My daughter’s financial aid info was posted today on Spire, and UMass has her automatically accepting the 5500 unsubsidized loan. We don’t intend to take this if she accepts, and at UMass you need to actively opt out of it. At her other schools (URI, UVM) it is offered but not listed as accepted. I’ve heard of parents not realizing they need to opt out of it at UMass and then ending up with this unwanted loan on their part. So just a heads-up…
If students are awarded the federal student loan they can just send it back. I don’t remember if there’s a time limit before interest starts accruing, but @kelsmom will know.
Wouldn’t one need to fill out paperwork for a promissory note before a loan was granted?
Yes, there are steps along the way. But when you hear a story like I did recently of someone who accepted an unsubsidized loan unintentionally for their child at UMass, and then I saw how it was presented compared to my daughter’s other schools, it was more of an FYI. Even more on-the-ball parents may make mistakes when they’re working with multiple financial sources to pay the bill. I thought it was interesting that UMass automatically has us on “accept” v. all the other schools that don’t.