Applying for a loan
The process takes about eight weeks or more, so you must apply early and work through these instructions in the correct order.
Start with FAFSA
Whether for Federal (Stafford) or Private loans, you must establish your eligibility by filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Read all of this section before starting on the FAFSA website. You must apply online at www.fafsa.ed.gov
When completed, this will produce a SAR (Student Aid Report).
The University of Winchester needs the 8 page SAR from FAFSA
Federal Regulations require us to check details which are only available on the 8 page SAR. If anyone tells you otherwise, they don’t know the regulations for foreign schools.
If you do not put your email address on (online) FAFSA the 8 page SAR will be sent to you by post. Otherwise request the 8 page SAR from the Education Dept at Washington DC. It can only be sent by post, not fax nor email, and only to the address on your FAFSA application. If you left off your email address, you can put it on FAFSA after you have received the 8 page SAR.
Choose a lender
The University of Winchester cannot recommend a lender. You are free to choose anyone. Stafford Loan charges and interest rates are set by Congress, so all lenders charge the same, but not all are specialists. You should ensure that your lender is fully experienced in the different regulations which apply to foreign schools.
Specialist in American students at foreign schools
International Education Finance Corporation specialise only in Americans at foreign schools, they lend through:
- Bank of America (lender code 818334)
- Citizens Bank (lender code 826861)
- Wachovia (lender code 830005)
Contact them at www.iefc.com or phone 781 843 5334 or 888 296 4332.
Other major lenders
You may use any others you find/choose.
Complete Stafford Forms
If the forms are not received from FAFSA website or from your chosen lender, please download them from Download Leaflets and Forms.
Promissory Note must be filled in completely, signed and dated.
School Certification Form only fill boxes 1- 9, the University will complete the rest.
You can work out how much you can borrow using the spreadsheet on our How much to Borrow page.
If applying for a private loan, make sure you have checked how much you can borrow and complete any necessary papers for sending on to us.
Send Forms and 8 page SAR to the University of Winchester
We need all three documents to certify your loan and can do nothing with only some of them. So please do not send anything until you have all three.
If you are applying for a private loan at the same time, then any other papers for signing/certifying can be sent to us at the same time.
In the unlikely event of a problem with the post, we advise you to keep photocopies of everything you send us.
Send to
Course Enquiries and Admissions
University of Winchester
Winchester
Hampshire
England
SO22 4NR
What the university does next and what could delay things
Once we have all your forms, we will check several details before certifying the loan(s).
Your offer of a place should have been accepted and the offer be unconditional, or if still conditional, be minor conditions such as proof of qualifications. We cannot confirm to your lender that you are expected unless your application has reached that stage.
What to read next
You should now read How much to borrow and the Timeline for Application Process pages.
You need to work through each of these pages which also have a leaflet (file) which you can download. Please read all the pages, either online or from the leaflets, before trying to make any type of application and before trying contact our office.
The information on these pages are progressively being updated, therefore it is advisable that you visit these pages on a weekly basis for any updates. All the leaflets for download are dated in the top-left corner, so you can always look at the dates and check you have the latest one.