NOTE: This Rights and Responsibilities Statement is reproduced here exactly as it appears on the paper application and promissory note. Therefore, references to page numbers, sections, or item numbers will refer you to the paper version of the application.

Important Notice: This Borrower’s Rights and Responsibilities Statement provides additional information about the terms and conditions of the loan you will receive under the accompanying Federal Direct Consolidation Loan (Direct Consolidation Loan) Application and Promissory Note (Note). Please keep a copy of the Note and this Borrower’s Rights and Responsibilities Statement for your records.

In this document, the words "we","us", and "our" refer to the U.S. Department of
Education.

1. The William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program. The William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program includes the following types of loans, known collectively as “"Direct Loans"”:

• Federal Direct Stafford/Ford Loans (Direct Subsidized Loans)
• Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford/Ford Loans (Direct Unsubsidized Loans)
• Federal Direct PLUS Loans (Direct PLUS Loans)
• Federal Direct Consolidation Loans (Direct Consolidation Loans)

The Direct Loan Program is authorized by Title IV, Part D, of the Higher
Education Act of 1965, as amended, 20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq. (HEA).

Direct Loans are made by the U.S. Department of Education. We contract with
servicers to service, answer questions about, and process payments on Direct
Loans. We will provide you with the address and telephone number of the
servicer for your loan.

2. Laws that apply to this Note. The terms and conditions of loans made under
this Note are determined by the HEA and other applicable federal laws and
regulations. These laws and regulations are referred to as "the Act" throughout
this Borrower's Rights and Responsibilities Statement. State law, unless it is
preempted by federal law, may provide you with certain rights, remedies, and
defenses in addition to those stated in the Note and this Borrower's Rights and
Responsibilities Statement.

NOTE: Any change to the Act applies to loans in accordance with the
effective date of the change.

3. Direct Consolidation Loan identification numbers.  Depending on the
type(s) of federal education loan(s) that you choose to consolidate, your Direct
Consolidation Loan may have up to two individual loan identification numbers.
However, you will have only one Direct Consolidation Loan and will receive only
one bill.

3a.  The subsidized portion of your Direct Consolidation Loan ("Direct Subsidized
Consolidation Loan") will have one loan identification number representing the
amount of the following types of loans that you consolidate:

• Subsidized Federal Stafford Loans
• Direct Subsidized Loans
• Subsidized Federal Consolidation Loans
• Direct Subsidized Consolidation Loans
• Federal Insured Student Loans (FISL)
• Guaranteed Student Loans (GSL)

3b.  The unsubsidized portion of your Direct Consolidation Loan ("Direct
Unsubsidized Consolidation Loan") will have one identification number
representing the amount of the following types of loans that you consolidate:

• Unsubsidized and Nonsubsidized Federal Stafford Loans
• Direct Unsubsidized Loans
• Unsubsidized Federal Consolidation Loans
• Direct Unsubsidized Consolidation Loans
• Federal PLUS Loans (for parents or for graduate and professional students)
• Direct PLUS Loans (for parents or for graduate and professional students)
• Direct PLUS Consolidation Loans
• Federal Perkins Loans
• National Direct Student Loans (NDSL)
• National Defense Student Loans (NDSL)
• Federal Supplemental Loans for Students (SLS)
• Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS)
• Auxiliary Loans to Assist Students (ALAS)
• Health Professions Student Loans (HPSL)
• Health Education Assistance Loans (HEAL)
• Nursing Student Loans (NSL)
• Loans for Disadvantaged Students (LDS)

4. Adding eligible loans to your Direct Consolidation Loan.  You may add eligible loans to your Direct Consolidation Loan by submitting a request to us within 180 days of the date your Direct Consolidation Loan is made. (Your Direct Consolidation Loan is "made" on the date we pay off the first loan that you are consolidating.) After we pay off any loans that you add during the 180-day period, we will notify you of the new total amount of your Direct Consolidation Loan and of any adjustments that must be made to your monthly payment amount and/or interest rate.

If you want to consolidate any additional eligible loan(s) after the 180-day period, you must apply for a new Direct Consolidation Loan.

