<p>
No, I didn't quite say that --if Northeastmom's son's school had offered $4000 of work study, then that might have been enough to render him ineligible for loans. Another college might fill the gap with grants. You have to have "need" in order to be eligible -- but the colleges can only meet need with grants, scholarship, work-study, Perkins loans, etc. -- they can't fill the gap with an unsubsidized loan.</p>
<p>Way back in post #3 NikkiL explained some of the considerations going in, and said that you can always ask the school for their COA & EFC numbers. Northeastmom obviously didn't do that, so we can't say where the problem was. Producing more evidence of college financial aid offices making mistakes doesn't really change the answer to the initial question -- which isn't, "are college financial aid offices perfect?", but rather -- "if there is unmet need, is the student eligible for a subsidized stafford loan even if that is not specified in the award letter?" The answer to the first question is "no, definitely not." -- the answer to the second is "yes - but you can't assume the college is working with the same numbers you are until you ask them."</p>