<p>E-mailed college today asking when my first time returning student would recieve his financial aid package. They said at the end of June. Part of the package will include a Stafford loan. I have a few questions:</p>
<p>Do I have to wait until the financial aid package is recieved until he applies for the Stafford loans?</p>
<p>If I want to apply for a Parent Plus, do I have to wait for the package as well?</p>
<p>If a private loan is needed (Bank, HESC) do I have to wait on that as well?</p>
<p>I’m not sure how much my son’s EFC will be but don’t want to wait until the last minute.</p>
<p>Do these loans take a long time to process? If I apply now except for the Stafford loans I would not know how much to request for a Parent Plus.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>The PLUS takes very little time. Just make sure you have your FAFSA PINs. You might want to look the site and see what it entails.</p>
<p>If your income/assets haven’t changed much, won’t your EFC be about the same as it was last year?</p>
<p>I don’t think he does something separate to “apply” for a Stafford loan, that should come in his FA package. However, if he goes to a school where they don’t put student loans in packages (or don’t put the full amount), then I guess he could request the full amount to help with EFC. If that’s the case, I would think that if your son sent an email to the FA office requesting the full Stafford, then he’d get it as long as it doesn’t cause an excess over COA.</p>
<p>What was his EFC last year and what was in his FA package last year?</p>
<p>No advice to give, but just to let the OP know. It’s not unusual to get a returning FA packet in June or July. Many scholarships/grants can be based on grades, so the final grades need to be in before the aid packages can be made/sent.</p>
<p>After my daughters’ first years, they no longer had to apply for Stafford loans. The freshman year application covered all four years, so they were automatic unless the student wanted to refuse them.</p>
<p>If you call the FA office, they can give you information like that. Did your student have scholarships that were automatically renewable? I’d imagine that the coming year’s FA would be pretty similar to last years, if you want to guestimate what needs to be borrowed.</p>
<p>The state school that my oldest attended never had the tuition and room/board amounts until a couple of weeks before school started because of the way our state budget is set. As long as we told them the amount that we were going to borrow and told them what bank so they could verify, they considered the bill paid.</p>
<p>His EFC was about 16k, might be a bit higher this year. I guess what I’m asking is if we can start the Stafford loan process and parent plus process before we know the exact amount will we be required to contribute. Last year the included the subidized loan in the package but not the unsubidized.</p>
<p>His school bases FA strickly on need.</p>
<p>I think you should call or email the FA office and ask if there is anything special/extra that you need to do NOW before the FA package arrives.</p>
<p>E-mailed FA and he suggested we don’t do anything umtil we recieve the package</p>
<p>Yup, returning kids generally receive their aid letters mid-summer. Yup, if your EFC is realatively the same then your package most likely will be similar with the exception of grade dependent scholarships (if the GPA is too low those scholarships will be dropped.) The only thing I saw was the amount of subsidized and unsubsidized loans varied ever so slightly the year we had 2 in college (we actually got subsidized Staffords.) The paperwork for the loans (if that is a concern or if it’s even necessary in year 2, 3 or 4) move very quickly and once the colleges have certified the loans they pretty much know when the money will hit the account. If the student has applied for (new) departmental scholarships and is wondering whether they have received them or not, they could perhaps ask when those scholarship determinations will be made. I applied for a PLUS for one summer term and I “guesstimate” the amount…the college adjusted it when they certified it, not sure if that process is still the same with the newer federal direct loans.</p>