US Student Loans in China

[mdk31]

Hi,

I recently got the Chinese Government Scholarship to study Chinese at Zhejiang University and I'm having a bit of trouble with my federal student loans. Apparently, Zhejiang isn't one of the US Dept of Ed "approved" schools for an in-school deferment.

Basically, I'm just looking to see what my options are for putting of student loans. Has anyone else studied in China and had to deal with this stuff? What did you do?

[Duomi]

I had a nightmare of a time calling the various federal loan agencies, and they all said that Chinese universities are not included in a 'list' of foreign universities that are eligible for loan deferment status.

However, one representative said that if I could prove that if a Chinese school is affiliated with a U.S. school, then that might count. But I was given no procedure for how to follow through with this. Try calling your uni's student aid office, and see what they have to say.

EDIT

I contacted my former student finance office and this is the response I got:

"After reading through regulations that go around and around, my conclusion is that in order to qualify for a deferment while attending a foreign university, it must be an “eligible postsecondary school.” An eligible school would also be able to award federal student loans. To be designated as an eligible school, a foreign school must either be affiliated with a school in the US, and be eligible through that school, or it must apply to participate in the federal loan program.

That pretty much takes us back to the school you plan to attend. You will need to contact them to find out whether they

participate in US federal student loan programs.

Hope this is helpful to you."

[kdavid]

Granted you haven't already done so, you can also request an economic hardship deferral, which you get if you make below a certain amount each year.

I believe you can do this for up to three years.

[mdk31]

Duomi, thank you so much! I know that a Long Island university has some sort of cooperation with Zhejiang University, but I'll have to dig deeper. I'm a complete novice on China, do most Chinese universities have a financial aid office with staff who speak English?

I know that it has an OPE (Office of Post-Secondary Education) ID.

[mdk31]

And were you successful? Did you have to be a student at the U.S.-affiliated school?

[heifeng]

Has anyone else studied in China and had to deal with this stuff? What did you do?

Yes. However, I just continue to paid my loans (ala monthly automatic payment) while in China after paying them down as much as I could after graduation. Sorry, this isn't really helpful, it's just what I happened to do. You could probably call your loan contact (Sallie Mae?) to reduce your monthly payment perhaps, I am sure there are ways to do that since many students (especially nowadays) encounter problems about paying loans back immediately after graduating, so you would not be the first person asking about this.

Granted you haven't already done so, you can also request an economic hardship deferral, which you get if you make below a certain amount each year.

This is another good suggestion.

[kdavid]

FYI: I deferred for three years, the maximum allowed, while I was abroad in Europe and right after I arrived in China.

[lee26]

Hello,

Really all you have to do is make a connection. It does not matter how this is accomplished. I was the first person in my community college to study abroad. Same problem but with the transfer of credits. Just look on their website to see if they have any partnership schools or have done a exchange with another school. If you can't find any information, your next option is to call the school in China or e-mail them. If you still can't get anywhere, look to 3rd party companies that deal with your school in China. If you do that, you'll know where your transcript comes from. There is your link. If a school is in the middle of nowhere and its small, you might have a tougher time. Really it just comes down to legwork.

[金妙漪]

Hello all!

Does anyone (mdk31) have any updates on how/whether deferring the payment by proving an affiliation between the universities worked? I would very much like to know as I will be in a somewhat similar situation this coming spring...