Making School Affordable
Not everyone is aware of the options available that help students make higher education affordable. Here are some helpful tips!
Can I afford it?
Explore different funding options.
ACHS offers several different funding options our students can take advantage of. These include:
• In-house semester and monthly payment installment plans (PIPs)
• Private Student Loans
• Veteran’s Benefits
• Military Tuition Assistance
• Employer Tuition Assistance
• Americorp Education Award
• Grants and Scholarships
Anything you can contribute now will reduce your debt in the long term! If you have any questions, we’re here to help!
Questions?
Contact a member of the Financial Aid team at 800-487-8839, or send us an email at financialaid@achs.edu.
We care about your financial health and understand the investment you are committing to, and everyone at ACHS is here to support you! If you have any questions or need help with your student loans, please be in touch!
Reduce your borrowing.
It is extremely important that you carefully monitor your expenses and spending while you are in school. It may seem easy to borrow loan funds to cover your expenses while going to school, but remember that every dollar must be repaid, with interest! The decisions you make now can help you better manage your loan repayment after graduation.
• Consider borrowing only what you need to cover your tuition and fees for the semester. Rather than electing to receive the maximum allowable amount in student loans each semester, you have the option at any time to reduce your financial aid to only cover the exact costs of your semester charges. You can reduce your borrowing substantially (sometimes by $3000 or more each semester!) by declining extra funds.
• Limit the amount of any credit balance you elect to receive. Many ACHS students decide to reduce their borrowing so they only receive a small portion of their available extra funds. Every dollar you decline is another dollar you do not have to repay, so plan to only take the smallest amount you need to get by!
• Make small payments while you are in school. All ACHS students have the option to further reduce their borrowing by making small monthly payments while they are in school. Just paying $100 per month towards your tuition and fee charges reduces the amount you have to borrow by $400 a semester. That’s $1200 a year!
• Use the Department of Education’s online Repayment Plan Estimator tool. Repayment plans can give you more time to repay your loans or can be based on your income. The Department of Education offers an online Repayment Estimator that you can use to compare your estimated monthly and total payments under each of the available repayment plans. You can access the Repayment Estimator at https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/repaymentEstimator. action. Use your FAFSA username and password to log in.
Contact the ACHS Financial Aid Office.
If you want to discuss your options, change your borrowing elections, talk about your aggregate loan limits, or are just confused by this whole loan thing – please contact us! We are here to help you navigate the ins and outs of managing your student loans.