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Other Sources of Aid

Private Scholarships

Below are links to some scholarships that are available. Most of the information is taken from the Federal Website. This is for your reference, and not an offer or guarantee of award.

  • College Board’s Big Future
  • Fastweb Scholarship Search
  • Scholarships.com
  • Career One-Stop Scholarship Search
  • Hebrew Free Loan Society (HFLS)
  • 1199 The Union
  • Local 52 Union
  • NYS Scholarships & Awards
  • Lighthouse International Scholarships - Graduate Awards
  • Zimmermann Scholarship
  • NYFWA Scholarships
  • David J. Moynihan Scholarships

Aid for Military Families

There are special aid programs or additional aid eligibility for serving in the military or for being the spouse or child of a veteran.

Aid and Other Resources From the Federal Government

Besides aid from the U.S. Department of Education (ED), the federal government offers a number of other financial aid programs. These programs include

  • tax benefits for education;
  • education awards for community service with AmeriCorps;
  • educational and training vouchers for current and former foster care youth

Social Work Loan Forgiveness

The NYS Licensed Social Worker Loan Forgiveness (LSWLF) Program is offered to increase the number of licensed social workers working in critical human service areas, including but not limited to the following fields: home care, health, mental health, substance abuse, aging, HIV/AIDS and child welfare or communities with multilingual needs.

Eligibility

An applicant must:

  • be a NYS resident and have resided in NYS for 12 continuous months prior to applying for this Program
  • be a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen
  • be a social worker professionally licensed to practice in NYS
  • have an outstanding balance on an eligible student loan debt
  • have qualified service:
    • full-time employment as a licensed social worker in a critical human service area for at least 35 hours per week during the calendar year prior to his or her application. To determine if your workplace is an eligible service area, visit Eligibility by County;
  • be in a non-default status on a student loan made under any NYS or federal education loan program or repayment of any NYS award; and
  • be in compliance with the terms of any service condition imposed by a NYS award.

Eligible Student Loans

An applicant must have an outstanding balance on eligible student loan debt.

Eligible student loans include NYS and federal government student loans, and private student loans made by commercial entities subject to governmental examination. Parent PLUS loans are not eligible.

Ineligible loans also include non-educational student loan consolidations and home equity loans used to pay off student loans.

Public Loan Forgiveness

Taken from the Federal Student Aid Website

Qualifying Employer

  • Government organizations at any level (U.S. federal, state, local, or tribal) – this includes the U.S. military
  • Not-for-profit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code

Serving as a full-time AmeriCorps or Peace Corps volunteer also counts as qualifying employment for the PSLF Program.

The following types of employers don't qualify for PSLF:

  • Labor unions
  • Partisan political organizations
  • For-profit organizations, including for-profit government contractors

Contractors: You must be directly employed by a qualifying employer for your employment to count toward PSLF. If you’re employed by an organization that is doing work under a contract with a qualifying employer, it is your employer’s status—not the status of the organization that your employer has a contract with—that determines whether your employment qualifies for PSLF. For example, if you’re employed by a for-profit contractor that is doing work for a qualifying employer, your employment does not count toward PSLF.

Other types of not-for-profit organizations: If you work for a not-for-profit organization that is not tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, it can still be considered a qualifying employer if it provides certain types of qualifying public services.

Full-time Employment

For PSLF, you’re generally considered to work full-time if you meet your employer’s definition of full-time or work at least 30 hours per week, whichever is greater.

If you are employed in more than one qualifying part-time job at the same time, you will be considered full-time if you work a combined average of at least 30 hours per week with your employers.

If you are employed by a not-for-profit organization, time spent on religious instruction, worship services, or any form of proselytizing as a part of your job responsibilities may be counted toward meeting the full-time employment requirement.

Eligible Loans

Any loan received under the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program qualifies for PSLF.

Loans from these federal student loan programs don't qualify for PSLF: the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program and the Federal Perkins Loan (Perkins Loan) Program. However, they may become eligible if you consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation Loan.

Student loans from private lenders do not qualify for PSLF.

Under normal PSLF Program rules, if you consolidate your loans, only qualifying payments that you make on the new Direct Consolidation Loan can be counted toward the 120 payments required for PSLF. Any payments you made on the loans before you consolidated them don’t count. However, if you consolidate these loans into a Direct Loan before October 31, 2022, you may be able to receive qualifying credit for payments made on those loans through the limited PSLF waiver.