<p>The Federal Student Aid website says "You might be able to borrow loan funds beyond your subsidized loan amount even if you don't have demonstrated financial need. In that case, you'd receive an unsubsidized loan. Your school will subtract the total amount of your other financial aid from your cost of attendance to determine whether you're eligible for an unsubsidized loan."</p>
<p>How do I go about doing this? Would I contact the school? The school I'll be attending (Northwestern) gave me $3000 in subsidized Stafford loans as part of my financial aid package, but I'd like to get some additional unsubsidized Stafford loans, too, since that has a lower interest rate than loans I can get other places.</p>
<p>Yes, you should contact your school's financial aid office. Generally, even if you want to borrow more money you could only borrow as much as you need. For example, if your school cost is estimated at $50,000 and they gave you $40,000 in grants and work study then the maximum amount that they can let you borrow is $10,000. Of course, the school also consider the federal limits for each type of loan.</p>
<p>The school's cost was (from memory) $52k and they gave me $3k in subsidized Stafford, $2k in academic scholarships, EFC of $13.1k, and the rest covered by grants with maybe I couple grand in work-study thrown in there (I can't remember for sure). I'm hoping to get unsubsidized stafford loans to cover some of that EFC (I think federal limits say I can get $2000) since I think it's probably a lower rate than I could get from a bank. Am I understanding this right? Or can Stafford loans only cover need, which is already completely covered?</p>
<p>You can't expect to use unsubsidized staf to cover EFC, because it's your expected family contribution. That's the amount that they expect your family to be able to afford. Because basically, here's how schools tend to award financial aid:</p>
<p>Estimated cost of Attendance - EFC = $$$ amount school covers</p>
<p>amount school covers - grants, work study, scholarships = loan amount</p>
<p>loan amount - subsidized and unsubsidized = 0</p>
<p>which means that they allocate the amount of aid that they give to you after they take out the EFC.
Still, check with your school's FA.</p>
<p>Okay, I will check with the school. Because, lazysoul, that's what I thought, too, only the website says that you can do it even if you don't have demonstrated financial need.</p>
<p>Unsubsidized Stafford loans can be used to cover the EFC. My son's g/f had no 'need' last year as her EFC exceeded the COA and she had an unsubsidized Stafford. This year she has 'need' (is now independent so no parental info on FAFSA) so was offered subsidized.</p>
<p>The maximum total Stafford for a freshman for 2008-2009 is $5500 so you may be eligible for an additional $2500 unsubsidized. Let us know how it turns out.</p>
<p>Swim is correct. I have provided unsubsidized loans to students with an EFC of 99,999. Our average COA is under 31,000 (actual cost is considerably less). Even my graduate students have received the full $20,500 of unsubsidized loans with an EFC of 99,999.</p>