5. Loans that may be consolidated.  General. Only the federal education loans listed in Items 3a.and 3b. of this Borrower's Rights and Responsibilities Statement may be consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan. You may only consolidate loans that are in a grace period or in repayment (including loans in deferment or forbearance). At least one of the loans that you consolidate must be a Direct Loan Program loan or a Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loan.

Defaulted loans. You may consolidate a loan that is in default if (a) you first make satisfactory repayment arrangements with the holder of the defaulted loan, or (b) you agree to repay your Direct Consolidation Loan under the Income Contingent
Repayment (ICR) Plan or the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan (see Item 10).

Existing consolidation loans. Generally, you may consolidate an existing Direct Consolidation Loan or Federal Consolidation Loan into a new Direct Consolidation Loan only if you include at least one additional eligible loan in the consolidation. However, you may consolidate a Federal Consolidation Loan into a new Direct Consolidation Loan without including an additional loan if the Federal Consolidation Loan is delinquent and has been submitted by the lender to the guaranty agency for default aversion, or if the Federal Consolidation Loan is in default. In such cases, you must agree to repay the new Direct Consolidation Loan under the ICR Plan or the IBR Plan. You may also consolidate a single Federal Consolidation Loan into a new Direct Consolidation Loan to use the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program described in Item 17 of this Borrower's Rights and Responsibilities Statement, or the no accrual of interest benefit for active duty service members described in Item 8.

6. Information you must report to us.  Until your loan is repaid, you must notify your servicer if you:

• Change your address or telephone number;
• Change your name (for example, maiden name to married name);
• Change your employer or your employer’s address or telephone number changes; or
• Have any other change in status that would affect your loan (for example, if you receive a deferment while you are unemployed, but you find a job and
  therefore no longer meet the eligibility requirements for the deferment)

7. Interest rate.  The interest rate on your Direct Consolidation Loan will be the lesser of the weighted average of the interest rates on the loans being consolidated, rounded to the nearest higher one-eighth of one percent, OR 8.25%. We will send you a notice that tells you the interest rate on your loan.

The interest rate on a Direct Consolidation Loan is a fixed rate. This means that the interest rate will remain the same throughout the life of your loan.

If you qualify under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, the interest rate on your loans obtained prior to military service may be limited to 6% during your military service. To receive this benefit, you must contact your servicer for information about the documentation you must provide to show that you qualify.

8. Payment of interest.  Except as provided below for borrowers who serve in the military, interest accrues on a Direct Consolidation Loan from the date the loan is made until it is paid in full or discharged, including during periods of deferment or forbearance. You are responsible for paying all interest that accrues, except for interest that accrues on the subsidized portion of a Direct Consolidation Loan ("Direct Subsidized Consolidation Loan" - see Item 3a.) during deferment periods.

If you do not pay the interest as it accrues during the periods described above, we will add the interest to the unpaid principal amount of your loan at the end of the deferment or forbearance period. This is called "capitalization." Capitalization increases the unpaid principal balance of your loan, and interest will then accrue on the increased principal amount.

The chart below shows the difference in the total amount you would repay on a $15,000 Direct Unsubsidized Consolidation Loan if you pay the interest as it accrues during a 12-month deferment or forbearance period, compared to the amount you would repay if you do not pay the interest and it is capitalized.

	If you pay the interest as it accrues...	If you do not pay the interest and it is capitalized...
Loan Amount	$ 15,000	$ 15,000
Capitalized Interest for 12 Months (at the maximum rate of 8.25%)	$ 0	$ 1,238
Principal to be Repaid	$ 15,000	$ 16,238
Monthly Payment (Standard Repayment Plan)	$ 146	$ 158
Number of Payments	180	180
Total Amount Repaid	$ 26,209	$ 28,359

In this example, you would pay $12 less per month and $2,150 less altogether if you pay the interest as it accrues during a 12-month deferment or forbearance period.

You may be able to claim a federal income tax deduction for interest payments you make on Direct Loans. For further information, refer to IRS Publication 970, which is available at http://www.irs.ustreas.gov.

Under the no interest accrual benefit for active duty service members, during periods of qualifying active duty military service interest does not accrue on the portion of a Direct Consolidation Loan that repaid a Direct Loan Program or FFEL Program loan first disbursed on or after October 1, 2008 (for up to 60 months).

