Can my school change my federal unsubsidized loans without my permission?
My school originally awarded federal direct unsubsidized loans me 2. One was for 6219 per semester The other was for 5970 by semesterI thus received the maximum of 8500 for subsidized loans. I have received official documents from the Department of Education Loan Services and the U.S. Department of Education for all of the aforementioned amounts. My school decided to then reverse these loans and then issue me a new one for 5028 per semester. I have NO previous student debt at all or any debt for that matter. My credit score is at 830th out of 812 I have NEVER been financially irresponsible. I did NOT submit any requests, either verbally or written, to modify my loans. I am receiving a scholarship for this year 36 000 (total) to help with living expenses. The total estimated cost to go to my school, with tuition, books, fees, transportation, food, health care (which is mandated), etc. is over 65000th With the original amounts, I would have been above the federal poverty line. With the new modified amounts, I will not be able to afford rent or basic needs as it will leave me with 14 000 for the remainder of the year to cover all extraneous expenses such as housing, food, clothing, utilities, transportation to and from school , campus, etc. It is cheaper to live off campus than to live on campus, Which I do live off. The maximum subsidized loans for EACH year for a graduate student is 8500th The maximum for unsubsidized loans EACH year for a graduate student is 20, 500 The total maximum for subsidized and unsubsidized for a graduate is 29000th http://www. DirectShow. ed gov / applying. html http: / / www. finaid. org / loans / studentloan. phtmlI am in my first year and have no previous debt. So therefore, I do not breach these rules and regulations and limits. I completed all of the counseling, applications, entrance, etc., in early April of 2011 (this year). My question is, can my school suddenly change my original awards (less than 72 hours before final payment is made (September 19, 2011) and place me in such a disposition? If so, why. If not, why not. Thank you for your time!!
You will need to speak to your school’s financial aid office about why your awards were changed. Federal aid has NOTHING to do with your credit score or financial history though.
Yes your school can decrease your loan, in fact, they are required to do so for many reasons. Your loan has nothing to w/your credit, debt or anything like that. The amount you are eligible for is based on the annual loans limits (which you already know and stated in your question) and on your student budget or cost of attendance. Every student has a budget (cost of attendance), which is determined by items such as the cost of tuition and fess (this may be based on whether you are in state or out of state, and if you are full time or part time), estimate for room and board, estimate for books and estimate for personal expenses. You school may have changed your loan if you received some other type of financial aid that they did not know about when they initially awarded your loans, such as a scholarship or stipend. Or they may have awarded you as a full-time student, but if you only registered for part-time hours, they would have been required to decrease your loan. Sometimes the budgets for students living off campus verses students living on campus are different. If you initially indicated you would be living on campus and then switched to off or vice versa, that could have made a difference. You should contact your Financial Aid office and they can explain why they had to make the reduction. And sometimes errors do occur, so they may have made an error, that if you contact them and point it out, they can fix.
Yes, the school can change the amount of loans all they want. And there is not much you can do about it.
Two thoughts here: one of them i’m almost 100% positive is the issue.
this is my first guess,
The first loans were accidentally issued for you listed as both a grad student and as an undergrad… this is an obvious mistake and would have been caught eventually, leaving you to repay the mistake. Another is you were offered a “type” of loan (and didn’t accept if fast enough) or for some other reasons (budget cuts) the money-pool has been all used up and that loan is no longer available or you did not qualify for it(Grad PLUS loan perhaps?)
Another option is this….Here goes:
You can’t get more aid than your schools published annual “Cost of Attendance” minus your EFC minus any other aid (grants, loans, scholarships, everything) you get….
Be aware that YOU don’t determine the schools COA, the school does.. and a school with an EFC of 65,000 is very very rare (what school?). I’m wondering if you are mistaken and should look up what their published COA is. It is usually on their website.
Anyway… You can’t get more aid than your schools published annual “Cost of Attendance” minus your EFC minus any other aid (grants, loans, scholarships, everything) you get….
So, no matter what the max stafford loan is, it still may be reduced because of your EFC or the other financial aid you are getting.
If this is the reason, your calculations to determine your loan amount might look like this:
Schools Cost of Attendance: $46,000
Scholarships: $36,000
Graduate Grant: $2,000
EFC: 0
46,000 – (36,000+2,000) – 0 EFC = $8,000 Max Stafford Allowed (per year) so only allowed HALF (4,000) for fall and (4,000) for spring