D has been accepted to terrific university with merit scholarship. The letter with the scholarship amount says that it is renewable for four years, as long as she “makes satisfactory progress toward her degree.”
We also were offered a PLUS Loan, but we have decided to decline it, as we can pay that amount from the fund we had set aside for it.
Someone told us that if you don’t accept the PLUS Loan, the college will think that you have more money and so will reduce the scholarship in the second year because of that.
Can anyone speak to this? If D keeps up her grades and does what she is meant to do, is there likely to be any problem with renewing the amount offered this year?
If you are truly worried about this happening (which I have never seen) - you simply will not want to accept or decline the loan. That way, it is left open as an option for you throughout the school year as if you haven’t made a decision on the fund yet.
It is not unusual to be offered a PLUS loan especially if the school does not meet 100% demonstrated need and there is a gap. If you don’t want the loan simply do not apply for it
That is a great terms as far as a low bar for retaining a scholarship. I would just have your daughter look up in the student handbook (often online now) how the school defines SAP (Satisfactory Academic Progress.) so there are no surprises. Since it is a scholarship and not need aid, it doesn’t seems likely that scenario would pass anyway. Hopefully they don’t do that to people with need aid either. If this wasn’t a school specific comment from someone with experience there I wouldn’t worry about it.
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Someone told us that if you don’t accept the PLUS Loan, the college will think that you have more money and so will reduce the scholarship in the second year because of that.
What I remember from when DS was applying to college 9 years ago, was that if you did not ask for FA when applying as a Freshman year, it would be much harder to get FA later on.
I dont know if that is still true… …
When a PLUS loan appears in a package, it is just a suggestion not an award. You have to apply and be approved; the college isn’t guaranteeing that loan, just letting you know that it exists. It has no impact on your award.
And there’s no guarantee you’d even get a Plus loan if you apply - you could be denied! So there’s NO way a college could hold it against you that you don’t take out a Plus loan.