Dissapointing financial aid package - help!

<p>Just out of curiosity, how much did everyone get in loans?</p>

<p>All of mine included the max. amount .....$3500 for freshmen</p>

<p>i got $ 3900 in loans for freshman year ! this sucks sooo much , i want to cry.</p>

<p>Our Brown EFC was more than twice our FAFSA EFC. But it was about what we expected since Brown uses the PROFILE - so it takes home equity and other things into consideration that FAFSA doesn't care about. I had warned my DH beforehand because he didn't realize there was a difference. OTOH, Brown met 100% need whereas many of the FAFSA schools didn't. ALL schools offered my son (& my DD) fed loans and work study before any grants so we expected that.</p>

<p>$3900 . do you think it will increase over the years ??</p>

<p>Loans there is only a capped amount. Aid can increase in the form of grant money, though it only does so when the reason your EFC is higher is due to college savings accounts in the students name. In those cases, once that money is spent, it's no longer in the "100%" towards college set of money and that could make a huge difference year to year. For instance, my family put a lot of money away for me to go to college and I had about 65k in the bank. That was entirely spent in my first two years here and my Brown calculated EFC has gone from 42k a year to 18k a year next year (granted, this is with my sister entering college as well) so my financial aid has changed significantly. In other cases, where money is primarily in parents name and there are no changes in employment and there aren't significant savings being spent, it's far less likely for financial aid awards to change.</p>

<p>Your best bet is to talk to the FA office, they're very lovely and helpful people in my experience.</p>

<p>The fed loans do increase as these amounts are already set (and were recently increased). Expect to receive $3500 1st yr, $4500 2nd yr, $5500 3rd and 4th yr. Of course, you can always decline those loan offers. You don't have to agree to them.</p>

<p>franglish -- acutally, yeah, it is, because Brown has their own way of calculating EFC and that's what matters. It's not FAFSA's EFC or Princeton's EFC or whatever</p>