<p>so i got a scholarship and have a choice to reduce either the loans or work-study. now, i heard that having loans help to increase the financial aid package for the next year and beyond in college. is it true that having loans as a freshman in college helps to enlarge the financial aid package the next year? or does that have no effect whatsoever in terms of financial aid? if it doesnt, im going to reduce my loans with the scholarship.</p>
<p>Loans do not impact future aid packages. However, you do have to declare your outside scholarships to your school … they will adjust your aid package according to their own financial aid award rules.</p>
<p>At my college, accepting loans actually means that your loans will increase each year and your grants will decrease, so it’s better to avoid loans as long as possible. You may want to check on your college’s policy regarding that. It may be better for you in the long run to take the work-study.</p>
<p>It may vary by school. At my daughter’s school (a State U) the policy seems to be to offer the maximum in possible grants (which are all federal or State at her school), then WS, then loans. her 1st year she switched part of the WS to a subsidized loan because she had an outside job. She was assured she would still be offered WS first (assuming the same eligibility) before loans the following year, and that was exactly what happened. </p>
<p>This fall will be the first year (her Junior year) she has not had WS and that is because she has the SMART grant and her remaining need of a few hundred dollars is too small for a WS award, so she was offered a small loan instead.</p>
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<p>More evidence that it’s very much a school-by-school thing, because here, the opposite would happen. 
Small amounts are met with work-study whenever possible, rather than asking students to take out loans and then incur all that interest debt down the road.</p>
<p>She just has around $700 in loans so we can’t complain. I think it would actually be hard to find a WS job for $350 a semester as the award would be earned so quickly. The job she had last year she would have earned $350 in 3 weeks and then they would have had to find someone else. So, to me, it is logical that they would not give such a small award. We’re not complaining - more grant is always a good thing.</p>