<p>When making its financial aid awards, I know Tufts does a combination of loans and grant aid. But, in general, does it give loans first and only then grant aid? As an example, will the first $5,000 (or some other number) of aid each year always be loans? Does Tufts have a general policy along those lines?</p>
<p>I’m not entirely sure about their policy when creating the financial aid packages, but I received an amazing financial aid package with relatively few loans, and I know many people with more loans than me and less overall financial aid. If I had to guess based off of this, I’d say that they probably base the loan amount at least partially on the financial aid eligibility of the recipient. For example, I would guess that a middle- or upper-middle class family would receive proportionally more loans because they would be better able to pay off those loans later on, whereas a lower-class family would need more grant aid just because they can’t afford the loans as much. However, this is mostly speculative; I would definitely email the financial aid office and/or student services, they have been very friendly and helpful whenever I have contacted them. Good luck!</p>