When and where to apply for student loans after receiving FAFSA SAI and financial aid package?

congrats on getting all that sorted!! Now comes the slightly easier part. For federal loans (which u should always do first), your daughter needs to complete entrance counseling and sign a Master Promissory Note (MPN) on studentaid.gov. The school will tell you exactly which loans were offered in her package - usually Direct Subsidized/Unsubsidized. If those don't cover everything, you as parent can apply for Parent PLUS loan on same website. Private loans should be absolute last resort!!

We went through this last year with my son. The school's financial aid package should list which loans they're offering - usually Direct Subsidized (better) and Unsubsidized (starts accruing interest immediately). You need to formally ACCEPT those loans through the school's portal first, THEN do the MPN and entrance counseling on studentaid.gov. Just make sure your daughter creates her own studentaid.gov account with her FSA ID to sign for her loans, and you'll need your own FSA ID if you're doing Parent PLUS loans.

The school probably already included Direct Loans in your financial aid package - just check the award letter for "Direct Subsidized Loan" and "Direct Unsubsidized Loan." Then: 1. Log into the school's financial aid portal to accept the loans 2. Have your daughter complete entrance counseling on studentaid.gov 3. Sign the Master Promissory Note on studentaid.gov 4. If the federal Direct Loans don't cover enough, you can apply for Parent PLUS There are annual limits on Direct Loans for freshmen ($5,500 for dependent students), so if you need $12,000 total, you might need to look at Parent PLUS or private loans for the difference. PLUS application includes a credit check.

DO NOT TAKE PRIVATE LOANS!!! interest rates are INSANE right now. stick with federal loans only!!!!! and make sure ur daughter takes all subsidized loans first because they dont charge interest while shes in school. unsubsidized loans start charging interest right away even if u dont have to make payments yet.

When I tried to call the Federal Student Aid helpline about my Parent PLUS application last month, I kept getting disconnected after waiting 45+ minutes. Finally found a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to an actual human at FSA in less than 20 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ. Totally worth it because the agent walked me through the entire Parent PLUS application process when I was confused. Saved me hours of frustration!

My daughter just started her sophomore year so we went through this last summer. One important tip - there are actually DEADLINES for accepting the loans and completing the MPN! Our school required all loan documents to be completed by July 15th to ensure funds were disbursed before the fall semester bill was due. Check your school's financial aid website or call them to confirm their specific deadlines. Some schools won't remind you and if you miss the deadline, you might have to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed later.

anyone know if you can increase loan amounts later in the semester if you realize you need more? my tuition went up unexpectedly last year and i had to scramble

Oh! Almost forgot to mention - make sure u look into the interest rates for this year's federal loans. I think they just got announced and they're higher than last year. I think Direct Loans for undergrads are around 5.5% now and Parent PLUS is even higher like 8% or something crazy. Still way better than private loans tho!!

I checked with the school's financial aid office today, and they confirmed we need to accept the loans in their portal by June 30th and complete the MPN and entrance counseling by July 15th. We're going to get that done this weekend. They also mentioned that for Parent PLUS loans, I need to apply separately on studentaid.gov and pass a credit check. Thanks everyone for your help! This process is way more complicated than I expected, but I feel like we know what to do now.