FAFSA loan disbursement checklist - completed MPN and entrance counseling but worried I missed something

u good bro those r the main things. as long as school certified the loan amounts ur fine

Thanks! Do you know how I can check if the school certified the loan amounts? Is that something I can see on my student account?

You've completed all the federal requirements, but there are a couple things to double-check:\n\n1) Verify your FAFSA shows as 'processed' not 'pending' on studentaid.gov\n2) Check your student account to confirm the loans are showing as 'pending disbursement'\n3) Make sure you're enrolled in enough credit hours (usually minimum half-time)\n4) Confirm you've accepted the loans in your school's financial aid portal\n\nAlso, if this is for the 2025-2026 aid year, remember the disbursement dates are typically 10 days before classes start, though this varies by institution.

Thank you so much for the detailed checklist! I just checked and my FAFSA is processed and I've accepted the loans. I forgot about the credit hours requirement though - I'm currently at 9 credits (3 classes). Hope that's enough!

9 credits is typically considered 3/4 time for undergrads and should be sufficient for most federal aid programs! Each school sets their own exact requirements, but you're likely fine as long as you maintain at least 6 credits (half-time status).

FAFSA IS THE WORST!!!! I did all that stuff too last year and my loans STILL didn't show up until 3 weeks after classes started!!! The financial aid office blamed it on \

That's exactly what I'm worried about! Did you ever figure out what caused the delay or was it just the system being slow?

They kept giving me different answers everytime I called. First it was \

Have you checked if you need to do Annual Student Loan Acknowledgment? Some schools require it even though it's technically optional now. Also make sure your school has your SSN on file correctly - my loans got held up for 2 weeks because of a typo in my SSN.

I didn't even know about the Annual Student Loan Acknowledgment! Is that different from the entrance counseling? I'll definitely look into that, thanks.

When I was trying to get my loans processed last semester, I literally could not get through to anyone at the Federal Student Aid office. I spent HOURS on hold only to get disconnected. Finally, I found this service called Claimyr that got me connected to an actual FSA agent in about 20 minutes. They basically wait on hold for you and call you back when they reach a real person. Saved me a ton of time and frustration. Their website is claimyr.com and they have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ

That sounds really helpful! I've been trying to call my school's financial aid office and the federal number with no luck. I'll check out that service if I can't get through tomorrow. Did they ask you about your specific loan situation when you finally got connected?

Yeah, once I was connected to the FSA agent, they actually walked me through checking if all my loan documents were properly processed in their system. They confirmed everything was good on the federal side and helped me figure out the holdup was at my school's financial aid office. Saved me from waiting another week wondering what was wrong.

One thing no one mentioned yet - check if your school has additional requirements beyond the federal ones. My university made me complete a separate institutional loan agreement form that wasn't mentioned anywhere on studentaid.gov. Also, if you have Parent PLUS loans, make sure your parent has completed their MPN too, as that's separate from yours.

Oh that's a great point. I'll log into my school's financial aid portal right now to check for any school-specific forms. Thankfully I don't have any Parent PLUS loans, just Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized.

heyy just wantd to share my experience... i had everything done too but turns out i was randomly selected for verification and had to submit extra tax docs. might wanna check if you got any notification about verification in ur studentaid.gov account or school email. it's super random who they pick

UPDATE: I called my school's financial aid office this morning (had to try 5 times to get through). They confirmed I've completed all the federal requirements! The only thing I was missing was signing their school-specific

That's exactly the kind of school-specific form I was talking about! Glad you got it sorted out. Those Title IV authorizations are important but often overlooked in the FAFSA process. Best of luck with your classes!

nice! u got this 👍