Question about award letter/unsubsidized

pugglemom1223
Thu, 25 Nov 2010 13:13:18 +0000

A little background- I am an independent student transferring to a new school. At my previous school, I received full Pell, and full sub and unsub Stafford loans, in addition to Work Study eligibility, and a couple other federal and university grants.

I received my award letter from my new school and for the Spring semester they only awarded me the remainder of the Pell grant (2775) and subsidized Stafford for a total of around $4700. Why was I not awarded unsubsidized loans? They included a loan request form, where I had to put in an amount requested and select if it is subsidized, unsubsidized or both. I read somewhere that sometimes schools don’t include unsub Stafford on award letters even if the student is eligible for it, sometimes the student has to ask for it.

Since I live on my own and am putting myself through school, and when I budgeted I planned on received full sub and unsub Stafford as I had at my previous school, this disrupts my budget quite a bit.

I looked on the school’s website to find their Cost of Attendance number, and the only one I could find was from 2008-2009. My award was less than the COA from a couple years ago, by about $1000. I was selected for verification, and since I only worked part time, my EFC is 0.

I plan on calling the financial aid office next week and finding out what is going on, but it bothers me that my award seems to be less than what the COA is, and that I apparently am not even being offered unsub loans.

So, why would my award be less than the cost of attendance? Why would unsub Stafford not be on my award letter, can I request it from them? Is it true that it sometimes isn’t on an award letter?

Edit: The cost of attendance from 2008-2009 at my school is $5800, so there is a gap between my EFC, COA, and financial aid award.