Question: Does not accepting all of the federal financial aid offered to you reduce the amount of financial aid you may receive in the future?
My parents have heard from other individuals that it might be better to accept all federally offered financial aid (Direct Subsidized, Direct Unsubsidized, Direct PLUS) than to take less than the offered amount because otherwise the government may interpret this action as indicating that you may not necessarily be as “needy” as your tax returns and other sources indicate and reduce the amount of financial aid offered to you in the future.
Everyone is entitled to unsubsidized loans up to the max. Rejecting it this year w=ill not affect future years. Same for Parent plus loans.
No. Do NOT accept PLUS loans if you don’t need them. The ‘government’ doesn’t interpret anything. Your school gets the FAFSA report and administers the loans.
If you are offered work study and do not use it/accept it, you might be offered less in the future because schools do want to award (and have used) all the funds. Usually you can get it reinstated if you had a good reason for not using it.
My D rejected the subsidized loan for last year as there was only a few hundred dollars left after all the scholarships and grant anyway. The first FA notice for next year just showed up with sub/unsub loans in it. So it does not affect your future aid by declining it. For some reason, the scholarships would not show up until the August revision of FA award notice for my D.
Parent Plus Loans are not student financial aid. They are parent loans that the parent needs to apply for and accept. If your parents don’t apply this year, they can apply next year. No problem.
It’s fine not to accept the Direct Loans now. If you find you need them during the school year, you can ask to have them later. This will not affect your loans next year…all second year students are able to get the $6500 Direct Loan…just by completing the FAFSA. ALL students…these loans are not income dependent.