When a student encounters a serious financial emergency midsemester, such as a family medical emergency or sudden loss of income, Heather Boutell has often turned to the Perkins Loans.
Boutell, director of financial aid at Bellarmine University, in Kentucky, said despite the additional debt, students are happy to find additional resources to keep them in college.
"It makes a difference for them to be able to stay in school," she said.
Most other aid programs can't be tapped midsemester in the same way. But that flexibility -- and the ability to fill gaps in aid at the beginning of the year -- will likely vanish after this year, barring last-minute action by Congress. The Perkins program expired at the end of September, after a two-year extension in 2015. And despite broad support in both parties in the House and Senate for extending Perkins for another two years, the chances appear slim.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/10/24/likely-end-perkins-loans-sets-scramble-aid-administrators