Federal Student Loan Question

King Kong

So I'll be going to community college this fall and just filled out my online FAFSA app.

How exactly does this all work. How much money will I get, will it be just a grant or will I get a loan to cover other costs as well? Is everyone pretty much accpetted or will they deny my loan?

Nozz

I could be wrong, but all of those questions will be based on how much money you and your parents/guardians make.

King Kong

I guess I should have also said or asked how much has anyone else who as applied gotten in aid and rough idea of how much the income they put down was.

Shogun

You will get an email when your fafsa gets processed that will provide a link to your SAR and EFC. If your EFC is high, that's bad. If its low, that's good. It should be something like a 4 digit with no commas or anything. Like my EFC is 4588. That's bad. No monies for me. Last year it was 1434. That's semi good.

Anyway, your EFC will also depend on the information provided in your parents income and assets. If they make plenty of money your EFC will be high and you may not qualify. Also are you a freshman? If so this means you get even less money, I assume because the powers at be wish to see you get some experience under your belt so they aren't wasting money on you. No one wants to throw several thousand at someone for nothing and then they drop out because they 'don't know what they want to do with their life.' If you're a freshman the max you can borrow is $3,500.

Once your school receives all that jazz they will probably send you an award letter with details on how to accept said awards. You can also call the financial aid office at your school and inquire there. If its a loan it means setting it up with a bank that handles stafford loans and you go through the whole bit with master promissary notes and whatnot.

variant

I wouldn't expect much money as this is community college. Plus, I thought the deadlines for grants were already up?

Serphimera

I'm not sure if it's any different for community colleges, but based on my experience:
As an undergrad, you will probably get a subsidized loan (does not accrue interest), an unsubsidized loan (does accrue interest), and a Pell Grant (they just give you money for being an undergrad) offered to you. I don't really remember what amount the loans will be for, but when I was an undergrad I was able to pay for everything--dorm, food, tuition--with my loans.

The amount of money will also be based on the number of credits you are taking. I think you might also have to declare a major in order to get some moneys (I just declared a bogus major until I figured out what I wanted to do).

As long as your parents aren't super-rich you should be automatically accepted.

Aqua Dark

Yea they are gonna give you a loan not a grant, if you qualify. If your family is rich you will get little to no money, if your family is struggling you will get more than the average person.

The plus side to the loan is that it is subsidized, meaning you dont have to pay intrest i think.