Completed FAFSA entrance counseling & MPN - what's next for subsidized and unsubsidized loans?

did u check ur SAR to see if ur loan eligiblity is on there? sometimes u gotta wait for school 2 certify ur loans after u do the counseling & mpn stuff

You're on the right track! After completing entrance counseling and your MPN, the next steps are actually on your school's end. Here's what typically happens: 1. Your school certifies your loan eligibility with the Department of Education 2. The loan is approved and accepted by the school 3. The school sets a disbursement date (usually right at the beginning of the term) 4. The funds are applied directly to your student account to cover tuition/fees first 5. Any remaining funds are refunded to you via direct deposit or check If your school's portal shows the loans as "pending," that usually means they're still in the certification process. I recommend contacting your school's financial aid office to confirm they've received your completed MPN and entrance counseling. They can give you the specific timeline for your loans' disbursement.

Just to clarify something important - the SAR (Student Aid Report) is different from your award letter. The SAR is the summary of your FAFSA information and contains your EFC/SAI calculation. Your award letter comes from your school and shows what financial aid you're actually being offered. One other thing to check - make sure you completed the correct MPN. There are different MPNs for undergraduate subsidized/unsubsidized loans versus PLUS loans. Since you mentioned both sub and unsub loans, you should have completed the "MPN for Subsidized/Unsubsidized Loans.

same thing happened to me last year!!! i was FREAKING OUT because my loans weren't showing up as approved even tho i did all the steps!!! turned out i just had to wait. the financial aid office at my school is soooooo slow processing everything. it literally got approved like 2 days before classes started. super stressful but it worked out!

Has anyone else noticed how ridiculously complicated they make this whole process??? Like why do we need to jump through 500 hoops just to get the money we've already been approved for?? The whole system is designed to be confusing on purpose I swear. I had the EXACT same issue last semester and ended up having to pay late fees because my loans didn't disburse on time even though I did EVERYTHING right and on time. It's a complete scam.

I ran into this exact issue trying to get my loans processed last semester. After spending DAYS trying to get through to someone at FSA to confirm they had received my entrance counseling and MPN, I finally discovered Claimyr. It got me connected to an actual FSA agent in about 10 minutes instead of waiting on hold for hours. They confirmed everything was processed correctly on the federal side and it was just waiting for my school to certify. Check out the demo video: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ or their website at claimyr.com - saved me so much stress knowing the federal part was actually done correctly.

Does anyone know if this works differently at community colleges vs universities? I'm at a community college and my financial aid office keeps telling me different things every time I call...

One more thing to be aware of - all federal student loans have origination fees (around 1% for Direct Subsidized/Unsubsidized loans). This means the amount disbursed will be slightly less than the amount you borrowed. For example, if you're approved for a $5,500 loan, you'll actually receive about $5,445 after the fee is deducted. Just something to keep in mind when budgeting!

also check if ur school requires a seprate form for accepting the loans. my school has this weird extra step where u gotta go into the portal and click accept for each individual loan amount. missed that my first semester and had to pay late fees 😫

Good news! Since you already accepted the loans in your school portal, you're definitely on the right track. At this point, it's really just a waiting game for the school to finish processing. Most schools disburse funds right around the first day of classes (sometimes 1-3 days before). If your tuition payment deadline is before your disbursement date, you might want to ask your school's billing office about a temporary deferment based on your pending financial aid.

Just wanted to add one more tip that helped me - if you're still worried about timing, you can also check your loan history on studentaid.gov to see the status of your loans. Once your school certifies them, they'll show up there with disbursement dates. It's another way to track progress besides just checking your school portal. Also, if you do end up with any leftover loan money after tuition/fees are paid, make sure you understand your school's refund timeline - some schools take a few days to process refunds even after disbursement. Sounds like you're doing everything right though!