Students are Required to Know and Understand the Following Federal Direct Student Loan Information:

• You must have a complete financial aid file at WCC—this means you have completed your FAFSA, submitted requested forms and/or documents to our office, and received a notification with an award offer or an email stating you have no grant eligibility.
• You must be enrolled in an eligible degree or certificate program and taking a minimum of 6 credits (half-time) which apply to your program in each quarter to receive a loan.

• A new federal reporting requirement now means that a student must be enrolled for classes at WCC before we can actually process their loan. For example, if a student plans to start fall quarter 2024 and wants to apply for a loan where fall quarter will be the initial quarter of their loan for the 2024-2025 year, then they would have to be enrolled for fall quarter 2024 classes before we would be able to process the loan.  Please keep this in mind as you begin the loan process for an upcoming quarter.

• Your student loan eligibility is determined using your FAFSA information, WCC’s cost of attendance, other financial aid and scholarship awards, your grade level, dependency status and annual maximum loan limits.  This loan eligibility may be a combination of subsidized and unsubsidized federal student loan amounts.

• Grade or borrower level is based upon your earned credits for your current degree or certificate at WCC, it is NOT based on number of calendar years or quarters you have attended school. To be considered a level two or second year borrower you must have 46 or more college level credits that apply to your program of study.  You may be required to complete a SAP Academic Plan Petition with an academic advisor to document this.

• Your student loan will be disbursed equally over your requested enrollment period. Typically, this is all the quarter(s) you plan to attend WCC for at least 6 credits, for example between fall 2024 and spring 2025

• Summer quarters cannot be included "upfront" on a federal student loan certification as a student must actually be enrolled for summer 2025 before we can process a loan for the quarter. Please see additional information included on the Online Loan Worksheet regarding your options when requesting a summer 2025 loan.

• Outstanding tuition and fees will be deducted from loan disbursements as allowed by federal regulations. Any remaining amount will be disbursed to the student via BankMobile disbursements, a technology solution, powered by BMTX, Inc., WCC's electronic funds distribution partner.

• Like all other financial aid, no loan funds after disbursement to the student's account, will be refunded before the quarter begins.

• Generally loan processing time and disbursement of funds is 2 to 3 weeks, however for future quarters, no loan funds after disbursement to the student's account, will be refunded before the quarter begins.

• For students completing the remainder of their program in less than one academic year, we are required to prorate your loan based on the number of credits you will take to complete your degree or certificate.

• The interest rate is determined annually for all federal student loans, this change takes effect each year on July 1^st.  Interest rates for federal loans first disbursed between 07/1/2024 and 6/30/2025 are 6.53% for subsidized and/or unsubsidized undergraduate students. The Parent PLUS rate is 9.08% for the same time frame. 

• Currently there is a 1.057% origination fee charged by the Department of Education for loans disbursed on or after 10/1/2019 and before 10/1/2025. This fee may change on 10/1/2025. This fee is deducted, by the Department of Education, from each loan disbursement you receive. Parent PLUS loans currently have an origination fee of 4.228% for the same time periods listed above.

• This is a student loan and must be repaid.

• You have the right to cancel your student loan at any time. If your loan funds have been disbursed to you, you have 14 business days to return the funds to WCC to be refunded back to the loan program on your behalf. Contact the Financial Aid Office at finaid@whatcom.edu if you have any questions.

• All loan recipients are required to complete the Federal Student Loan Exit Counseling when they graduate, leave WCC, or drop below 6 credits (half-time) enrollment. You will receive notification from our office but can complete before receiving at https://studentaid.gov/exit-counseling/.

• The average annual loan debt for a student attending 2 years at WCC is $6842.00.

• Whatcom Community College's most recent Cohort Default Rates (CDR):

• 2021: 0% 
• 2020:0%
• 2019: 3.5%
• 2018: 11.2%
• 2017: 10.7%
• 2016: 12.8% 

Annual Maximum Loan Limits

Dependent Student (students that were required to use parent(s) information on their FAFSA)

Level 1 borrower $5,500 of which no more than $3,500 can be subsidized
Level 2 borrower $6,500 of which no more than $4,500 can be subsidized

Independent Student

Level 1 borrower $9,500 of which no more than $3,500 can be subsidized
Level 2 borrower $10,500 of which no more than $4,500 can be subsidized

Lifetime Maximum (Aggregate) Loan Limits

Dependent Undergraduate Students

$31,000—no more than $23,000 of this amount may be in subsidized loans

Independent Undergraduate Students

$57,500—no more than $23,000 of this amount may be in subsidized loans

Students Accepted in the BAS – IT Networking degree (4-year degree)

Students in a BAS degree are typically considered to be Level 3 or Level 4 borrowers
(3^rd or 4^th year student) and as such have different maximum loan limits. 
Please see the award notification that you received for detailed information.