Financial aid situation - unsure how to proceed

Paying for College
1

<p>I am an adult transfer student this semester. Due to the fact that I was taking classes at a different school last semester, I was late being accepted and enrolling in classes at my new school and I've found myself in a situation and I'm not sure how to approach it.</p>

<p>Over the years, I've taken classes at several schools, depending on where I was living at the time. According to my last school, I have accumulated a total of 62 credits, which would classify me as a junior. However, my current school has yet to review my last transcript, so in their computers, I have a sophomore standing. I have verified that the school received my transcript last month, but it just hasn't been entered into the system yet. When I spoke to the admissions office about my transcript, I was told that it would take a week or more for it to be processed.</p>

<p>I have been offered loans in the amounts of $3500 sub stafford and $6000 unsub stafford. Those amounts are based on being a full time student (12 hours). Because I was accepted late, I was only able to enroll in 9 hours, which means I am a part time student. </p>

<p>I have yet to accept or decline any of the aid that has been offered to me, because I'm not sure how my current class standing and being a part time student will affect my aid. I know that juniors can be offered more aid than sophomores, but that part time students are offered less than full time students. Currently, the subsidized loan will cover my expenses, but I don't want to decline the unsubsidized loan and find out later that the amount of the subsidized loan has been reduced due to my part time status. </p>

<p>When I spoke to the financial aid office, their response was pretty vague and they can't give me any kind of answer until I am officially classified as a junior by the university. </p>

<p>What would you do if you were in my situation?</p>

2

<p>I’m confused about the loan they offered you - the limits are:</p>

<p>$5500 freshman ($3500 sub)
$6500 sophomore ($4500 sub)
$7500 jr/sr ($5500 sub)</p>

<p>If they offered you a total of $9K in Stafford loans, something is wrong. </p>

<p>I THINK you can get reduced Stafford loans for part time study but don’t know how that works. Even if you don’t take the loans now, you can ask for them to be reinstated later in the year.</p>

3

<p>sk8trmom - since the OP is an adult transfer I am going to assume he/she is an independent student.</p>

<p>Independent students are allowed an additional $6000 unsubsidized loans.
with the $3500 sub loans looks like you were classified a freshman.</p>

<p>you need to go back to financial aid. is there another course you can enroll in? Your loans won’t be released until the semester is started and if you are not enrolled in the minimum number of credits there will be a problem and you could end up owing money.</p>

4

<p>JustAMomOf4 is correct. I’m an independent student and my household income is too high to qualify for anything but loans. Although, I am wondering about what you said about them classifying me as a freshman (based on the loan amount). I was assuming that I was offered a lower sub amount based on my income level, so that will be something I will clarify with them.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I can’t find another class I can take this semester and the spring semester has already started. I won’t know what gen ed classes I might need to take until that last transcript is processed and the science classes I wanted to take is full and I’d prefer not to take a class for ‘fun’.</p>

<p>I’m going to go back to financial aid tomorrow and see if I can speak to someone else, but I’m not hopeful that I’ll get a different answer.</p>