New to financial aid here. This fall I am an undergraduate student, full-time, with 2 separate semesters this fall, never have received financial aid in my life.
Borrowed $9300 in federal students loans for fall to finish my undergraduate studies/BA degree by January 7, 2018.
Previous federal student loans ever, lifetime total: $0.
Lifetime total: $0 in previous federal student loans and $0 previous pell grants
Received a $5000ish Pell Grant for this fall as an undergraduate student.
Semester 1: August- October
undergraduate student, semester 1
So, since I’m graduating mid-year, and will be a graduate student in January 2018, would I be eligible to borrow federal loans again since I’m starting as a new graduate student in January 2018?
Or would I have maxed my annual 2017-2018 academic year federal loan limits this semester?
Does becoming a graduate student mid-academic year (January 20) reset the annual 2017-2018 academic year federal student loan limit?
As a grad student, I think… in grad school you don’t get federal loans. Just unsubsidized. Good news is that you’re now an independent if you weren’t before and might get some state grants that you didn’t before…
I am confused. The 2016/17 FAFSA and 2017/18 FAFSA both used 2015 income, so shouldn’t your EFC have been about the same in both years, meaning if you qualified for a Pell grant of $5,000 for 2017/18 then wouldn’t you have qualified for Pell in 2016/17 as well?
A Pell of $5,000 would mean an EFC of less than $1,000.
Also as a senior you can borrow a maximum of $7,500 in direct loans, do you also have a Perkins loan?
Or how can you borrow $9,300?
I am not sure if you can get the full yearly Pell and loan amount if you are graduating in winter.
But I believe once you are in grad school, you have new loan limits, (grad and grad plus loans), albeit with higher origination fees and interest rates.
Could you please clarify what you mean by “2 separate semesters this fall” a little more. How many credits are you taking in each if these “semesters”?
Also, you say you are new to financial aid…but got a $5000 Pell grant. How did you pay for,the rest of your undergrad years? The 2016-2017 fafsa used the same tax year information as this one…did you not need financial aid last academic year?
$9300 in loans? Is that for one of the fall terms…or both? That’s sort of an odd amount. For a college fourth year student undergrad, you would get $7500 in Direct Loans of which $3500 can be subsidized…for the year. Did you also get a Perkins loan?
Your total loan amount on your aid letter would be divided by the number of terms your school has over year.
@kelsmom will hopefully explain.l.but I believe there is a provision to take the full undergrad amount remaining for,the year in your final term…IF you are graduating.
For grad school, will you be attending the same college? If so, go,and talk to the financial aid department there about grad school Direct Loans. You may need to submit the FAFSA again as you likely will be an independent student for financial aid purposes. But ask them.
Grad students can get unsubsidized Direct Loans…and also can take out Grad Plus loans.
If you are attending a different college, you will need to submit the 2017-2018 FAFSA to that new school as a grad student.
I paid for the rest of undergraduate by myself with full-time jobs while going to school.
Then, my career industry tanked, so it’s back to school I go.
I haven’t chosen a graduate school yet, it’s between a few runner-ups, but it will probably be another school. None of them will run a financial aid report until you apply or enroll. Their application fees are pricey, so I can’t apply until fall.
My current school this semester considers me a “first time student” for the purposes of financial aid and federal student loan eligibility.
So, the federal loan limit for me this fall is the same as a freshman, they say, and I don’t get the 1st part of funds dispersed until 30 days after the August semester starts. The second half I’ll get early October or so. Then the next “semester” goes from October to January 7 or so, with another semester of loans dispersed in halves also. Totaling that $9300 or so.
I definitely don’t want/can’t get PLUS loans. Trash credit. On my own as always, no co-signers.
The FAFSA help site said something about graduate students being able to take $20,000 a year in federal student loans. Are those the stafford/perkins based loans, or PLUS/credit-based loans?
By “federal student loans” or “direct,” I just mean not credit report based.
Yes, there are sub and subsidized loans involved to get that $9300 or so. Those are really all the same to me at this point, federal loans from the government that I have to repay, whether they have interest or not. It’s the credit report based / credit check loans I can’t do. (Worked full-time a few years, industry tanked, laid off, bad income, then bad credit.) So, finishing college and specializing in something I can actually get a decent job with.
Are they just calling me a “first year” for federal loan borrowing, as in a “first year borrower?”
I only applied this month and realized finishing my degree might be possible, and have never filled out a FAFSA in my entire life, so I’m probably not getting any of the terms right. I’ll see if I can post a scan of my tentative award letter here.
If you graduate at the end of the first semester of the year, the aid office is supposed to prorate your loan eligibility based on the number of credits you take in that final semester. I suggest contacting them to let them know you are graduating at the end of the fall semester & ask whether they prorated your loans. If not, they will need to do that … better now than later, because it may result in less (or possibly more) eligibility for fall than the typical one-half.
You will need to make an update to your FAFSA when you are ready to apply to a graduate program. Remove the school code for your current school from that transaction, if you aren’t going to apply for a grad program at your current school. If you are applying there, talk to an aid officer before you make the update to grad … if you don’t, it may back off your Pell grant when the change comes through. If you tell them beforehand, they can fix it for you. Midyear updates from undergrad to grad at the same school can cause issues with the computer systerm, but they are easily resolved.
In spring, you can borrow $20,500 unsub less whatever unsub you borrowed in fall. You can also borrow a Graduate PLUS loan in spring.
I think it has to do with the way the school does terms. I think you are going for less than two full semesters, more like a 2/3 of the time as you said there was a Aug-Oct term and an Oct-Dec term. Those probably aren’t full semesters.
@finallyastudent , please post answers to the following in order to get a better response:
-Is your new school on quarters or semesters?
-How many hours are you currently enrolled in?
-What is your current class standing (not what WILL it be if you are waiting on credit evaluation - what IS it now)?
-What is your EFC (found on your FAFSA)?
-Are you getting a degree from this new school after attending for just one semester? That’s unusual, so I am wondering about this.
