Student Freedom Loan Agreement

Student Freedom Loan Agreement is a private education loan that should be considered just one part of a student’s overall financial aid package. It is not intended to replace any state or institutional aid, or any federal grants, work-study, or Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized loans. Instead, a Student Freedom Loan Agreement is available to cover a student’s remaining cost of attendance after those other aid sources are considered, as a potential alternative to other private education loans and Parent PLUS loans. To learn more, please see our Application and Solicitation Disclosure. You can also review the Student Freedom Loan Agreement itself here.

To be eligible to receive funding from us, a student’s school must be a participant in the income-contingent funding alternative component of Student Freedom Initiative’s program, and the student must meet all the following criteria immediately prior to the disbursement of funds (as determined and confirmed by student’s school): (a) Completed a FAFSA or acceptable alternative state aid application that is accepted and approved by student’s school; (b) A valid Social Security Number; (c) Not an international student or foreign exchange student authorized to enter the United States on a non-immigrant visa; (d) Majority age or older; (e) Should show sophomore, Junior or senior for the school year being funded; (f) Should show Enrolled at least half-time for the coming academic term (unless we grant an exception because student requires less than half-time enrollment to complete his/her bachelor’s degree in her/his final year of study); (g) Working towards a degree in an approved STEM major or an approved STEM certificate program; and (h) Meeting satisfactory academic progress as defined by student’s school. Please note: You may qualify for federal student loans. For additional information, contact your school’s financial aid office or the Department of Education at: StudentAid.gov

No, as a parent or guardian you cannot legally enter into a binding contractual agreement on the behalf of the student, however, a parent or guardian may advise the student of this funding opportunity for their consideration.

Students can apply for the Student Freedom Loan Agreement through the Student Application Portal

Sophomore, juniors, and seniors who are pursuing approved STEM degrees or STEM certificate programs at participating schools and who otherwise meet Student Freedom Fund’s eligibility criteria can receive funding from Student Freedom Fund.

The eligible majors currently include certain majors associated with select Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (or “STEM”) fields. anchored in the National Science Foundation data and identified by the participating institution. For a list of majors identified by each of the participating institutions, please see Participating Schools. The Student Freedom Loan Agreement launched in fall 2021 with an initial focus on STEM majors because statistics show that a STEM education can serve as a pathway to freedom for students — opening the door to the widest array of opportunities in the 21st century economy. According to Science News, the growth rate for STEM versus non-STEM fields is 2 times. According to National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), Status and Trends in the education of Racial and Ethnic Groups, there will be 3.5 Million STEM jobs in the US to fill by 2025. National Association of Manufacturers and Deloitte reported the average difference in first year salary between STEM and non-STEM is $24,100 for college graduates.

Students can apply for the Student Freedom Loan Agreement by clicking on the Apply Here links, which will take you to the student application portal hosted by our originations partner, CampusDoor. Students will start by providing information about themselves, their school, and their program of study. Students will create an account with CampusDoor. Students will review a series of important disclosures and choose their funding amount. Students will upload documents as necessary to verify their identity and eligibility (e.g. driver’s license, school transcript, etc.). Then the students’ schools will certify their eligibility to participate.

You can find instructions for accessing those documents here.

Once a student has completed their application and signed a Student Freedom Loan Agreement the final step is school certification to confirm they are enrolled and their application is accurate. Students should contact their Financial Aid Office for status updates on their Student Freedom Loan Agreement application.

Students will receive communications from Student Freedom Initiative throughout the application process, including notification of funding under the Student Freedom Loan Agreement. While the schedule will vary based on the participating institution’s processes, one should expect a confirmation of funding within three weeks of submission.

Funding will become available during the school’s normal disbursement process at your institutions, in the term in which you have applied. Funding will only be made available to students who have been certified as eligible by your financial aid office.

Students can receive up to $20,000 per academic year. There is a cap on total funding a student can receive under a Student Freedom Loan Agreement, which is currently $40,000 total. You may qualify for federal student loans. For additional information, contact your school’s financial aid office or the Department of Education at: StudentAid.gov

Your school will be authorized to withdraw from your disbursed funds school costs charged directly by your school (if any) and to issue any leftover funds to you. Once the leftover funds are issued to you, you can use them only to pay for school costs. School costs include only the following: tuition and fees charged by your school, housing costs, food costs, transportation and commuting expenses, costs for schoolbooks, supplies and equipment (including computer hardware and software), health insurance and medical expenses, dependent care expenses, ordinary personal expenses, loan fees, and other miscellaneous costs that you incur to pursue your education at your school. Eligible students can use funds to cover a prior balance.

Students with questions about their application or funding should contact originations customer support at 771-210-5656 or answers@campusdoor.com. Students with questions about their funded Student Freedom Loan Agreement should contact servicing customer support at 855-722-0375 or support@studentfreedominitiative.org. Students can also contact their Financial Aid Office with additional questions.

Students who are eligible for a Student Freedom Loan Agreement can use SFLA funds to cover a prior balance.

Everything we do aims to put the student first as we pursue our mission to address the wealth gap through the lens of education. We structured our loan program to provide generous protections and affordable terms to students at MSIs. In pursuit of our mission of shrinking the wealth gap and our vision of enhancing the economic mobility of MSI students, we designed a program that ignores credit scores and instead looks at the job growth and earnings of occupations associated with the degrees applicants are pursuing. While we’d like to be able to fund every student who needs more money to pursue their education, our selection of eligible majors is the product of a careful review process to make sure they are consistent with our organizational objectives.