My son was admitted to a public university that issued financial award letters last weekend. He knew he was getting a $5K/year merit scholarship. But it also lists a $6,500 “federal direct unsubsidized loan.” We do not qualify for financial aid.
My question: I thought the amount freshman can get is $5,500 for the federal program. If so, why would it say $6,500? Think it’s a mistake?
Does he have credits from high school that make him a sophomore?
My guess is that his year in school on the FAFSA was sophomore, and the computer automatically awarded him the sophomore amount of $6,500. Check the FAFSA to see if that is the case.
@kelsmom On FAFSA, for student’s grade level in college in 2018-2019, it says “never attended college/1st yr.”
@twoinanddone He does, but we haven’t reported that. He’ll have a two-year degree from a community college when he graduates from high school thanks to dual enrollment, but he’s not sure he wants to use those credits even if the OOS school takes them. So, as far as FAFSA and the school know, he’s a freshman in the fall.
Did he not have to submit his DE college’s transcript?
@Mom2aphysicsgeek If he wants credit he will. But he’s not sure he does…has a couple of B+s on there he doesn’t like. Which is ridiculous. I think an advisor will tell him to submit the transcript and get credit if they take it from an OOS student. All the grades on the DE transcript are also on his high school transcript, and most of them are AP courses.
Probably, as kelsmom posted, you may have checked the wrong year on the FAFSA. If he’s a freshman, the amount is $5500. If he wants the $6500, he’ll have to claim soph status with FA.
@twoinanddone None of the other schools…they received the same FAFSA…have done that. They are all showing $5,500 on the financial award summary. Weird.
Did admissions have AP scores? It would seem weird to have 26+ credits without his CC transcript, but maybe someone in Admissions simply hit the wrong button. I know sometimes admissions tries to give them all the bumps they can for better housing, better registration priority, etc. Or it could be just a mistake.
If the FAFSA says 1st year in college, it sounds like the problem is probably on the admissions side. You may want to contact the financial aid office to get it fixed.
If this student was taking dual enrollment courses and completed any of them as a HS junior…they would have been on his HS transcript.
PLUS…every college my kids applied to had a question “have you taken college courses? If so include a transcript from ALL colleges attended.”
Hard to believe your kid didn’t have to provide the transcripts when he applied to these colleges…my kid did.
Anyway…if he completed DE courses as a junior…those college credits may have already been noted on his HS transcript…and this one college took that into consideration.
You can call them and ask!
We ran across a school that won’t consider students freshmen for financial aid purposes if they transfer more than a certain number of credits (the equivalent of about five classes, if I remember correctly). If a student chooses to transfer more, he/she won’t be offered financial aid for the full four years. The school that offered you a higher unsubsidized loan may be one like that.
It sounds like the other colleges consider your son a freshman for financial aid purposes, despite all of the credit he will be transferring, but that one college probably does not.