Federal Financial Aid At Saba

[catalanf18]

Saba has been in operation for about 19 years. Does anyone know why they are still not approved to certify Federal Financial Aid for U.S. Students?

[wolfvgang22]

If you do a search on this forum regarding the topic, you will find that no school that caters mainly to American students has been able to get Staffords since 1995. Congress passed a law in that year requiring schools to have a student body made up of like 90% indigenous people to qualify for student loans. This law was passed to limit the growth of foreign med schools and protect American med schools interests.
Only Ross, AUC, and St. George's were allowed to keep the loans they already were offering because they threatened to sue. Saba was too young at that time to have staffords yet, and so could not ever get them after the passage of the law.

[catalanf18]

If you do a search on this forum regarding the topic, you will find that no school that caters mainly to American students has been able to get Staffords since 1995. Congress passed a law in that year requiring schools to have a student body made up of like 90% indigenous people to qualify for student loans. This law was passed to limit the growth of foreign med schools and protect American med schools interests.
Only Ross, AUC, and St. George's were allowed to keep the loans they already were offering because they threatened to sue. Saba was too young at that time to have staffords yet, and so could not ever get them after the passage of the law.Thank you. That is a good explanation. You wouldn't happen to know if the school is doing something about getting approved would you.

[wolfvgang22]

Nope. I could be wrong, but I think the only way to fix it would be to get Congress to repeal the law. I forget the name of the law, it might be found if you do a search.
Ducman says there's a process...that's news to me, so maybe it will happen one day. I wouldn't hold my breath. :oops:
It's like this: If you have to have CA approval, go to a school that already has CA approval for licensure of it's grads.
Similiarly, if you have to have stafford loans, go to a school that already has them.

[ducman]

The school is in the process of Stafford approval. We recently had a 3rd party committee from Ireland come and visit the school. This is just one of the many procedures needed to move along this process.

The process and procedures are definnitely being followed, but do not get your hopes up.

[sprvs]

If there is indeed a law passed by Congress that requires to have 90% local students, what is the point of trying? Saba University School of Medicine will never have that many local students given the population of Saba and N.A. . Or, am I missing something here?

[ResearchingGuy]

Seems they have relaxed the 90% rule, but they are still guninng for the offshore schools. Approval has been held up while the GAO investigates the Department of Education for giving loans to fake students attending a non-existent school in Europe (a GAO sting).

Saba is working on it, but they told us not to hold our breath.

Best of Luck!

[edoki]

Thanks for that refreshing news!

[studentMD]

Might want to take a look at this SMU thread in case any of u all want to write letters to congress or senate since it looks like congress supposed to be reauthorizing the bill again this yr..

see http://www.valuemd.com/ftopic33394.html

[wolfvgang22]

I'm sending letters to my Texas rep. and senator in Washington ASAP. I encourage everyone else to do the same. 8)

[Siddman]

Saba has been in operation for about 19 years. Does anyone know why they are still not approved to certify Federal Financial Aid for U.S. Students?

As per Canadian students.....Saba is approved for Goverements loans....just a note for Canadians....


Siddman

[wolfvgang22]

For those of you on island, for whom it is expensive to send a snail-mail letter, you can go to the website of the US congress and US senate and send an e-mail to them via a form.
http://www.senate.gov/
http://www.house.gov/

[rdecastro]

I'm sending letters to my Texas rep. and senator in Washington ASAP. I encourage everyone else to do the same. 8)


Thank you for such a refreshingly mature response - especially compared to the students (and administration) of other schools, who's first response is to threaten lawsuits.

And I've already sent my letters, both to my representatives and to the Secretary of Education (since it's an administrative rule of his department) and the President.

[BTH]

Salutations:

If SABA were to somehow get federal loans for its students, wouldn't they raise the tuition as well? It seems to me one of the reasons tuition is lower compared to other Caribbean schools is because SABA does not offer federal loans. Of course, I would still be glad to receive federal funding if possible but I don't want the cost of tuition to rise either. Oh well, you can't win'em all... :D

[wolfvgang22]

Salutations:

If SABA were to somehow get federal loans for its students, wouldn't they raise the tuition as well? It seems to me one of the reasons tuition is lower compared to other Caribbean schools is because SABA does not offer federal loans. Of course, I would still be glad to receive federal funding if possible but I don't want the cost of tuition to rise either. Oh well, you can't win'em all... :DGood point, you're probably correct.

[sprvs]

If SABA were to somehow get federal loans for its students, wouldn't they raise the tuition as well?

What if TERI goes away and we have no other aid available? I would rather pay extra with more options available than not being able to attend Saba for not having a financial aid, unless you can pay everything with your own money. On top of that, I am sure there are many who cannot even get TERI becuase of lack of credit.

[BTH]

sprvs:

I agree with you. If somehow Teri decides to pull a Key Bank, many students would suffer. This is why I am all for Saba getting the federal loans, even if tuition does increase. Let us cross our fingers and hope... :D

[wolfvgang22]

If SABA were to somehow get federal loans for its students, wouldn't they raise the tuition as well?

What if TERI goes away and we have no other aid available? I would rather pay extra with more options available than not being able to attend Saba for not having a financial aid, unless you can pay everything with your own money. On top of that, I am sure there are many who cannot even get TERI becuase of lack of credit.
There is another option. Saba is starting to offer the HealthXpress student loan.

[BTH]

Hey wolfy, are the students able to obtain the HealthXpress loans yet? When you say SABA is starting to offer it, do you know anyone that has received it? If so, let me know. Thanks.

[wolfvgang22]

Well, there is another thread that says what is known so far:
http://www.valuemd.com/ftopic33101.html&highlight=student+xpress
Saba is indeed listed as an option under Massachusetts on the Health Xpress online application. So it should be operational at least by Sept., I would guess. If you need iit ASAP give Gardner a call, Financial Aid is really helpful.

[swinginislanddoc]

Saba's already raising tuition. Whether or not they'll raise it more with a federal loan, I don't know. However the fact that we now have CA approval, they're building on to the school and more people are applying (and therefore it's more competitive) the tuition has been climbing and most likely will continue to do so in the near future.

Still cheaper than most of the other schools... 8)

~S