<p>You got a federal loan and work-study. You wouldn’t have gotten that work-study money if you had no need. You had need, so you got that. If the loan is subsidized, then that is also need-based aid.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’re explaining the situation quite right.</p>
<p>What school is this.</p>
<p>And, there is no federal law that says that a CSS school must default to FAFSA when awarding its OWN money. Certainly, HYPS don’t do that.</p>
<p>Edited to add…I see that the school is Boston College. Lots of bad FA stories about BC. I would guess that the school doesn’t really want to take into acct the private school education for younger kids, so the FA officer is just saying that they must use the higher FAFSA amount. That may be an internal BC rule…not a federal law. Either the FA officer is misinformed or just thinks you won’t know any better.</p>