9. Repayment incentive programs.  A repayment incentive is a benefit that we offer to encourage you to repay your loan on time. Under a repayment incentive program, the interest rate we charge on your loan may be reduced. Some repayment incentive programs require you to make a certain number of payments on time to keep the reduced interest rate. For Direct Consolidation Loans, the following repayment incentive program may be available to you:

Interest Rate Reduction for Automatic Withdrawal of Payments

Under the automatic withdrawal option, your bank automatically deducts your monthly loan payment from your checking or savings account and sends it to us. Automatic withdrawal helps to ensure that your payments are made on time. In addition, you receive a 0.25% interest rate reduction while you repay under the automatic withdrawal option. We will include information about the automatic withdrawal option in your first bill. You can also get this information on your servicer's web site, or by calling your servicer. Your servicer's web site address and toll-free telephone number are provided on all correspondence that your servicer sends you.

Your servicer can provide you with more information on other repayment incentive programs that may be available.

Note: Another repayment incentive program, the up-front interest rebate, is available on Direct Subsidized Loans, Direct Unsubsidized Loans, and Direct PLUS Loans that were first disbursed before July 1, 2012. The rebate is equal to a percentage of the loan amount, and is the same amount that would result if the interest rate on the loan were lowered by a specific percentage. To permanently keep an up-front interest rebate, a borrower must make each of the first 12 required monthly payments on time when the loan enters repayment. If you consolidate a Direct Loan on which you received an up-front interest rebate before you permanently earn the rebate (the correspondence you received about your loan will tell you if you received a rebate), you will have to make the first 12 required monthly payments on your Direct Consolidation Loan on time to keep the interest rebate. "On time" means that we must receive each payment no later than 6 days after the due date. You will lose the rebate if you do not make all of your first 12 required monthly payments on your Direct Consolidation Loan on time. If you lose the rebate, we will add the rebate amount back to the principal balance on your loan account. This will increase the amount that you must repay.

10. Repaying your loan.   Unless you receive a deferment or forbearance on your loan (see Item 16), your first payment will be due within 60 days of the first disbursement of your Direct Consolidation Loan. Your servicer will notify you of the date your first payment is due.

You must make payments on your loan even if you do not receive a bill or repayment notice.

Generally, you must repay all of your Direct Loans under the same repayment plan. You may choose one of the following repayment plans to repay any Direct Consolidation Loan:

• Standard Repayment Plan - Under this plan, you will make fixed monthly payments and repay your loan in full within 10 to 30 years (not including periods of deferment or forbearance) from the date the loan entered repayment, depending on the amount of your Direct Consolidation Loan and the amount of your other student loan debt (not to exceed the amount you are consolidating) as listed in Section C2 of your Note (see the chart below). Your payments must be at least $50 a month ($600 a year) and will be more, if necessary, to repay the loan within the required time period.
• Graduated Repayment Plan - Under this plan, your payments will be lower at first and will then increase over time, usually every two years. You will repay your loan in full within 10 to 30 years (not including periods of deferment or forbearance) from the date the loan entered repayment, depending on the total amount of your Direct Consolidation Loan and the amount of your other student loan debt (not to exceed the amount you are consolidating) as listed in Section C2 of your Note (see the chart below). No single payment under this plan will be more than three times greater than any other payment.

Maximum Repayment Periods Under the Standard and Graduated Repayment Plans
Total Education Loan Indebtedness	Maximum Repayment Period
Less than $7,500	10 years
$7,500 to $9,999	12 years
$10,000 to $19,999	15 years
$20,000 to $39,999	20 years
$40,000 to $59,999	25 years
$60,000 or more	30 years

