<p>I'm going to end up maxing out my stafford loan limits my junior and possibly my senior year (both my parents were denied PLUS loans.) Will taking out the maximum undergrad Stafford loans affect how much I will be able to borrow in graduate/professional stafford loans? I spoke to someone in my FinAid office who was not sure, so I need to be sure I'm not hurting any of my future plans by taking out these large (though necessary) loans.</p>
<p>Undergrad loans are included in your grad limit. However, since the grad aggregate limit is $138,000 this is rarely an issue.</p>
<p>First of all, the additional unsub loans you borrowed as a result of your parents being denied PLUS are not counted in the $31,000 you can borrow as a dependent undergrad. Instead, you can receive a total of $54,500 … but the loans that are awarded to you (not as additional unsub due to PLUS denial) can’t exceed $31,000. Little known fact: If your base loans (the loans awarded to you on the basis of being a dependent undergrad student for your year in school) exceed the $31,000 AND your parents get denied for PLUS, you can borrow additional unsub (that is what the extra unsub you get to borrow when your parents are denied PLUS is called) to the amount of an independent student for your year in school. For example, let’s say you have borrowed $31,000 in base loans (not including the $4000 or $5000 per year additional unsub you got when your parents were denied PLUS). You are a senior, and you don’t have any more loan eligibility on your own. Your parents apply for PLUS and are denied. You are eligible to borrow $12,500 in additional unsub due to PLUS denial (as long as the total of your base loans + the additional unsub due to PLUS denial does not exceed $54,500).</p>
<p>When you become a grad student, your new loan amount is $138,000. All of your undergrad loans … your base sub & unsub + the additional unsub due to PLUS denial … will be counted in the $138,000.</p>
<p>P.S. The person with whom you spoke in financial aid is lacking very basic financial aid knowledge. Find someone else to talk to next time! Also, if your school is telling you that your loan eligibility is limited & you know that it really isn’t - that the reason it is up around $31,000 is because your additional unsub due to PLUS denial is being counted in — be sure to talk to someone knowledgeable & get that straightened out. What happens is that someone has to manually review the cases like yours & fix things so that the computer won’t block your loans from being correctly offered to you.</p>