Accepted too much financial aid?

Paying for College
1

<p>I'm attending UCLA this fall and recently accepted the FA package from my school. My EFC is 0, so the package consisted of a ~$15k freshman scholarship from UCLA, a federal pell grant, and then three loans (federal perkins, direct subsidized, and direct unsubsidized), and finally federal work study. </p>

<p>Without actually being in college and having nothing to go by except for printed estimates, I only have a slight idea of how much money I will be needing. Keep in mind you're talking to someone who's the first in my family to go to college. So I accepted the three loans going by the estimates offered to me on the UCLA financial aid page.</p>

<p>The problem is that today I received an email notification for Cal Grant, (which stupid of me I COMPLETELY forgot to factor in), and now I think I've accepted too much money.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Is there such a thing as accepting too much financial aid? If I later find out I took out too many loans is there a way to return that money or do I just pay it off? This is my biggest question. I want to minimize the amount of extra money I have to repay and make this process as efficient as possible.</p></li>
<li><p>When accepting a Federal Work Study offer, I am allotted a maximum amount of dollars I can earn from working through this program, correct? Am I obligated to work or reach that amount, or can I not work for the first quarter of school while I get settled and transitioned into college?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Sorry for the long message, but I need any advice you can give. thanks!</p>

2

<p>You can return the loans at any time, really, or keep part or all of them if you think you might need them for books or something like that.</p>

<p>As far as work-study, it’s up to you to find a job. Many people don’t end up being able to work enough hours to meet their work-study award. That’s not a big deal and it’s nothing to be worried about.</p>

3

<p>You can call up your school and find out what it’s official Cost of Attendance figure is (COA) for financial aid and loans. If what you have adds up to more than that amount, you should return some of the money starting with the non subsidized loans, and working your way down to subsidized loans. Also, as mentioned, you don’t get any money for WS until you find a position, do the work and get paid. You just have that option and you may not be eligible for those hours with the CAL grant taken into account if it has not already been included. Again, your college would know what that magic number is that means too much aid.</p>