• Extended Repayment Plan - You may choose this plan only if: (1) you had no outstanding balance on a Direct Loan Program loan as of October 7, 1998, or on the date you obtained a Direct Loan Program loan on or after October 7, 1998; and (2) you have an outstanding balance on Direct Loan Program Loans that exceeds $30,000. Under this plan, you may choose to make either fixed or graduated monthly payments and will repay your loan in full over a repayment period not to exceed 25 years (not including periods of deferment or forbearance) from the date your loan entered repayment. If you choose to make fixed monthly payments, your payments must be at least $50 a month ($600 a year) and will be more, if necessary, to repay the loan within the required time period. If you choose to make graduated monthly payments, your payments will start out lower and will then increase over time, generally every two years. Under a graduated repayment schedule, your monthly payment must at least be equal to the amount of interest that accrues each month, and no single payment will be more than three times greater than any other payment.
• Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) Plan - Under this plan, your monthly payment amount will be based on your adjusted gross income (and that of your spouse if you are married), your family size, and the total amount of your Direct Loans. Until we obtain the information needed to calculate your monthly payment amount, your payment will equal the amount of interest that accrues monthly on your loan unless you request a forbearance. As your income changes, your payments may change. If you do not repay your loan after 25 years under this plan, the unpaid portion will be forgiven. You may have to pay income tax on any amount forgiven.

In addition to the repayment plans listed above, you may also choose the following repayment plan to repay a Direct Consolidation Loan if you are not consolidating a parent Direct PLUS Loan or a parent Federal PLUS Loan (see Note below):

• Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan - Under this plan, your required monthly payment amount will be based on your income. To initially qualify for this plan and to continue to make income-based payments, you must have a partial financial hardship. Your monthly payment amount may be adjusted
  annually. The maximum repayment period under this plan may exceed 10 years. If your loan is not repaid in full after you have made the equivalent of 25 years of qualifying payments and at least 25 years have elapsed, you may qualify for forgiveness of any outstanding balance on your loans. You may have to pay income tax on any amount forgiven.

NOTE: A parent PLUS loan is a PLUS loan that you obtained to help pay for your dependent child's undergraduate education. Direct Consolidation Loans that repaid parent Direct PLUS Loans or parent Federal PLUS Loans may not be repaid under the IBR Plan. However, such loans may be repaid under the ICR Plan.

If you can show to our satisfaction that the terms and conditions of these repayment plans are not adequate to meet your exceptional circumstances, we may provide you with an alternative repayment plan.

If you do not choose a repayment plan, we will choose a plan for you in accordance with the Act.

You may change repayment plans at any time after you have begun repaying your loan. There is no penalty if you make loan payments before they are due, or pay more than the amount due each month.

Except for payments made under the IBR Plan, we apply your payments in the following order: (1) late charges and collection costs, (2) outstanding interest, and (3) outstanding principal. For payments made under the IBR Plan, we apply your payments in the following order: (1) outstanding interest, (2) late charges and collection costs, and (3) outstanding principal.

When you have repaid your loan in full, your servicer will send you a notice telling you that you have paid off your loan. You should keep this notice in a safe place.

11. Transfer of loan.  We may transfer one or all of your loans to another servicer without your consent. If the address to which you must send payments or correspondence changes, you will be notified of the new servicer's name, address and telephone number, the effective date of the transfer, and the date when you must begin sending payments or directing communications to that servicer. Transfer of a loan to a different servicer does not affect your rights and
responsibilities under that loan.

12. Late charges and collection costs.  If you do not make any part of a payment within 30 days after it is due, we may require you to pay a late charge. This charge will not be more than six cents for each dollar of each late payment. If you do not make payments as scheduled, we may also require you to pay other charges and fees involved in collecting your loan.

13. Demand for immediate repayment.  The entire unpaid amount of your loan becomes due and payable (this is called "acceleration") if you:

• Make a false statement that causes you to receive a loan that you are not eligible to receive; or
• Default on your loan.

14. Defaulting on your loan.  Default (failing to repay your loan) is defined in detail under "Acceleration and Default" on page 4 of this Note. If you default:

• You will be required to immediately repay the entire unpaid amount of your loan.
• We may sue you, take all or part of your federal tax refund or other federal payments, and/or garnish your wages so that your employer is required to send us part of your wages to pay off your loan.
• You will be required to pay reasonable collection fees and costs, plus court costs and attorney fees.
• You will lose eligibility for other federal student aid and assistance under most federal benefit programs.
• You will lose eligibility for loan deferments.
• We will report your default to national consumer reporting agencies (see Item 15).

If you default on a loan, we will report the default to national consumer reporting agencies. We will notify you at least 30 days in advance that we plan to report default information to a consumer reporting agency unless you resume making payments on the loan within 30 days of the date of the notice. You will be given a chance to ask for a review of the debt before we report it.

