HOW DEFERMENT FORMS ARE PROCESSED:

Vanderbilt University participates in the National Student Loan Clearinghouse located in Herndon, Virginia. Immediately after the tenth day of classes for a term, and every sixty days thereafter, the University submits a student enrollment status report to the Clearinghouse, which in turn supplies verification of enrollment to lending agencies.

A number of lenders and loan servicing organizations that are members of the Clearinghouse participate in a Paperless Deferment Process. With this process, no paper forms need to be completed by either students or schools—the student simply calls his or her lender to request a deferment. The lender then matches this request against the Clearinghouse electronic data and verifies the in-school status of the student.

If a lender does not participate in the Paperless Deferment Process and needs a paper deferment form completed, the form should be submitted to the University Registrar’s Office located at 134 Magnolia Circle, Peabody. Paper deferment forms turned in to the University Registrar’s Office are forwarded to the Clearinghouse, which completes the forms and returns them to the lender.

Students who register late will not be included in the University’s initial submission to the Clearinghouse for the semester. Late enrollments will be reported in the next regular submission (normally sixty days from the date of the first submission).

IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH A LENDER . . .
If you receive a collection letter from a lender, or receive multiple deferment forms from a lender during a term in which you believe you should be in a deferred status, do the following:

1. Call the lending agency to see if a deferment form has been received from the Clearinghouse since the lender’s last communication with you. If you are unsure which agency services your student loans, go to the Clearinghouse’s Loan Locator Service to get this information. A list of phone numbers for most lenders is also available on the Clearinghouse web site.

2. If the lender indicates that the deferment has still not been processed, call the Clearinghouse at (703) 742-7791 and ask for a Student Service Representative. The representative will verify the date on which the deferment form was received by the Clearinghouse, the date the deferment was certified and mailed, the enrollment status that was certified, and where the form was sent.

3. If an emergency exists -- for example, you are 150 days delinquent and being threatened with default -- the Clearinghouse will intervene on your behalf by faxing another enrollment certification to the lender. Further, it will work with the lender to ensure that the form is processed on a high-priority basis.

4. If for any reason the Clearinghouse cannot resolve a problem with a lender, refer the matter back to the Office of the University Registrar (322-7701).