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Entrance & Exit Counseling & Promissory Note – Important Steps!

*Before starting college, don’t forget to do your homework on education loans. Dodge City Community College helps qualified students complete their Entrance Counseling, Exit Counseling, and Promissory Note process, federal requirements for all loan applicants.*

Before starting the counseling process, be sure that you have completed a Loan Request Form. You must request the loans you are eligible for and let DC3 Financial Aid know if you want all of the amount or a lesser amount of the student loans available to you.

Loan Counseling

Loan Counseling: Loan counseling is a federal requirement for all Direct Stafford Loan recipients. The funds for student loans will not be disbursed until a student has completed the entrance counseling.

Entrance Counseling provides you with information about

Your rights and responsibilities as a borrower
Interest rates, expenses, repayment plans, and other important details about borrowing
Who to contact with questions

Completing Entrance Counseling

Go to www.studentaid.gov
Log-in with your FSA username and password (what you logged in with to complete your FAFSA)
At the top of the page, hover over “Grants and Loans” and then select “Loan Entrance Counseling” from the list.
Click “Start” for Undergraduate Student.
Begin the process. You will need to read very carefully. You will not be able to move to the next page until the current page has been completed.
Make sure you enter Dodge City Community College as the school that needs to be notified that you’ve completed this.
Once you have completed all pages and clicked through to the end, click “Submit.” Your confirmation will be electronically submitted to DC3 Financial Aid by the federal government.
Move on immediately to sign your Master Promissory Note by clicking the “Master Promissory Note” link under your message telling you that you’ve successfully completed entrance counseling. See the instructions in “Completing the Master Promissory Note” for the Master Promissory Note.

Completing the Master Promissory Note

Either continue the process for the Master Promissory Note (MPN) from the Entrance Counseling confirmation screen OR after logging in to your www.studentaid.gov account with your FSA username and password, on the right-hand side of your Dashboard, click on “Master Promissory Note.”
You will be required to provide current contact information for yourself and two references who do not live in your residence (complete addresses, city, state, zip, phone numbers, and emails).
You must read the complete MPN before you submit it! It is a binding contract in which you agree to all terms and conditions of repayment and use of student loan funds for your education.

Completing Exit Counseling

When you graduate or withdraw and/or become less than a half-time student (less than 6 credit hours), you will be required to complete exit counseling. · Go to www.studentaid.gov
Log-in with your FSA username and password (what you logged in with to complete your FAFSA)
On the right-hand side of your Dashboard, click on “Exit Counseling.”
Make sure you enter Dodge City Community College as the school that needs to be notified that you’ve completed this.
You must answer all of the questions on each page before moving on.
Your confirmation that you’ve completed this will be electronically submitted to DC3 Financial Aid by the federal government.

I need assistance with my student loans, repayment, loan questions, and more. Who do I talk to?

You are not alone when it comes to student loans. Dodge City Community College has partnered with Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC) Solutions, a nonprofit organization that provides Federal Student Loan repayment counseling services, to provide you with FREE assistance on your Federal student loan obligations to ensure successful, and comfortable, loan repayment. They assist students and families in their efforts to plan and pay for college. ECMC’s friendly customer representatives may reach out to you during your grace period to answer questions you have about your loan obligation and/or repayment options. They may also contact you if your loan(s) become delinquent. ECMC is not a collection agency. We’ve partnered with them to help you explore a wide variety of possibilities such as alternative repayment plans, deferment, consolidation, discharge, forgiveness, and forbearance options. ECMC will stay in touch with you via phone calls, letters, and/or emails to help you find answers to your questions and solutions to your issues. You are encouraged to take advantage of these free services provided by DC3!

For additional resources including information on repayment options, please visit ECMC Solutions’ Student Loan Repayment Counseling & Resources website at https://www.ecmcsolutions.org/.