<p>Are student loan offers automatic after you’ve filled out the Federal form and sent it to Alabama?</p>
<p>If when you filled out FAFSA, you indicated that you want to a student loan, then one will be in your FA pkg. </p>
<p>Any ideas where I would indicate that? I did not remember checking that so I pulled up my completed form and don’t see any place to indicate that. Do I need to contact the school? Thanks! </p>
<p>On the FAFSA form, there should be a question as to whether you want to be considered for work study and student loans. </p>
<p>You are the parent. this would be in the student section probably.</p>
<p>Thanks Mom2! I checked and he did fill out yes for work study. Any ideas as to when these awards show up? His merit scholarship is showing but nothing else. Trying to finalize as much as possible.
Thanks! </p>
<p>You should receive a FA pkg in the mail and that should include his student loan.</p>
<p>However, you should have him contact the FA office to make sure that one is included and ask when FA pkgs will be sent out.</p>
<p>if you want a Plus loan, then you’d have to contact the FA office.</p>
<p>Son get the FA pkg on the Portal. Its showing the Stafford and other Merit awards. Work study is saying “There are currently no workstudy earnings for you at this time.” Not sure what that means.</p>
<p>Also its asking us to Accept or Decline the Awards, I am not sure what that really means If we choose to Accept, since we still waiting for other schools and not accepted the UA admission Yet…</p>
<p>I also not seeing any award for Alumni (1k), Is that automatic or do we need to apply for it. Other wise all Merit money is their as promised. </p>
<p>Stafford Loan 5.5k is all un-sub, I thought 2k should be sub and 3.5k should be UN-subsidized.??</p>
<p>Roll Tide !!!</p>
<p>Occasionally, financial aid packages will be displayed online before they’re finalized. The updated package would then be available in a few days once UA finishes computing the financial aid packages for incoming students.</p>
<p>If you don’t have any “need” after the merit is awarded, then NO student loans can be subsidized. The feds will only subsidize student loans if there is need. This isn’t a Bama rule, this is a fed rule.</p>
<p>Do you have need after merit is applied? What is your EFC? The merit award is about $25k per year, so if your EFC is around $20k, you don’t have need.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the policy is for the Alumni award. Did you pay the fee? did your son check the box on the app? Contact the alumni office. </p>
<p>You can accept the awards even if you end up not going to Bama.</p>
<p>Work Study at many schools, including Bama, is only awarded to those who qualify for a Pell Grant. Schools have very limited work study awards to give out (also from the feds) so they target them to those with the most need. </p>
<p>That said, it sounds like you don’t have any need. If that is true, then no work study could be given …feds only allow work study for those with need.</p>
<p>edited to add…</p>
<p><<<
My EFC is ~17K
<<<</p>
<p>What is the COA for OOS students?</p>
<p>IF you do have some need after merit, then call and ask why some of the loan wasn’t subsidized (up to need). </p>
<p>Your EFC is too high for Work Study at most schools…like I said, WS is very limited, so most schools give it to the low EFC kids. </p>
<p>Your son can still get a job on campus. My kids worked as university tutors.</p>
<p>^Re Work Study: Many students who are awarded Work Study are not eligible for Pell Grants. Provided all state and federal rules are met, schools reserve the right to take other factors into account when computing financial aid. It’s up to the individual school to determine how it should disburse funding for Work Study as well as Unsubsidized Stafford and Perkins loans.</p>
<p>^^ Thanks.
Sons Total Merit award is $27k, My EFC is ~17k but Total COA is ~41K so we still need $$ to Fill the Gap</p>
<p>I think son forget to check the box in the app for parents as alumni. And I think i might have forget to pay the annual fee also…</p>
<p>I know EFC are usually higher than what is actually affordable! But when you add your EFC (~17K) and the Merit award (~27K) that more than covers the COA (~44K vs 41K) so I guess there would be little or no subsidized financial aid in the package. </p>
<p>I also dont see any “COA” on the web portal just the award numbers. even though they mention “This page contains an overview of your Cost of Attendance and Financial Aid Award.”.</p>
<p>I get a FA pkg from another School today and that one did gave us 2k Sub with same EFC, but $0 as Merit. in other word they asking us to pay 100% of COA… its a In state Flagship school in MidWest. 
</p>
<p>We are very Thankful to UA for their Grants and Merit $$. They were very Generous.</p>
<p>Sea Tide…I know that any student with need can qualify for WS, however, many schools do not have enough t give out so they concentrate on those with greater need.</p>
<p><<<<
I get a FA pkg from another School today and that one did gave us 2k Sub with same EFC, but $0 as Merit. in other word they asking us to pay 100% of COA… its a In state Flagship school in MidWest.
<<<<</p>
<p>At that school, you have need, so you could get a sub loan.</p>
<p>the feds will not let you have a sub loan w/o need.</p>
<p><<<
Sons Total Merit award is $27k, My EFC is ~17k but Total COA is ~41K so we still need $$ to Fill the Gap
<<<<</p>
<p>27 + 17 = 44k…so where is the gap???</p>
<p>We contacted Financial Aid over the weekend (at 1:30 am Saturday morning) and received a reply by email (at 11am the same Saturday - thanks UA!) letting us know that federal financial aid awards will be made by the end of this month and students will receive emails and a letter once those awards are made. So just keep watching for mail. </p>
<p>I should add that we are not eligible for any subsidized, but may want to go ahead and take the unsubsidized loan for the first year, so perhaps students getting grants and subsidized federal aid will hear back sooner.</p>
<p>Great info. I saw some flagged items in the mybama account but when I clicked on them, the system wouldn’t acknowledge this years awards. Must be down so I will try later. We’re not doing the plus loan but we may take some student loan for the first year. We are just trying to get all the numbers together. </p>
<p>Where do you find the COA? It mentions it is on the bottom of the page. I see the award but no COA?</p>
<p>^^ I have same issue</p>
<p>Yep, that’s because they don’t yet know the COA!</p>
<p>What I eventually did was run the Net Price Calculator to get the current year’s COA ($42,054 for OOS students, including indirect expenses like books, transportation, and personal expenses). Then I called and was told that next year’s cost will likely be about $1,000 higher . . . but they won’t know for sure until the board of trustees meets in June. Next year’s COA should be posted, latest, by July 1.</p>