If a consumer reporting agency contacts us regarding objections you have raised about the accuracy or completeness of any information we have reported, we are required to provide the consumer reporting agency with a prompt response.

16. Deferment and forbearance (postponing payments).  If you meet certain requirements, you may receive a deferment that allows you to temporarily stop making payments on your loan. If you cannot make your scheduled loan payments, but do not qualify for a deferment, we may give you a forbearance. A forbearance allows you to temporarily stop making payments on your loan, temporarily make smaller payments, or extend the time for making payments.

Deferment

You may receive a deferment:

• While you are enrolled at least half-time at an eligible school;
• While you are in a full-time course of study in a graduate fellowship program;
• While you are in an approved full-time rehabilitation program for individuals
  with disabilities;
• While you are unemployed (for a maximum of three years; you must be diligently seeking, but unable to find, full-time employment); or
• While you are experiencing an economic hardship (including Peace Corps service), as determined under the Act (for a maximum of three years).
• While you are serving on active duty during a war or other military operation or national emergency, or performing qualifying National Guard duty during a war or other military operation or national emergency, and if you were serving on or after October 1, 2007, for an additional 180-day period following the demobilization date for your qualifying service; or
• If you are a member of the National Guard or other reserve component of the U.S. Armed Forces (current or retired) and you are called or ordered to active duty while enrolled at an eligible school, or within 6 months of having been enrolled at least half-time, you are eligible for a deferment during the 13 months following the conclusion of the active duty service, or until you return to enrolled student status on at least a half-time basis, whichever is earlier.

You may be eligible to receive additional deferments if, at the time you received your first Direct Loan, you had an outstanding balance on a loan made under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program before July 1, 1993. If you meet this requirement, contact your servicer about additional deferments that may be available.

You may receive a deferment while you are enrolled in school on at least a half-time basis if: (1) you submit a deferment request form to your servicer along with documentation of your eligibility for the deferment; or (2) your servicer receives information from the school you are attending that indicates you are enrolled at least half-time. If your servicer processes a deferment based on information received from your school, you will be notified of the deferment and will have the
option of canceling the deferment and continuing to make payments on your loan.

For all other deferments, you (or, for a deferment based on active military duty or qualifying National Guard duty during a war or other military operation or national emergency, your representative) must submit a deferment request form to your servicer, along with documentation of your eligibility for the deferment. In certain circumstances, you may not be required to provide documentation of your eligibility if your servicer confirms that you have been granted the same deferment for the same period of time on a FFEL Program loan. Your servicer can provide you with a deferment request form that explains the requirements for the type of deferment you are requesting. You may also obtain deferment request forms and information on deferment eligibility requirements from your servicer's web site.

If you are in default on your loan, you are not eligible for a deferment.

You are responsible for paying the interest that accrues on a Direct Unsubsidized Consolidation Loan during a deferment period. You are not responsible for paying the interest that accrues on a Direct Subsidized Consolidation Loan during a deferment period.

Forbearance

We may give you a forbearance if you are temporarily unable to make your scheduled loan payments for reasons including, but not limited to, financial hardship and illness.

We will give you a forbearance if:

• You are serving in a medical or dental internship or residency program, and you meet specific requirements;
• The total amount you owe each month for all of the student loans you received under Title IV of the Act is 20% or more of your total monthly gross income (for a maximum of three years);
• You are serving in a national service position for which you receive a national service education award under the National and Community Service Act of 1990 (AmeriCorps). In some cases, the interest that accrues on a qualified loan during the service period will be paid by the Corporation for National and Community Service;
• You qualify for partial repayment of your loans under the Student Loan Repayment Program, as administered by the Department of Defense;
• You are performing service that would qualify you for loan forgiveness under the teacher loan forgiveness program that is available to certain Direct Loan and FFEL program borrowers; or
• You are a member of the National Guard who qualifies for a post-active duty student deferment but not for a military service deferment or other deferment, and you are engaged in active state duty for a period of more than 30 consecutive days.

