Currently going through financial aid process with a potential school.
I have done the research and know what I’m likely to get, but want to see it in an award letter or hear it officially from the school. The admission process here is pretty grueling, and I don’t want to waste the time and money if I can’t afford to attend.
I’m being asked to sign the MPN at the same time that I complete FAFSA and loan counseling, and BEFORE I speak with the financial aid officer at my school. Basically, they are telling me that I have to sign the MPN to see my award amount.
Reading the MPN (I’m no lawyer), it looks a lot like I’m agreeing to the loans prematurely, before I even know what they are or if they are useful to me.
My question: is it normal to sign the MPN before you seeing your award with a school? Is there another contract between MPN and loan acceptance?
I see a lot of supporting docs/threads on the MPN, but nothing on WHEN it’s appropriate to sign. I don’t want to cause myself the headache of cancelling/repaying loans just to window shop this school.
Are you a transfer student? The way you said ‘potential school’ makes me wonder.
I don’t know why you would have to sign MPN now before seeing your FA award, is this a for profit school?
It’s advertising portfolio school. It’s non-profit & accredited, but seems to run on the for-profit model to an extent. Thats not to disparage ad school, it’s going to be a necessity for me to break into the industry.
I’m not a transfer. I’d be a graduate/professional student.
Only thing I can guess is that signing the MPN gives them bargaining power of some kind. Just want to figure out if its worth fighting, or a normal thing that schools do.
Don’t ever sign a promissory note before you know the details of the loan. The way the process works at legitimate schools is you apply for admission and submit the FAFSA (and CSS Profile if it’s required). If you’re accepted, you receive a financial aid package that lists the total cost of attendance (tuition, fees, room and board) and your award amounts (federal aid, state grants, college grants). You then get to decide if the school is affordable and how you want to pay. US citizens have the option of taking a yearly federal student loan ($5500 as a freshman, $6500 as a soph, and $7500/year as a junior and senior).
I wouldn’t attend any school that wanted me to sign a loan form before I even knew the costs of the school or the amount of money I needed to attend. What school are you talking about? If you tell the posters here, we can help you find an affordable school.
Thanks for the input, thats all I needed to know- I just won’t sign until I’m ready. Wanted to be sure I wasn’t just being paranoid.
I’d rather not say which school it is, the ad school world is very small.
There is only one school tied to a real university (VCU Brandcenter), the rest are going to behave just like this. They are all a little dirty feeling. The best ones all cost $40-60K for two years, and the one I’m applying to is the “school du jour” (this changes every few years), which means jobs @ top agencies. They could insult my mother and punch me in the face, and I’d still probably go there. Just the way that industry seems to work. I’ve gleaned this all from mentors in good agencies and grads of several different programs.
I’m aware that it sounds like I’ve drunk the admissions kool-aid, but I’ve been looking into all this for the better part of a year. It’s a similar power dynamic to T14 law schools, but with better job prospects (I went down that road once upon a time).
Assuming a $30,000 COA for one year, and assuming no institutional aid, you’ll be offered $20,500 Direct Unsubsidized loan and $9,500 Direct Grad PLUS loan. You should NOT … I repeat, NOT … have to sign an MPN before you receive your aid package. You should see your aid, be able to review the terms, and THEN accept or decline the aid. Not until after accepting the aid should you be required to sign the MPN. (Finaid director speaking)