<p>Hi, y’all. We have already accepted DS’s NMF scholarship, so that’s all cool. But now, on the basis of FAFSA (whose EFC Wonks labor under the deranged delusion that we are millionaires :p), UA has also awarded DS an unsubsidized $5,500 federal loan.</p>
<p>We do NOT wish to accept this. We are willing to pay the difference between the scholarship amount and the total COA…it is still a bargain compared with every other opportunity out there. Plus, we do not want our kids saddled with debt – even relatively modest debt – when they graduate. Not in this insane economy!</p>
<p>So, OK, I went to mash the “Do Not Accept” button under Terms and Conditions under Financial Aid under “Student” at MyBama. (Yes, I snuck into DS’s MyBama account. We parental units are paying the difference between scholarship and COA, so we get to do this fun stuff.) </p>
<p>Well, immediately a message popped up warning me that DS would be ineligible for any aid if I mashed this button. Now, I assume the pop-up message meant “ineligible for any FEDERAL aid” – IOW, that scholarships would not be affected – especially considering that UA has already recorded our acceptance of the NMF scholarship monies. However, I’m just panicky enough so that I’m afraid to mash the button. I fear that I will thereby cancel out ALL of DS’s aid monies, including the scholarship. I don’t want to do that. I wish only to decline the loan.</p>
<p>Hellllp! Any advice? How have y’all handled this?</p>
<p>Since we’ve never done FAFSA, I’m not sure. It does seem like you’d only be turning down the loans. I don’t think that Bama considers merit scholarships as “financial aid” since they’re merit scholarships.</p>
<p>However, to be sure, contact the FA office at:</p>
<p>We ran into the same concerns. Called FA office and they said to decline the loan and if for some reason later you needed it, contact them and they would re-enable it. </p>
<p>We followed their directions and D scholarship info is there so no worries!!</p>
<p>We declined too – we’ll try to avoid loans until graduate school! But I think my husband had to call the Financial Aid office and they actually talked him through declining step by step. You must have to be patient and kind to work in that office!!!</p>
<p>Wait. I didn’t realize you have to decline the loan. DD mentioned it, but I don’t have access to her account and she’s out of the country until May 1st. Does action need to be taken before then?</p>
<p>I don’t think the loans need to be declined by May 1st. However, email the FA office and ask to be sure. Does your D have internet access in that country? If so, she can log on and do it. Or she can give you her logon info and you can do it for her. </p>
<p>That said…</p>
<p>Some of you need to ask your kids for permission to access their mybama accts. If you’re going to be responsible for any bills, etc, then you need this access. I have access to both kids’ accts. I can see their grades, deposit money into their accts, etc. They have other email addresses and of course, facebook private messages, if they want to communicate privately with friends, GF’s, etc. </p>
<p>You can also have all of their Crimson emails sent to your email acct. Again, they can use another email acct for any personal communications (away from mom, which is cool).</p>
<p>I’ve always called to decline the various loans. UA recently started using a contractor to answer many calls about financial aid, so you can now call 24/7 and talk to a live person about your financial aid situation.</p>
<p>I think one of the things that was confusing was that you had to “accept” some conditions before you were taken to a page where you could “decline” the loan. If you hit the decline button on the conditions page it just kept continuously looping us back to the conditions page.</p>
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