Georgia Student Access Loan (SAL)

Georgia Student Access Loan (SAL)

The Student Access Loan Program The Georgia Student Access Loan (SAL) is a limited resource loan program that is designed to assist undergraduate students who have a gap in meeting their educational costs. The program is also designed to provide interest rate and repayment incentives to those who complete their program of study within the designed program length, work in select public service sectors or STEM fields. Loan Program Information

• The Interest Rate on any loan made under these regulations is one percent (1%) for the life of the loan. The Borrower must fulfill the loan obligation,
  including Repayment requirements, as specified in the Promissory Note to maintain the loan at a one percent (1%) interest rate.
• Repayment is a maximum of fifteen (15) years.  The Repayment amount, not inclusive of in-school Deferment and Forbearance periods, shall be at least fifty dollars ($50) per month or more, if necessary to repay the loan within the required time period.
• The minimum loan amount is $500. The maximum loan limit is $8,000 per year ($4000 per semester) up to a maximum of $36,000 over a college lifetime.
•  The annual amount that an Applicant may be awarded under the SAL Program is the lesser of $8,000 or the student’s Cost of Attendance (COA) for the award period, less the student’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and less the student’s Expected Financial Aid (EFA) for the award period. 
  • A SAL cannot be used to offset a student’s EFC
• Origination Fee: A non-refundable $50 fee is deducted from the first disbursement of each loan.

Student Eligibility

• Students must be considered Georgia residents and United States citizens or eligible non-citizens.
• Students must maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) in accordance with the SAP policy at your college or university.
• Students must have first applied for and exhausted all other student financial aid programs including federal and state student loans, scholarship and grant programs.
• Students must be randomly selected to participate in the program. (Note: Selection does not guarantee approval and applicants may or may not be selected each application year.)

Important Things to Know

• You must have a complete and valid Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in order to apply for this program.
• If you apply for this loan, you understand that this is a private education loan that must be repaid and cannot be combined or consolidated with other federal loans.
• Applications are only collected in pre-designated application cycle periods.
• At the time of SAL certification, we can only certify for fall and spring due to summer budgets not being available until after the application cycle. If a student requests SAL for Fall/Spring/Summer, it would be included in their fall/spring award amounts.
• Borrow smart! If you apply only request the amount of funds needed for your educational costs.
• Disbursements are sent directly to the eligible postsecondary institution and are not transferable.
• Your eligible postsecondary institution may refuse to certify the loan or may reduce the amount borrowed on a case-by-case basis.

If you have exhausted all other funding options to meet your cost of attendance, you may be eligible for this low-cost loan program.  ***It is very important, that you read ALL information available on the GAfutures website concerning the Student Access Loan Program. Major changes have been made to the regulations & requirements.

Last updated: 1/4/2023