i have my fiancial aid package..now what?

Paying for College
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<p>in my financial aid package i was offered subsidized stafford loans and also a perkins loan.
i just got a bunch of stuff in the mail from my school today about applying to the stafford loan. i assume i just go online and apply for it? will i most likely get what i'm eligible for? also do i just pick a loan provider? the letter came with a bunch of brochures of different lenders...</p>

<p>there also wasn't any info on the perkins loan...do i also need to apply for this too? how do i go about getting this?</p>

<p>and finally...how do pell grants and federal supplemental grants work? will they contact me about this or will it just be subtracted from my bill or something?</p>

<p>one more thing...what is sallie mae and how does it work into this whole thing?</p>

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<p>You either accept, or reject the loans your school offered. You'll need to apply for both the Stafford and the Perkins-- Stafford you select a lender, as I recall, and the other is handled through the school (I think). Check with your school to make sure-- or read the info in the packets carefully, it's gotta be in there.</p>

<p>The Pell grant will go to the school automatically, and it will go toward tuition-- you'll likely never actually handle the money. Same with any in-house grants. If you're living off-campus and the aid covers that cost, then you'll actually (briefly) have access to the money, so you can pay the rent.</p>