Student/Parent loan timeline?

Sorry, new college parent here…but when do we need to apply for a loan after the financial aid packet comes out? In their portal, is there an actual amount that says we will be responsible for? Does it have a deadline when it’s due? I just don’t want to get in a time crunch if I am behind. They applied for the FAFSA months ago, but I will need to finance what is not covered. I hope this makes sense. Thank you in advance!

There should be a financial aid page in the portal. If you completed the FAFSA then the student loan info should be in the portal and your student accepts the amount they want to take out. A master promissory note will be generated and I think the student needs to complete the ‘training’ (online).

As for what other funds you’ll need, you may have to compare the financial aid page with the ‘bill’ or whatever document that school generates. For one of my kids (public school), this was all in the same place and for the other (private) accepting the loans was in a different part of the portal. The actual bill was not there until right before the semester started so it was a little bit of a guessing game for the exact amount that would be covered and what I needed to pay OOP.