FAFSA completed - when do we sign promissory notes for federal student loans?

After completing the FAFSA, here's what happens next: 1. Your FAFSA information gets sent to the schools listed on your application 2. The schools calculate your aid package based on your SAI (Student Aid Index) 3. Each school sends an award letter showing grants, scholarships, and eligible loans 4. THEN your daughter will need to complete entrance counseling and sign the Master Promissory Note (MPN) for any federal loans she accepts The MPN signing doesn't happen right away - it's after you review and accept the loan offers in her aid package. Most schools have a financial aid portal where she'll see what steps are required and when.

dnt forget she'll need 2 do entrance counseling if she hasnt had loans in past 5 yrs! My son had to redo his cuz he took time off too. The promissery note is called MPN and its good for 10 yrs i think but the counseling module has to be done again.

After FAFSA submission, you'll receive your SAI (Student Aid Index) calculation within 3-7 days by email. Then your daughter's school financial aid office will prepare her aid package, which typically takes 2-4 weeks after they receive the FAFSA data. Once she receives and accepts any Direct Loans in her package, she'll need to: 1. Complete entrance counseling at studentaid.gov (required again after a break in enrollment) 2. Sign her Master Promissory Note (MPN) - also on studentaid.gov Both must be completed before any loan funds will disburse to her school account. I recommend having her check her school's financial aid portal weekly for updates and required actions. Some schools have additional internal forms to complete.

My daughter just went through this process last semester! The timeline varies by school - her university didn't send the award letter until June even though we submitted FAFSA in January 🙄 Super frustrating! The promissory note signing happens after you accept the loans in their financial aid system. Make sure your daughter checks her student email obsessively because they sent all the notifications there, not to my parent email.

Getting ahold of someone at Federal Student Aid or even your school's financial aid office can be insanely difficult during peak times. I spent HOURS on hold trying to get answers about my son's loan counseling requirements after his gap year. Finally found Claimyr (claimyr.com) which helped me skip the phone queue and got me connected with a real person at FSA in about 10 minutes. They have a demo video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ The agent clarified exactly what steps my son needed to complete and when. Saved us weeks of back-and-forth and uncertainty.

EVERYONE saying you need to wait for the school to send award letters before doing MPN is WRONG!! You can complete the Master Promissory Note ANY TIME after FAFSA! I do mine right away every year even before getting awards. Same with entrance counseling. Just go to studentaid.gov and do it now - it stays in the system and gets connected to your daughter's account when the school processes her loans. DONT WAIT!!

u all r making this way more complicated than it needs 2 b. just check studentaid.gov for a checklist. it tells u exactly what 2 do next based on ur situation. thats what i did. super easy.

One important detail: Even after signing the MPN and completing entrance counseling, loan funds won't disburse until 10 days before classes start at the earliest. I've seen many students panic when they don't see loan funds in their account immediately after completing all requirements. The MPN (Master Promissory Note) is valid for 10 years for undergraduate Direct Loans, but as others mentioned, entrance counseling is typically required again after breaks in enrollment. Also, your daughter will need to complete her school's process for accepting the exact loan amounts she wants. Some students make the mistake of accepting the maximum offered when they don't need it all - remember she'll pay interest on every dollar borrowed!

As someone who just went through this process with my own child, I'd recommend creating a timeline and checklist to stay organized. Here's what worked for us: 1. Set up notifications on your daughter's student portal so she gets alerts when documents are ready 2. Have her check studentaid.gov weekly for any required actions 3. Consider completing the entrance counseling early (even before award letters) since it's required anyway 4. Keep a list of important dates from her school's financial aid calendar One thing that caught us off guard was that her school required additional verification documents even after FAFSA was processed. Some schools randomly select applications for verification, which can delay the aid package. Just something to keep in mind if things seem to be taking longer than expected. The good news is that once you get back into the rhythm of the process, it becomes much more manageable. Good luck with everything!

As a newcomer to this community, I found this thread incredibly helpful! I'm in a similar situation with my son who's returning to school after military service. One thing I'd add is to make sure your daughter updates her FSA ID password if it's been a while - mine was locked after the 5-year break and it took a few days to get it reset through customer service. Also, I learned that some schools have priority deadlines for submitting loan acceptance even after they send award letters, so it's worth asking about that when you get the package. The last thing you want is to miss out on aid because of a deadline you didn't know about! Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - this is exactly the kind of real-world advice that makes navigating the financial aid process so much easier.

As a newcomer here, I just wanted to say thank you for all this detailed information! My daughter is also returning to college after a gap year, and I was feeling completely lost about the timeline and requirements. Reading through everyone's experiences has been incredibly reassuring. One question I have - for those who mentioned completing entrance counseling early, does it expire after a certain time period? I want to make sure if we do it now (March), it will still be valid when her loans actually disburse in August. Also, has anyone dealt with transferring schools during this process? My daughter might switch universities over the summer, and I'm wondering how that affects the loan paperwork timing. This community is such a great resource - thanks for being so welcoming to newcomers with questions!

As a newcomer to this community, I'm so grateful for all the detailed responses here! I'm in a very similar situation with my son who's returning to college after a 3-year break to work and save money. The timeline information has been especially helpful since I was worried we were behind schedule. One thing I wanted to add that might help others - I called my son's school's financial aid office directly last week, and they told me that even though the general FAFSA processing takes 3-7 days, their specific institution needs about 3-4 weeks from when they receive the data to prepare aid packages. They also mentioned they prioritize students who submitted FAFSAs earlier in the year, so those who submitted in March (like us) might have to wait a bit longer than those who submitted in January or February. The financial aid counselor also suggested signing up for their text alerts in addition to email notifications, since students tend to check texts more frequently. Just thought I'd share in case it helps anyone else manage the waiting period! Thanks again to everyone who shared their experiences - it's made this process feel much less overwhelming.

As a newcomer to this community, I wanted to share my recent experience that might help others in similar situations. My daughter is also returning to school after a gap, and I was feeling overwhelmed by all the steps involved. One thing that really helped us was creating a simple spreadsheet to track everything - FAFSA submission date, when we expect to hear back, school-specific deadlines, etc. It's made the waiting period much less stressful knowing we have everything organized in one place. I also discovered that our state has a financial aid hotline separate from the federal one that was incredibly helpful for state-specific questions. The wait times were much shorter than calling FSA directly. It might be worth checking if your state offers something similar. Thanks to everyone who has shared their experiences here - reading through all these real-world timelines and tips has been invaluable for a parent getting back into the financial aid process after several years away from it!

As a newcomer to this community, I'm so thankful for all the detailed information shared here! My daughter is also returning to college after a 4-year break, and I was completely lost about where we stood in the process after submitting our FAFSA last week. Reading through everyone's experiences has been incredibly reassuring, especially learning that we're not behind schedule and that the MPN/entrance counseling steps come after receiving the aid package. I was worried we were supposed to be doing something immediately after FAFSA submission. The tip about checking her FSA ID password is something I never would have thought of - definitely going to have her verify that's working before we need it. And I really appreciate all the timeline estimates people have shared. It helps so much to know what to expect and when. One quick question for the group - has anyone dealt with a situation where their student's previous loans were with a different servicer? I'm wondering if that affects the MPN process at all, or if it's all handled through the same federal system regardless of who serviced the previous loans. Thanks again to everyone for creating such a welcoming and informative discussion!