<p>I have a call in to the Financial Aid Office where my daughter will be attending to get the straight scoop, but thought I'd ask here as well.</p>
<p>As we begin to navigate the process of paying for school, I'm not sure just how the whole PLUS loan process works.</p>
<p>The Financial Aid Award letter our daughter received indicated a large sum for PLUS loans split between the three quarters of attendance. We know we will not need the total loans
'awarded', but are not entirely certain what the final amount will be. We plan to use personal savings through at least the first two quarters, and it depends on how things go before we decide how much to use for the third.</p>
<p>How do I know how much to "accept"? What if I accept too little? Too much? </p>
<p>We already know we're accepting 100% of the Stafford Loans, so no issues there. Its just on the PLUS side we're confused.</p>
<p>The school is a Direct Lender so everything comes through them.</p>
<p>For a PLUS loan, you will probably be asked to request the terms you want the loan. If you only want the loan for #1 & #2, you can request the amount & ask for it to be disbursed in those terms. Another option is to request 1/3 more, ask for it to be applied in each of the 3 terms, then cancel the 3rd disbursement if you want. That will avoid the need for a new credit check before the 3rd term in case you do want to borrow more for that term. If the PLUS app doesn’t ask which terms, you should contact the school to see how they apply the funds.</p>
<p>You can always take an amount larger than what you think you will need, use what you need for the year and then request the school send back the rest to the lender at the end of the school year. That is what we opted to do, OR, you can keep the extra amount on account and use it toward next years tuition, thereby reducing the amount you will need for next year. This also gives you a better idea of what you will need for future years. We had some suprise fees end up on our bursars bill, like lost dorm key, computer store fees, etc.</p>