Health Professions Loan

Loan Information

Health Professions Loans are available to students enrolled in either the College of Pharmacy or the Michigan College of Optometry only. Funding for these loans is extremely limited and offered on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Health Professions Loan

• Student must be enrolled Full-time (9 or more credit hours) in the College of Pharmacy or Michigan College of Optometry
• Must complete the FAFSA with parental information (regardless of age or dependency status)
• Need-based *
• Interest rate is 5% fixed - No interest until repayment
• Funds are sent directly to the school
• Repayment begins one year after graduation or leaving the curriculum
• Loan amounts are limited and vary. 
• Students in eligible programs will be notified when applications become available

To Apply for the Health Professions Loan

• Students enrolled in Pharmacy and Optometry programs will be sent an email in late May to early June, advising them that Health Professions Loan applications are available.
• Applications will be date and time stamped when received, and reviewed in the order of receipt.
• Once we have received more than enough applications to expend Health Professions Loan funding, we will remove the applications from our website.
• If parental information is not on the FAFSA at the time of application review, the student is ineligible for the Health Professions Loan and the application will be denied. Students are encouraged to include parental information when they initially file their FAFSA, or to add parental data long before Health Professions Loan applications become available, in order to be considered. 
• Health Professions Loans are "need-based". The Financial Aid office will use the federal methodology formula to calculate an Expected Family Contribution based on the parent's data on the FAFSA. Because costs are typically higher for Pharmacy and Optometry programs, students that were not eligible for need-based aid as undergrad students may qualify for Health Professions Loans.  
• All students that submit a Health Professions Loan application will be notified of the result of their application, whether they are awarded the loan; ineligible for the loan; or if funding was expended before their application was reviewed. Notifications will be emailed to all applicants by July 1.

The HPL - Optometry application has now been removed for 2023-24, due to lack of funding.

The HPL - Pharmacy application has now been removed for 2023-24, due to lack of funding.