Before You Apply
Student Loan Timeline/Important Steps:
This website offers details on how to apply and manage student loans specific to your studies at the University of Alberta. A very high level overview of a full-time loan journey will look like this:
Note: this is specific for full-time Alberta Student Loans. For specifics on part-time loans, concurrent loans or out of province loans please keep scrolling.
- Register full-time at the University of Alberta
- Register and create your Alberta.ca and studentaid.alberta.ca accounts
- Apply for your student loan! (applications for fall/winter generally open in June. Applications for spring/summer open in February).
- Set up your notification preferences in your studentaid.alberta.ca portal so you do not miss any important actions
- Before your loan can be assessed you will need to complete your income verification and any other required documents that they request.
- Your loan may take up to 6 weeks to be assessed by Alberta Student Aid. You will receive a notification when the assessment is complete.
- Complete your Master Student Financial Assistance Agreements and Alberta Loan Agreement.
- Your student loan will be confirmed by the University of Alberta. You will need to be registered in the program you indicated on your student loan application for your loan to be confirmed.
- Your funding will be released 1-2 weeks after your funding is confirmed. Some of your funding may be sent to your tuition account. Keep an eye out on your tuition account and bank account for funds to arrive. It is your responsibility to pay your tuition even if your student loan does not cover the full tuition amount.
- Create a log in for your Alberta MyLoan account and your National Student Loan Service Centre accounts. Set up notification preferences and check on these accounts once a term or so.
- Do this again next year!
- If you do not need a loan in subsequent years you will need to do a confirmation of enrollment to keep your loans in Interest Free Status.
- If you are finished school your loans will enter repayment.
- Contact the Student Service Centre if you have any questions at all!
Eligibility
In Canada, government student loans and grants are only available to Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and protected persons (refugees). If you are a resident of America, please visit our Government Student Loans for United States (US) Citizens webpage.
Provincial Residency
You must apply for government loans through the province or territory in which you hold provincial residency. Provincial/territorial residency for student loans is determined differently than the residency requirements used on provincial driver's licenses or health care cards. It is not necessarily determined by your current address or even how long you have lived in a province. Your residency may also depend on your dependent vs. independent status.
Visit the Alberta Student Aid Eligibility webpage or contact the Student Service Centre for information on how to determine residency and whether you are a dependent or independent student.
Family Income & Loan Eligibility
Visit the website of your province/territory student loan for more information on how family income will impact your eligibility to receive funding.
For Alberta student loan borrowers, parental income and spousal income will impact your ability to receive Alberta loan funding. You can see more information about this on the Changes to Student Loans section.
All students who apply for government student loans will need to provide their Line 15000 from the previous tax year in the student loan application. This means that you will need to have submitted your taxes in order to apply for the student loan, even if you are under 18 or have not been employed. That being said, if you did not file taxes for the previous year, an estimate of total income for that year may be accepted. Visit the Alberta Student Aid Alberta Grants webpage (under Determining Family Income) or contact the Student Service Centre for more information.
- If you filed taxes in another country, you can report your gross income and convert this to Canadian dollars.
Value of Your Funding
The total amount of loan funding you receive will depend on several factors, including the cost of your program, your parents income (if you are a dependent student), loan limits, and other eligibility factors. Many provincial loan/grant programs will provide information or calculators on their website to help you determine your eligibility.
For Alberta student loan borrowers, the maximum amount of funding you can receive depends on the program you are registered in. Visit the Alberta Student Aid Loan Limits webpage for more information on the maximum limit available for your program.
Loan Limits and Academic Progression
There is a maximum amount of student loan funding that you are eligible for yearly and in your lifetime. You may also be restricted or denied funding based on other factors such as:
- Repeating a year of study more than twice:
- For example: if you apply for a student loan as a first year student 3 times in a row you may be denied funding, even if you changed programs or degree outcomes. You may be able to appeal this, please contact the Student Service Centre for more details
- Note: students with a permanent or persistent disability and registered with our Accessibility and Accommodations office are exempt from this rule
- Taking Open Studies for more than 12 months
- Dropping from full-time studies or withdrawing more than twice:
- You will be denied funding on your third attempt if you have a history of dropping from full-time studies or withdrawal completely. You may be able to appeal this, please contact the Student Service Centre for more details
Grant Funding
When you apply for a student loan, you are also applying for grant funding; there is no separate application to apply for grant funding. Grant funding does not need to be paid back as long as you remain a full-time student. The amount of grant funding you receive will be based on your income (if you are an independent student), or the income of your parents (if you are a dependent student) or you and your spouse’s income (if you are married or common law).You may also be eligible for grants if you have dependents or a permanent disability. The maximum amount of grant funding available through government student loans is usually not enough to fully cover all of your educational expenses and as such many students will have a mix of student loan and grant funding.
The most common full-time grant that students are eligible for is called the Canada Student Grant for Full-Time Students. Please note that this grant is not available for students in graduate, PhD or Open Studies programs.
You can find more information about these grants on the Alberta Student Aid Canada Grants webpage. If you think you may qualify for a grant for students with permanent disabilities, please visit the University of Alberta Academic Accommodations webpage.
Applying for Grant Funding Only
Some provinces/territories may allow you to apply for grant funding without taking out a student loan. If your student loan is from a province/territory other than Alberta, please check their website directly. Visit the Grant Funding section of our website for more information.
Create Your Student Loan Accounts
The best way to stay on top of your student loan(s) is to create accounts on your student loan portals. It is important to turn on your notifications so you are alerted when there is information in your inbox. Please be sure to register for the portal specific to your province / territory of residence. Do not ignore notifications that you receive from these portals. You will only receive communications in your inboxes when there is important information or information that needs your attention. Feel free to contact the Student Service Centre if you have questions about any communications you receive.
If you are an Alberta resident and receive student loan funding from Canada and Alberta, you will need to create and check in regularly on the following three portals:
This website/portal is what you will use to apply for full-time Canada and Alberta student loans, upload the required documents needed for your application, complete your Alberta Student Aid Agreements), and view past applications. You will need to log in to this portal every time you would like to apply for a new student loan.
To create an Alberta Student Aid Account, you will need a Alberta.ca account. If you have a spouse, they will also need to create an Alberta.ca account even if they are not applying for a government student loan. The creation of the Alberta.ca account and then the Alberta Student Aid account can take up to 3 weeks. You can see more information about that here.
If you have trouble logging into this account or creating a verified account, please contact Alberta Student Aid directly.
While you do not apply for loans through this portal, it will have lots of important information about your Canada Student Loans, including the current status of your loan (i.e. in good standing, in repayment, in default). You will also be able to view how much federal funding you have received over your lifetime, repayment details, make payments towards your Canada Student Loans, submit your federal Master Student Financial Assistance Agreement (MSFAA) as well as apply for the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP).
This portal becomes more important once you enter repayment, but it is a good idea to log in once a semester or when you receive a notification to keep track of your loans.
If you have trouble logging into this account, please contact the NSLSC directly.
While you do not apply for loans through this portal, it will have lots of important information about your Alberta Student Loans, including the current status of your loan (i.e. in good standing, in repayment, in default). You will also be able to view how much provincial funding you have received over your lifetime, repayment details, and make payments towards your Alberta Student Loans.
This portal becomes more important once you enter repayment, but it is a good idea to log in once a semester or when you receive a notification to keep track of your loans.
If you have trouble logging into this account, please contact Alberta Student Aid directly.