Frequently Asked Questions

Health Professional Nursing Student Loans

Who is eligible?
How do I apply?
Is there a deadline for applications?
What are the maximum loan amounts?
How do I repay the loans?
What are areas of need?

More Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Eligible to Apply?
To be eligible, the applicant must be a Missouri resident attending a Missouri institution. Missouri residents are those who lived in this state for more than one year for any purpose other than to attend an educational institution. Priority will be given to residents of underserved areas, minority persons and previous Professional and Practical Nursing Student Loan recipients.

Applicants must have been accepted by or currently attending a nursing program approved by the Missouri State Board of Nursing for participation in the program who in the previous year had at least an 80% pass rate. Previous nursing students must have at lease a 2.5 GPA to qualify.

How Do I Apply?
Applications can be obtained by downloading them from our website (Health Professional Student Loan Universal Application), or contact us.

Is There A Deadline For Application?
Applications are accepted between the dates of January 1 and midnight, June 30. Applications postmarked prior to or following those dates will not be processed.

What are the maximum loan amounts?
$2,500 for LPN students
$5,000 for professional nursing students (ADN, BSN, MSN, APN, Diploma)

How Do I Repay My Loan?
Nursing Student Loans can be repaid in one of two ways. Nursing Student Loan recipients can either earn forgiveness of their loans or repay them through cash repayment.

To earn forgiveness, the exact start date of any repayment period will depend on the participant's program completion date. Nursing student loan staff will be able to determine the exact start date for each scholar. Nurse loan participants will have contracted to repay their debt by providing nursing services within the state of Missouri. Qualifying employment would be in any hospital in Missouri or in any agency, institution or organization located in an area of need as determined by the DHSS. Forgiveness can only be earned after you have obtained your degree, become licensed and are employed in that capacity. The number of loans received determines the number of years needed to repay a debt through forgiveness.  Forgiveness of funding less than five years will be on a year–for-year basis.  For those receiving five years or more, forgiveness will be earned at the rate of 20% per year.

Nurse Loan Participants do have the option of repaying their debt in cash. All funds received by nursing students accrue interest at the rate of 9.5 percent annually. Interest begins accruing from the date the payment is issued. Cash repayment periods are a maximum of 60 months.

What is an area of need?
An area of need is a geographic area or a population that is experiencing a shortage of primary health care providers or adequate access to primary health care providers. This includes those areas designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas.