<p>I applied for UCF for the Fall semester and applied to FAFSA for the 2013-2014 aid since I thought I would be going to college AFTER July 1, 2013. But i was offered admission to Summer instead to be able to get into Fall and I took it. I was told to apply for FAFSA 2012-2013 since classes start 6 days before the deadline so i applied for the 2012-13 one and my EFC is 0000 and my estimated Pell Grant is 5,500.
My question is will i get anything from FAFSA for the Summer from the 2012-2013 since i haven't taken anything from FAFSA before? I'm confused and the College didn't really help.</p>
<p>THANKS!</p>
<p>You won’t get anything from FAFSA . . . ever.</p>
<p>FAFSA is simply an application to determine if you are qualified to receive federal student grants and loans. If you are qualified, the aid offer will come from your college. You’d be eligible for both Pell and federal student loans for the 2012-13 school year. I don’t know if or how they’d be prorated, though.</p>
<p>Be careful. Most financial aid is based up your class level. You get so much as a freshman. Use it up, the the rest is on you until you get to the next class. By going in the summer, you may be short in the Spring term.</p>
<p>For Federal aid, aid is not based on class level except for direct loans that have different *annual *maximums depending on class level. For instance, the annual maximum for a freshman is $5500 and a sophomore is $6500. If a student is still classed as a freshman at the start of his 2nd year of school, he can still get the loan, but still at freshman level of $5500. (but this does cut into the maximum aggregate total of $31,000 a student is allowed).</p>
<p>For the summer aid, it all depends on whether your school treats the summer session as a header or trailer for FA purposes. If a school treats the summer session as a trailer (most do), then summer is part of the preceding school year for aid purposes. That means summer 2013 would be counted as part of the 2012-2013 school year and would require the 2012-2013 FAFSA to be filed. As you have not received any other aid for 2012-2013, you would be eligible for the full amount of annual aid. However, Pell disbursement has to be split into 2 separate semesters so the max you are likely to be able to receive is half you annual entitlement. Additionally, full time enrollment is required to get the full Pell for a semester so you would have to take 12 hours to get a full semester’s worth of Pell. If the school uses the summer trailer method, aid received this summer will not impact aid eligibility for the 2013-2014 year.</p>
<p>If the school uses the summer header method, then summer 2013 would be part of the 2013-2014 school year. In that case, any aid received during the summer *would *come from your eligibility for the 2013-2014 year. In that case, you could run short of aid by the Spring session. </p>
<p>So make sure you check with your school. Though if they are the ones that have told you to file the 2012-2013 FAFSA for this summer, it is likely they are a summer trailer school.</p>
<p>Also do keep in mind that the Stafford loan maximums are absolute whether you use some of the money in the summer or during the year. I believe you have 6 years of PELL eligibility. Not so with the Staffords. There is that dollar amount maximum and once you use it, that’s it. So if you borrow some money for this summer through the Stafford loans, it would come out of your freshman year amount of $5500 that you can borrow. That means that in the fall, unless you get sophomore standing, you have used that $5500 freshman money. The four year max for basic Staffords is $26K, and once you have borrowed all of that, it doesn’t matter if you still are not finished with school and you have used some of that money in the summer. When it’s gone, it’s gone.</p>
<p>^^ actually, that’s not quite accurate cpt. The maximum for the year is based on the school year and your standing for that school year. But you can get the freshman limit for more than one year. If a student is freshman one year, he is eligible for the $5500 limit. If he is still a freshman the next school year, he is still eligible for loans, but again at the freshman limit of $5500. (if his standing changes mid year, then his eligibility is increased to the sophomore limit at that point, if not then the eligibility stays at the freshman limit). However, getting the freshman limit for more than 1 year does not increase the aggregate maximum. The aggregate maximum is around $31,000 which is 4 and a bit years of maximum loan eligibility. </p>
<p>I only know this because I started spring semester and got the full Freshman loan my first year, then started the next year with freshman eligibility for a semester and increased to sophomore the 2nd, and ditto for the following year. I had thought that I would not get any loan as a 2nd year freshman and was surprised when I did (kelsmom explained it to me).</p>