Loans

Educational loans help many students cover some of their educational costs at Lourdes University. The Lourdes Financial Aid Office offers the maximum amount of Federal Direct Stafford Loans to all students who file a FAFSA and are otherwise eligible.

Borrowing student loans can be viewed as an investment in one’s future to help you obtain your degree. Please also remember to borrow wisely as all borrowed loan funds must be repaid.

Direct PLUS Loans and Private Loans are other options which can be pursued if students need additional funds to help cover their educational costs.

Student Loan Code of Conduct

Purpose
Lourdes recognizes that ensuring the integrity of the student financial aid process is critical to providing fair and affordable access to higher education. Therefore, Lourdes has formalized the following guiding principles that shall be effective immediately. These guidelines are designed to avoid any potential for a conflict of interest between Lourdes, and its students or their parents, in the student financial aid process. For purposes of this Code of Conduct, a “Lending Institution” is any entity (other than an institution of higher education or a governmental entity such as the U.S. Department of Education) involved in the making, holding, consolidating or processing of any student loans.

Policy

• Lourdes employees should receive no personal benefit.
  No employee or officer of Lourdes shall accept or solicit anything of more than nominal value on his or her behalf or on behalf of another person or entity from any Lending Institution. Specifically, no employee or officer of Lourdes shall accept or solicit, from any Lending Institution: (i) payment for entertainment expenses or any lodging, rental, transportation or other gratuities related to lender-sponsored activities; (ii) payments for registration, transportation or lodging at lender-sponsored conferences and trainings; (iii) invitations to serve on lender advisory boards and/or payments related to such service. Additionally, Lourdes employees and officers shall not accept or solicit, from any student loan guarantee agency: (i) payments for entertainment expenses or any lodging, rental transportation or other gratuities related to activities sponsored by the guarantee agency.
• Lourdes employees should not serve on lender advisory board for remuneration.
  No officer or employee of the institution who makes financial aid decisions for Lourdes or who is employed in, supervises or otherwise has responsibility or authority over the Lourdes’ financial aid office shall receive any remuneration for consulting services and/or serving as a member or participant of a student loan advisory board of a Lending Institution or any reimbursement of expenses for such service. Any officer or employee of Lourdes who serves as a member or participant of a Lending Institutions board shall recuse himself or herself from any board discussions regarding the institution’s financial aid operations.
• Lourdes should not provide any advantage to a Lending Institution.
  Lourdes shall not accept anything of value from any Lending Institution in exchange for any advantage or consideration provided to the Lending Institution related to its student loan activities, including but not limited to revenue-sharing, printing costs or below-cost computer hardware or software. 1) Likewise, Lourdes shall not allow any Lending Institution to: (a) staff  Lourdes’ financial aid office at any time; or (b) communicate with the Lourdes’ students or their parents in such a manner as to create the impression that the Lending Institution is an employee or agent of the institution in connection with Lourdes’ student financial aid operations, including through the use of mascots, logos, and other marks. Finally, Lourdes shall not enter into any agreement with a Lending Institution to provide alternative (i.e., private, non-federal or “opportunity”) student loan programs if the provision of such alternative loan programs prejudices other students or parents, or if the acceptance of such funds by Lourdes is conditioned on the institution providing concessions to the Lending Institution. 2) Lourdes also shall not place a Lending Institution on a Preferred Lender List for a particular type of student loan in exchange for benefits provided to Lourdes, its students or their parents in connection with a different type of loan.
• Lourdes should make appropriate use of any Preferred Lender Lists.
  Lourdes displays a list of private student lenders on FASTChoice. The lenders listed here are those that offer private alternative student loans to our students. Lourdes currently allows any lender that wishes to offer our students a private loan to include their data on our list. Inclusion on our list does not constitute an endorsement of that particular loan product over any other.

You are free to select any lender and loan option, including those not presented. Application processing will not be delayed unnecessarily if you choose a loan option not presented. Please contact a lender directly if their information is not presented here.

We maintain professional relationships with all lenders. Our officials are prohibited from accepting financial or other benefits in exchange for displaying lenders and loan options in FASTChoice. These include: receiving compensation to serve on any lender board of directors or advisory boards; accepting gifts including trips, meals, and entertainment; allowing lenders to staff our institution’s financial aid office; allowing lenders to place our institution’s name or logo on any of their products; and owning lenders’ stock (for those college officials who make loan decisions for our institution).