My DD is currently in her first year of OTD school and just got notice from the admissions office that the FAFSA for 2019/2020 school year is now open. I helped her fill out the information for this school year and we were really close in estimating the amount of loans she needed. My wife and I are helping her with her living expenses and her loans are covering her tuition/books/and misc. fees. When we did the FAFSA for the 2018/2019 school year it was in March of this year since that was the time she knew she was accepted. The school already had their tuition fees posted. But since the FAFSA window for next school year is open what is the best way to “estimate” how much in loans she will need to take? I don’t want to take out too much and of course I don’t want to not have enough to cover the entire year. The OTD program is year round and covers three (3) semesters for the entire year. Thanks in advance for any information on how best to apply for the loans.
As a side note my wife and I were fully able to fund her undergraduate studies and did not have to apply for any loans, etc.
I’m no expert, but I have started to look into this for my son. Your daughter is not required to borrow up to this estimate, or anything at all. The university will draw down, with her permission, tuition payments, and she should get a check/direct deposit for estimated living expenses, books, and misc. (If she’s living in university housing, then the university would get paid directly.)
Thanks for the information. As I mentioned in my post my wife are I are funding her living expense and she’t taking out the loans for tuition, fees, books. Since the 2019/2020 FAFSA period has just begun should I just estimate a 5% increase in tuition and request at least that amount in loans?
That should work. Sorry, I didn’t understand that “helping her” meant that you would be funding them.entirely. We will likely be doing something similar for our middle son’s masters degree. But if he decides to go to school on the west coast where rents are very high, we will not be paying all his living expenses.
probably over thinking this. Your D can sign up for as much loans as she might need, and a little extra. If she finds that she is getting thru the semester with plenty of cash, she can tell the FinAid office that she wants to return some loan funds. Any loan fees and interest will be reversed.
For FAFSA, just put down max loans and be done with it. She can decide to take less in the fall.
fwiw: at my son’s grad/professional school, he generally had until Dec 1 to notify FinAid if he wanted to return the GradPlus funds (semester calendar). Thus, he took out the max in August to help with relocation, and returned some by Dec. No fuss, no muss.
@bluebayou In theory that sounds like it would work. But here’s what happened during this first semester at D’s school. As I mentioned in my first post we completed the FAFSA in March since she was not certain if she would even get accepted into any OT school. She found out late in the process that she was accepted. So we estimated the cost/semester and added in some extra for books. In July of this year she received the book list from the school and the total was around $780 for the fall semester. Only her tuition and fees were paid for this semester by the loans. There was a remaining balance in her account with the school of around $850. She contacted the school about using that amount for books and they told her that amount would be deposited into her checking account or mailed to her (depending on how she wanted it) after the first week of classes had started. We purchased all the books on Amazon and I had to put those on my personal CC. There was no way (as far as I can tell) to return the funds and the school only gives back to the student what’s remaining.
So as you can see that’s why I posted my question. As far as I can tell there is no way to tell the FA office to return any of the loan funds. They just give them back to the student as a deposit into their checking account.
You can return loans, within 60 days of taking the loan. You have to do it through the FA office.
But really, you are talking about $70? ($850-780=$70) Just take out $70 less next semester.
If you are concerned about how much to borrow for fall 2019, you can change the amount any time up until the loan is disbursed (next fall). In August, when you accept the loan, go onto the portal and change the amount you need.
@twoinanddone Thanks for the clarifying information. That makes sense. I’ll make sure my D contacts the FA office next fall to return anything she doesn’t need. for this semester she just kept the $70 and used it buy an additional book she needed.