Our mission is to help working adults earn a job-relevant, affordable college degree. While program tuition is low compared to other institutions, most students rely on some federal financial aid to afford access. And particularly for applicants and students who do not have access to federal financial aid, cost can be prohibitive.
We’ve launched the Pay it Forward Program to increase access to Rivet School for all students, and to provide an alternative to unsubsidized and private student loans for students who would otherwise rely on them.
Before beginning an application to Pay it Forward, you'll need to complete a brief survey to confirm your eligibility for the program. You can access that survey on our Pay it Forward application page here (just click the button that says "Get Started").
You are eligible to participate in Pay it Forward if you:
As long as we have resources to support the program, all students who meet the eligibility criteria for the program will receive funding.
We (Rivet School) incur a number of expenses in offering the Pay it Forward program. Because we aim to make the program self-sustaining (and available to future cohorts of students), we need to charge a small fee to cover a portion of our costs.
Stride Funding is a Rivet School partner that helps us administer our Pay it Forward program. If you have any questions about the role that Stride Funding plays in our program, please feel free to reach out! We're happy to share more.
You can get a sense of your projected monthly and total payments (based on your funding amount) by following this link.
Even if you don’t complete your intended degree with Rivet School, you are still responsible for meeting the terms of your Pay it Forward contract.
Yes. The Pay it Forward program isn’t a scholarship, and participation comes with a number of responsibilities. For instance, if you don’t submit required materials verifying your income, or if you miss payments, you may be charged late fees, or your account can become delinquent. You can avoid this through clear communication with the Rivet School team, and by following the rules of the program. Specific fees that you can be charged are:
Pay it Forward isn’t a traditional loan, and so it’s hard to make a direct comparison between them. Here are just some of the differences between Pay it Forward and a traditional loan:
Repayment:
Pay it Forward: Repayment is based on the amount of funding you receive and your future earnings.
Traditional loan: Repayment is based on the amount you borrow, the duration of the loan, and on the interest rate charged by the lender.
Downside protection:
Pay it Forward: You don’t repay when your income is below a certain threshold ($40,000 / year).
Traditional loan: None.
Your obligation ends when...:
Pay it Forward: You’ve made 78 payments, hit the payment cap, or hit the maximum program term of 10.5 years. After 10.5 years, you have no further repayment obligation, no matter how much you’ve paid.
Traditional loan: You’ve paid off your entire loan balance, plus interest.
Depending on a number of factors, you may pay more or less through Pay it Forward than you would with a subsidized federal loan. Whether you pay more or less will depend on a number of factors, including your future earnings and whether you choose to prepay your Pay it Forward obligation.
One last note: You should also know that if you opt to receive federal student loans, you may also be eligible to participate in a variety of income-driven repayment (IDR) plans offered by the federal government. Like with Pay it Forward, through income-driven repayment plans, instead of repaying a fixed monthly amount, you make payments based on a percentage of the income you earn.
Income-driven repayment plans offer a number of benefits, but not all borrowers are eligible for all plans. If you’d like to learn more about IDR plans, please reach out to the Rivet School team and we can connect you with a financial aid expert who can help.