Am I totally screwed?

[futurelcsw]

I filled out FAFSA and submitted it Feb. 15th and it was processed Feb. 17th. I hadn't filed my taxes yet so I planned on making corections later. Well I totally forgot all about the form until today and I made the corrections for my tax information. Will I not receive a Stafford loan now? If I do, will I get the money really late and be dropped from my classes? i have never had to use FAFSA/loans and I'm freaking out because I think I royally screwed myself.

[OregonGal]

If you submitted it in February, as long as the corrections weren't major I think you should be good. It's not as if you were trying for grant aid; Stafford loans for graduate students are unsubsidized, meaning there's no "need" requirement attached. They are automatically offered to graduate students and so are Grad PLUS loans, they're meant to cover the unfunded portion of your education and the main difference is that Staffords have a cap and a lower interest rate.

If you haven't received your financial aid package from the school yet, you might want to get in contact with the FA office and make sure there aren't any issues. However, a lot of public schools haven't finalized their COA budgets yet because they haven't decided how much to hike tuition, and therefore can't finalize aid. I know at my state school I'm not expecting to hear back until late June or even July because of state budget revisions affecting higher ed.

[futurelcsw]

Ok good. I called the Financial Aid office and she said they received it. Because I was accepted recently, (second week of May), they hadn't put my financial aid package together yet. She said it doesn't look like there are any problems with it but I should calle at the end of next week in case they need anything else from me.

[ANDS!]

I wouldn't worry about it. The gubment will toss the 20K your way and send you on your merry. . .way.