So I’ll be graduating with a BA in May and then will be starting an MA program at the same school. While I may be getting an assistantship for courses in the Fall I will need to take a single course this summer that runs in June. I’m hoping to get a federal loan to cover this course but this falls in the same FAFSA period (2019-2020) as my spring semester as an undergrad did. Can I file a graduate level FAFSA for the same period? Or will I be on my own essentially this summer?
Contact the school to ask them to update your FAFSA to graduate for summer term. If it is part of the 2019-2020 financial aid year, you will be eligible to borrow up to a total of $20,500 for the financial aid year … but limited by the summer cost of attendance, and only if you are considered to be at least half time for financial aid purposes for summer term. Talk to your financial aid office to find out exactly what you might be eligible to borrow.
Is a single summer course going to be considered “at least halftime” in terms of enrollment?
Sometimes it is, at the grad level.