I am going back to co-op in fall 2007 and therefore i am taking 9 hours this summer to keep in track for graduating in may 2008.

I therefore applied and was counting on a student loan to pay for my tuition for this summer. I got a letter this weekend from the Financial Aid and Scholarship office saying that I have already borrowed the maximum limit from the Federal Stafford loan program and was no longer eligible.

This does not make any sense though I was not even in school in Fall 06 and only took out a loan for the 2nd half of the 2006-2007 academic year. In total I have only gone to school 5 fall/spring semester in my whole college career. I attended summer school twice but did not get the same amount of loan money as going for a fall/spring. I am not sure if they only give you so much money for your college career or if its per year but 5 semesters + 2 summers < 8 semesters for a typical degree. i did my 07-08 FAFSA in march but have not heard back so not sure what the deal is for when i come back in spring 08.

i may be able to shell out 1K if they are going to be jews in financial aid this summer but i know i will not be able to pay 3K for my final spring semester in Jan.

what should i do?

[Edited on May 6, 2007 at 9:27 PM. Reason : l]

5/6/2007 9:19:58 PM

Financial Aid is done per year (For Example: Fall 06 + Spring 07 + Summer07 should be considered all the same year for Financial Aid ** It could be Spring 07, Summer 07, Fall 07-- I haven't dealt with it in a while). Anyway- you should go speak with your financial aid adviser and see what they say. There's one guy up there that is great, so if you run into any problems try to work your way up the chain. Asking for TWW to answer your question isn't going to get you anywhere... go to the Financial Aid office and find out for yourself what you have been awarded. They should already know your tentative aid for summer & fall by now.

you can also take a look at www.staffordloan.com

5/6/2007 11:46:23 PM

it's fall, spring, & summer. and ncsu only lets you borrow a certain amount per year- for juniors & seniors it's 5500. so after they give you that you have to borrow from a different lender.
also summer is done differently than the main school year and you need to fill out a different form. it's in the office and i think you only have a week left. so fill out the form and write on there that you've borrowed your max limit and they'll give you some money for the summer.

5/7/2007 2:45:03 PM

At UMD, my borrowing money in the summer when I didn't take classes in the fall was somewhat of a special case to their financial aid office. It's possible that they just sent you a form letter if you were only allowed half of the money in the spring. Definately question them on it.

5/7/2007 5:07:10 PM

There are institutional need based loans offered in the summer if the Stafford max has already been reached. I got a Battie loan once because of this, and it actually was a better deal. The interest rate is 0%.

There are also alternative loans offered through companies like CFNC or Teri.org. These loans require credit checks and tend to have higher interest rates than federal loans. The interest rates, however, are lower than what one might get on a personal loan.

Best bet is ALWAYS to call the financial aid office!

5/7/2007 5:42:21 PM

^ yeah apparently my stafford loans are maxed out. they count fall->spring->summer as one year. i found out today from the office that they gave me my fall and spring money in January since it did not get dispersed when i was not in school in the fall (i was wondering why my university refund check was so high).

anyway how do you go about getting the Battie loan

5/7/2007 5:59:48 PM

No idea...I just filled out the summer financial aid form and they gave it to me.

5/8/2007 1:15:36 PM