Student Loan Deferments
Most financial institutions will defer student loan payments upon verification of the length of your postdoctoral training.
- Contact your lending institution and request a student loan deferment form.
- Complete the form and email it to postdoc@hs.pitt.edu.
- Your status will be verified based upon the length of your postdoctoral contract, the form will be signed by an institutional representative, and it will be returned to you.
- You are responsible for submitting the signed deferment request form to your lending institution.
- If you are reappointed, or if you transfer to another postdoc position, a new student loan deferral form is required.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness
- The PSLF Program, established under 34 C.F.R. § 685.219 of the Federal Direct Loan Program regulations, permits the forgiveness of remaining federal student loan balances for individuals who are employed full-time by a qualifying employer.
- PSLF forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you have made 120 qualifying monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan while working full-time for a qualifying employer.
- A fundamental requirement of the program is that the individual must meet the federal definition of an "employee" of the qualifying organization.
- The University of Pittsburgh meets qualifying employer for postdocs who are appointed as Postdoctoral Associates.
- Please visit the following website to submit your PSLF application: https://www.hr.pitt.edu/benefits/work-life-balance/financial-legal-resources/public-service-loan-forgiveness
Student Loan Repayment
- The NIH Loan Repayment Program (LRP) is a set of programs established by Congress designed to recruit and retain highly qualified health professionals into biomedical or biobehavioral research careers.
- In exchange for a two-year commitment to their NIH-mission related research career, NIH will repay up to $50,000 of their qualified educational debt.
- If the recipient plans to leave before the end of the two year commitment, they may be responsible for repayment of part or all of the loan directly to NIH. Please contact lrp@nih.gov before making any moves to understand your obligations and avoid potential consequences. Loan Repayment Program FAQs can be found here.
- Eligibility requirements for applicants include:
- U.S. citizen, national, or permanent resident;
- Doctoral-level degree (except the Contraception and Infertility Research LRP);
- Domestic, non-profit research funding (Extramural) or NIH employment (Intramural);
- For new applicants, must have total qualifying educational debt equal to or in excess of 20% of their institutional base salary at time of award, for renewal applicants, satisfaction of the 20% is not required; and
- Qualified research for an average of at least 20 hours per week during each quarterly (13 weeks) service period of the award
- Forms for institutional verification are provided after creating an account through the LRP application system (https://www.lrp.nih.gov/OASSecurity/apply.aspx). Registration must take place during the open application period.
- Complete these forms and email to slstokes@pitt.edu