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Northern Illinois University

Student Financial Aid

Perkins Loan To Do List:

  1. Complete the FAFSA by March 1 (priority filing date).
    • NIU's School Code is 001737
  2. Complete your Loan Entrance Counseling electronically*
  3. Complete a Master Promissory Note  
  4. Check your NIU e-mail account for important messages from the NIU Student Financial Aid office.
  5. Check your MyNIU account for awarding to be applied to your Bursar account.

* Before you graduate, you must complete your Loan Exit Counseling requirements as well.

Federal Perkins Loan

A Federal Perkins Loan is a low-interest loan that students must repay to the lender. For the Federal Perkins Loan, the lender is NIU.

Eligibility

The Federal Perkins Loan is available to students who are:

Loan Funds

The amount that students receive through the Federal Perkins Loan depends on:

  • The student's financial need (as determined by the FAFSA)
  • The amount of other aid they have received
  • The availability of funds at NIU 

Interest Rate

The interest rate for Federal Perkins loans are:

  • 5.0%

Length of Repayment

The amount of time to repay the Perkins loan depends on the amount of funds that you receive. Since NIU is the lender of your loan, payments will be made to NIU.

The length of repayment is typically up to 10 years.

Perkins Loan Resources

For more information regarding the Federal Perkins Loan and other Loan resources, please visit The Guide to Federal Student Aid.