accept all the financial aid?

Paying for College
1

<p>Ok, I received my award letter a couple of days ago. It is online and beside each specific scholarship or loan, there is an option to accept or decline it. If I accept the loans, does this mean I have to use them and can't change my mind? If I don't accept the loans right away, could it go to someone else? </p>

<p>On a separate note, if I receive an outside scholarship for three thousand dollars a year, will this make my federal aid go down substantially? My total federal aid is as follows: $5,358 in grants, and about $8000 in loans and a work-study. How would the $3000 scholarship affect this aid?</p>

2

<p>I am not sure about your first question. For the second question, when the awards are given the outside scholarships reduce work study and loan portion.</p>

<p>You may want to PM sybbie719.....she is the resident expert.</p>

3

<p>If you accept a loan, you can cancel it at any point before it's disbursed each semester. Also, the possibility of it going to someone else depends on the type of loan. Stafford are government fund disbursed by the government or a bank, they won't be going anywhere. Perkins loans and such that are disbursed by the school are funds that are of limited amount. If you do not accept them now, they may elect to offer them to someone else, and those funds may not be available if you change your mind later.</p>

<p>And on the other, simba is correct that this is the way most colleges handle outside scholarships.</p>

4

<p>As the other posters said scholarships will generally replace the loans and work-study first. Check into the terms of the loans and see if you can keep the most beneficial ones. My understanding of the various federal loans:
Perkins is best - 5% interest rate but it is also subsidized so the Gov pays the interest till you graduate + a grace period (6 months I think).
Subsidised Stafford next best - same deal with the Gov paying the interest but the current interest rate is 6.8%.
Unsub Stafford you are responsible for the interest from day 1. (though it can be capitalised - which means the debt is growing - at 6.8% a $3000 loan will have grown to @$3900 at the end of 4 years.)</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the information. I had the same question. I was scared that scholarships would take money out of grants first before loans.</p>