Leaving UWL
A page within Financial Aid
Best wishes towards your future endeavors! Below is a list of all the key things you need to know regarding leaving UWL. If you are transferring, withdrawing, or taking a gap semester, we advise that you connect with the Student Life Office to assist you in the exit process.
Exit loan counseling
Exit loan counseling must be completed each time a student drops below half-time enrollment, withdraws entirely from the university, or graduates. Only students who have borrowed federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans are required to complete exit loan counseling.
Exit loan counseling can be completed at studentaid.gov. You can find it under the "Loan Repayment" tab or by using the search feature. Students will need to login using their Federal Student Aid (FSA) login information.
The exit loan counseling session will take approximately 30 minutes to complete and must be completed in one sitting.
As part of the session, students will need to supply contact information for their next of kin and information for two references who live at a different address than their next of kin. Please note that all three references must live at different addresses.
Complete your exit loan counseling
Students who have only borrowed private loans are not required to complete exit loan counseling but are welcome to. We encourage you to reach out to your loan servicer to learn about your repayment plan and options.
Know your repayment plan
After you leave school (due to graduation, withdrawal, a gap semester, etc.) or drop below half-time enrollment, a six-month deferment period, or a "grace period," will begin. You are not required to make any payments towards your federal loans during this grace period. After six months, if you have not resumed above half-time enrollment at a college or university, you are expected to make payments towards your federal student loans. It's important to know what your payment plan is, what your options are, and who to reach out to. Read more about loan repayment
The loan "grace period" only occurs once. If you start your grace period and then re-enroll, you will not be granted a six month grace period again the next time you terminate enrollment. The six months do not carry over/cannot be split to be multiple grace periods.
Loan consolidation
Consolidation lets the borrower combine all of their federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans loans into a single loan.
Students who are currently attending school are not eligible to consolidate their loans.
Students may consolidate while they are either in their grace period or in repayment. Consolidating during a grace period can result in losing some of the grace period, but waiting until the loans are in repayment will result in a higher interest rate.
Transferring
If you plan to transfer from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, please do the following:
- Contact the UWL Financial Aid Office to inform us that you are transferring. You can email finaid@uwlax.edu.
- Complete federally required Exit Loan Counseling if you borrowed federal loans while at UWL.
- Remove the UWL school code (003919) from your FAFSA.
