<p>Okay, could someone please explain to me how to interet the following financial aid award package?</p>
<p>Aid Year</p>
<p>Award Offered Accepted Disbursed
Federal Pell Grant $1,400.00 $1,400.00 $0.00
Estimated TAP $1,619.60 $1,619.60 $0.00
Federal SEOG -West New $500.00 $500.00 $0.00
Subsidized Stafford Loan-West $2,625.00 $0.00 $0.00
Aid Year Totals</p>
<p>$6,144.60</p>
<p>$3,519.60</p>
<p>$0.00</p>
<p>Terms</p>
<p>Fall 2006</p>
<p>Award Offered Accepted Disbursed<br>
Federal Pell Grant $700.00 $700.00 $0.00<br>
Estimated TAP $809.80 $809.80 N/A<br>
Federal SEOG -West New $250.00 $250.00 $0.00<br>
Subsidized Stafford Loan-West $1,312.50 $0.00 $0.00<br>
Term Totals</p>
<p>$3,072.30</p>
<p>$1,759.80</p>
<p>$0.00</p>
<p>Spring 2007</p>
<p>Award Offered Accepted Disbursed Award Term Detail
Federal Pell Grant $700.00 $700.00 $0.00<br>
Estimated TAP $809.80 $809.80 N/A<br>
Federal SEOG -West New $250.00 $250.00 $0.00<br>
Subsidized Stafford Loan-West $1,312.50 $0.00 $0.00<br>
Term Totals</p>
<p>$3,072.30</p>
<p>$1,759.80</p>
<p>$0.00</p>
<p>Sorry for the messy copy and paste job.</p>
<p>So could someone explain to me how much money they're giving me for free, and why all of those are accepted besides the Subsidized Stafford Loan-West (and what IS the Subsidized Stafford Loan-West?)?</p>
<p>Every thing except the stafford loan is "free money". You have a subsidized stafford loan which means the interest on the loan is paid by the government while you are attening school.</p>
<p>Your page has 3 colums</p>
<p>Award offered is the type of award the school is giving you.</p>
<p>Award accepted ( this is what you took) Did you turn down the stafford loan they offered you. </p>
<p>Based on what you posted, you did not accept the loan (which could leave you with a gap on your final bill) . Did you/are you replacing it with outside scholarships?</p>
<p>Disbursed- how much money was paid to the school on your behalf to cover your tution and related expenses. The government disbursed the grant/ Tap and Seog monies. </p>
<p>They did not disburse any loan payments to your school on your behalf.</p>
<p>No, I didn't turn down the Subsidized Loan (I have the option to accept/decline it, but I wanted to know what it is first). But all the others were automatically listed as "accepted," so I don't know. But yeah, how exactly does the Subsidized Loan work? I'm still not exactly clear on that. Is it good or bad to accept?</p>
<p>They are assuming you will accept the grants, because it is free money -- you don't have to pay it back. So of course you will say "yes, give me the money."</p>
<p>You are NOT required to take a loan. You have the option of keeping all the grants and turning down the loan and coming up with that money another way. For example, maybe you have a good job lined up for the summer and expect to earn more than the amount of the loan -- so you might think that you can use your earnings to cover the loan amount, and avoid taking on debt this year.</p>
<p>You probably will not have to make a decision on whether or not to accept the loan until later this summer. If you decide to attend SUNY-SB and accept the rest of the financial aid package, you will receive some loan papers later in the mail, and you can decide then whether you want to take the loan. You also will have the option of taking a loan for LESS than offered; for examply, if you go over your budget carefully you might decide that you don't really need to borrow the full amount - $2625 - but can make things work borrowing only $1500 -- so you accept the loan, but choose a lesser amount. (It doesn't work the other way around, unfortunately -- you can't borrow more, only less).</p>
<p>Yes, there is interest on the loan, but the interest doesn't start until after you are out of school, and you don't have to make payments until then. </p>
<p>Also, there is something called an "origination fee" -this is a small percentage of the loan (usually about 2 or 3%) that is charged at the beginning and taken from loan proceeds before the amount is disbursed. For example, a 3% origination fee on a $2625 loan would be $78.75 - which would simply be deducted from the $2625. </p>
<p>The loan is paid directly to the college, so you never see the cash. So basically, with the origination fee I mentioned, you owe $2625, the lender pays the college $2546.25. </p>
<p>The origination fee varies with the lender, and while interest rates are set by law, some lenders offer discounts on the interest rates if you agree to have payments withdrawn automatically from your bank account, or after a certain number of on-time payments.</p>