The TCU Office of Financial Aid helped some graduating seniors reduce their student loans this week by crediting a specific amount of money to their student billing accounts.

In an e-mail to a group of graduating seniors, Director of Scholarships and Financial Aid Michael Scott wrote in an e-mail the office used the remainder of leftover grant money in one of their accounts to help reduce the graduates’ loan debts.

“The financial aid office ended the academic year with a small amount of grant funding remaining in one of our accounts, and we decided the best use of those funds would be to help reduce loan debt for some of our graduating seniors,” Scott wrote.

Scott also mentioned each “Loan Reduction Grant” would save graduating seniors money in principal payments. Each grant would reduce the interest graduating seniors would have been charged over a 10 year repayment period, Scott wrote.

Brock Boren, who graduated this year with a degree in neuroscience, received a 3,000 dollar grant. He said he’s extremely grateful to receive the grant.

“I think it was a good decision to distribute [the grant money] out to the graduates,” Boren said. “I’m extremely grateful for any reduction in my loan debt.”

“I received $3,000 towards one of my loans, which reduces my overall loan debt by less than 5 percent…I’m grateful for the money received and I’m glad that other graduates had the opportunity to also receive some loan help.”

Paige McMullan also graduated this year and received a $5,000 grant. She said the grant relieved some of her stress about her financial future.

“My student loans are one of the things that concern me most about my future and the fact that the school decided to use money from a leftover fund to help out graduating seniors with their loans made me feel like the school really cared,” McMullan said.