Loans are administered in partnership between the Office of Financial Aid and Student Financial Services. 

• The Office of Financial Aid (OFA) determines loan eligibility and creates award offers. All aid applicants must submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each academic year, and must also submit any other documentation as requested by the Office of Financial Aid. Learn more: Undergraduate Students, Graduate Students, Medical Students. Undergraduate students can learn more about requesting loans on the Office of Financial Aid's Optional Student Loans page. 
• Student Financial Services (SFS) notifies students to accept or decline their offered loans, processes PLUS Loan and private loan applications, notifies borrowers to complete loan requirements and Title IV Authorization forms, and disburses loans to students' accounts once all requirements are completed and the semester has begun.

Learn more about eligibility:
Federal Loans
Brown Institutional Loans
Private Loans

Students who borrow federal or institutional loans must actively accept their offered loans through Banner Self Service.  

• Select the Financial Aid tab, select Accept Loan Offers. 
• Students can accept the full amount offered, accept a partial amount, or decline any loan. 
• Once all information is entered, select Submit Decision.

After a loan is accepted, a memo credit will appear on the student account which temporarily reduces the balance due.  This temporary memo credit will expire on October 15th for the fall or on February 15th for the spring.  If the loan has not disbursed (paid) to the student account and the memo credit expires, the student is responsible for paying the full outstanding student account balance. 

Students log in to Banner Self Service, select the Financial Aid tab, and select Requirements. All incomplete or unsatisfied requirements must be completed before the loan can disburse (pay) to the student account. 

Direct Loan Requirements

The Direct Loan Master Promissory Note and Direct Loan Entrance Counseling requirements can be completed online immediately through studentaid.gov.  Banner will be updated once the Department of Education electronically transmits those completed materials to Brown. (typically within 1-3 days)

Institutional Loan Requirements

All promissory note, entrance counseling, and certification requirements for Brown Institutional loans will be created once per week on Thursday evenings. Borrowers complete these requirements online through their Heartland ECSI loan portal after they receive their login information. Please monitor your Brown email account closely to receive this important information.   

Private Loan Requirements

Your chosen private loan lender will communicate with you directly regarding the completion of any loan requirements. 

All recipients of federal financial aid (federal grants, work-study, and federal Direct Loans) are instructed to complete the Title IV Authorization form through Banner Self Service.  This important form instructs Brown on how to apply the federal funding toward your student account charges.

Students choose Yes or No to the following 3 questions:

• Apply Title IV funds toward other student account charges.
  • Helpful information: Title IV funds are automatically credited toward tuition, fees, housing, and meal plan charges.  They are not automatically applied to other student account charges (such as bookstore, health insurance, pharmacy, lock change, etc). This can leave students responsible for paying other charges out of pocket. 
• Apply Title IV funds toward outstanding prior year charges (up to $200).
• Retain excess Title IV funds toward future charges for the current award year.

Selecting YES to all 3 items, allows Title IV funds to be applied to the majority of charges on a student's account. 
Selecting NO, means the Title IV funds will only pay the tuition, fees, housing, and meal charges - the student will be required to pay any other student account charges out of pocket.  It may also result in the student being issued a Title IV credit balance refund, even though there are unpaid charges on the student account that the student must pay. 

Students can change their selections through Banner Self Service at any time. 

Disbursement is when the loan is paid to the student account.

All loan requirements must be completed and the scheduled disbursement date for the semester must pass before loan funds will be disbursed (paid) to the student account. The scheduled disbursement date is typically a few days before each semester begins. If the loan disbursement results in a credit balance on the student account, students may request an eRefund of their student account credit balance (overpayment).  Refunds will be processed beginning on the first day of classes.