990-5388

The Financial Aid Department returns phone calls promptly. Please leave your name, number and a brief message and someone will return your call within 24 hours or the next business day.