Question about Federal Stud. Loan

I received a federal student loan for my BS degree. Now I have applied to receive a loan for my master. I received a notice from the FAFSA that I was approved; however, my EFC, or Expected Family Contribution, came to about $3,500.00 per year. Does that mean that I have to come up with $3500 out of pocket before I can use the loan, or does that mean that my loan would be for $18,000, which I think it is the maximun one can obtain per year for a master, minus the $3500?

I do not remember if I had a EFC when I completed my BS.

Any input on this?

Thanks

Aldo

 

Last year I was in the same situation that you are in now.

The college that you are attending and your living status will determine if you have to pay anything. If you filed the FASFA as an independent student, then (from what the advisor at the Financial Aid office at the university that I attend told me) you would need to make over $12,000 for the year in order for you to be required to pay any part of your tuition. So it looks that you are okay there.

But be aware of your financial aid office's student budget. The budget is a sum of the estimated cost to attend their university for one academic year. It will include tuition, fees, housing, food, transportation, etc. In some cases, especially if you are attending a public university as an in-state student, your budget will be less than the $18,500 you can receive from Stafford loans and this doesn't even consider the Perkin loans and other sources. For instance, I am attending a Cal State school and I expected to recieve about $24,000 in aid, mostly through loans. But I only received a little over $11,000. Now this more than covered the cost of tuition, but it wasn't what I was expecting to receive.

Finally, keep in mind that your housing status will effect what you will receive. If you file as "living with parents" instead of "off campus" you will receive less aid. In my case it was about a $4500 difference. It may be more or less depending on the area of the country that you university is located.

 

Thanks for the response. I guess my concern is that I will be doing it online through UIS (more likely). The total expenses may only ne about $5000 per year. I guesss I may meed to wait to see what the school says.

Thanks for the input.

Aldo