American Education Services
and the Pennsylvania Higher
Education Assistance Agency
have temporarily suspended
financial aid, awarding only
state grants to those students
who have filed a FASFA form by
May 1.
This decision does not mean
an end to loans from the
PHEAA, but it means that the
PHEAA will no longer be the
lender or bank from which students
borrow money. This
includes the Federal Family
Educational Loan Program constituents
Stafford, Parent PLUS,
Graduate PLUS and
Consolidation loans. Students
are asked to choose from another
bank or lender such as a credit
union, or savings and loans association.
What has brought about this
inconvenient change?
“The sub-prime mortgage
mess has made it difficult for
PHEAA to raise the cash it needs
to fund student loans,” it says on
the AES official website. “Other
banks and institutions who don’t
have this problem will continue
to work with
PHEAA to ensure
students and families
have access to
the money they
need to pay for their
education.”
All loans issued at
the beginning of the
year are still viable;
h o w e v e r
AES/PHEAA will
be sending all borrowers
a letter asking
them to quickly
choose another
lender.
Some Bucks students
have already
received their letters.
“I got really scared,” said
Centurion Editor-in-Chief Laura
Irwin, 25. “I saw the letter come
in the mail and my stomach
back-flipped. The first thought I
had was ‘how am I going to go to
school next semester?'”
The PHEAA has instituted two
new federal grants.
The Teach Grant is worth up to
$4,000 for students intending to
teach in a field with a highdemand
for educators, such as
public or private elementary or
secondary schools that serve students
from low-income families.
And the second is the National
Science and Mathematics Access
to Retain Talent or SMART
grant, available for juniors and
seniors who are majoring in
physical, life or computer sciences,
mathematics, technology
engineering or in a foreign language
determined to be critical
to national security. This grant
can be worth up to $4,000 to U.S.
citizens, who are PELL eligible
and full-time students in a fouryear
degree program with a
cumulative grade point average
of at least a 3.0, according to the
AES website.
“PHEAA is still committed, as
we have been for 44 years, to
serve the financial aid needs for
Pennsylvanians and other students
from around the country,”
according to PHEAA.com.
If you have any questions concerning
the status of your financial
aid, you can contact AES customer
service at 1-800-233-0557.
Or call Bucks’ Financial Aid
Office at 215-968-8200.