To request a forbearance, contact your servicer. Your servicer can provide you with a forbearance request form that explains the requirements for the type of forbearance you are requesting. You may also obtain forbearance request forms and information on forbearance eligibility requirements from your servicer's web site. Under certain circumstances, we may also give you a forbearance without requiring you to submit a request or documentation. These circumstances include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Periods necessary for us to determine your eligibility for a loan discharge;
• A period of up to 60 days for us to collect and process documentation related to your request for a deferment, forbearance, change in repayment plan, or consolidation loan (we do not capitalize interest charged during this period); or
• Periods when you are involved in a military mobilization or are affected by a local or national emergency.

You are responsible for paying the interest that accrues on your entire Direct Consolidation Loan during a forbearance period.

17. Discharge (having your loan forgiven).  We will discharge (forgive) your Direct Consolidation Loan if:

• Your servicer receives acceptable documentation of your death. We will also discharge the portion of a Direct Consolidation Loan that repaid one or more Direct PLUS Loans or Federal PLUS Loans obtained on behalf of a student who dies.
• Your loan is discharged in bankruptcy. However, federal student loans are not automatically discharged if you file for bankruptcy. To have your loan discharged in bankruptcy, you must prove to the bankruptcy court in an adversary proceeding that repaying the loan would cause undue hardship.
• You become totally and permanently disabled (as defined in the Act) and meet certain other requirements.

In certain cases, we may also discharge all or a portion of your Direct Consolidation Loan if:

• One or more Direct Loan Program, FFEL Program, or Federal Perkins Loan Program loans that you consolidated was used to pay for a program of study that you (or the dependent student for whom you borrowed a PLUS loan) were unable to complete because the school closed;
• Your eligibility (or the eligibility of the dependent student for whom you borrowed a PLUS loan) for one or more of the Direct Loan Program or FFEL Program loans that you consolidated was falsely certified by the school;
• Your eligibility for one or more of the Direct Loan Program or FFEL Program loans that you consolidated was falsely certified as a result of a crime of identity theft; or
• The school did not pay a required refund of one or more Direct Loan Program or FFEL Program loans that you consolidated.

We may forgive a portion of your Direct Consolidation Loan that repaid Direct Subsidized or Direct Unsubsidized Loans you received after October 1, 1998, or subsidized or unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loans you received under the FFEL program after October 1, 1998 if you: (1) teach full time for five consecutive years in certain elementary and/or secondary schools or educational service agencies that serve low-income families; (2) meet certain other qualifications; and (3) did not owe a Direct Loan or a FFEL Program loan as of October 1, 1998, or as of the date you obtain a loan after October 1, 1998.

A Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is available that provides for the cancellation of the remaining balance due on your eligible Direct Loan Program loans after you have made 120 full, on-time, scheduled monthly payments (after October 1, 2007) on those loans under certain repayment plans while you are employed full-time by certain public service organizations.

The Act may provide for certain loan forgiveness or repayment benefits on your loans in addition to the benefits described above. If other forgiveness or repayment options become available, your servicer will provide information about these benefits.

To request a loan discharge based on one of the conditions described above (except for discharges due to death or bankruptcy), you must complete an application that you may obtain from your servicer.

In some cases, you may assert, as a defense against collection of your loan, that the school did something wrong or failed to do something that it should have done. You can make such a defense against repayment only if the school's act or omission directly relates to your loan or to the educational services that the loan was intended to pay for, and if what the school did or did not do would give rise to a legal cause of action against the school under applicable state law. If you believe that you have a defense against repayment of your loan, contact your servicer.

We do not guarantee the quality of the academic programs provided by schools that participate in federal student financial aid programs. You must repay your loan even if you do not complete your education, are unable to obtain employment in your field of study, or are dissatisfied with, or do not receive, the education you paid for with the loan.

18. Department of Defense and other federal agency loan repayment.  Under certain circumstances, military personnel may have education loans repaid by the
Secretary of Defense. This benefit is offered as part of a recruitment program that
does not apply to individuals based on their previous military service or to those
who are not eligible for enlistment in the U.S. Armed Forces. For more
information, contact your local military service recruitment office.

Other agencies of the federal government may also offer student loan repayment programs as an incentive to recruit and retain employees. Contact the agency's human resources department for more information.

END OF BORROWER’S RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES STATEMENT