After interview,u receive word of acceptance by December 1st (last cycle anyway). If u are awesome, ur school will usually let u know of scholarship offer with ur acceptance letter.
Then on your own, you apply for fafsa. U can start applying by January I believe. Even if you haven't heard from schools, its a good idea to apply for fafsa anyway (for multiple schools).
usually the school wants you to fill out their own financial aid application (on top of fafsa). You are contacted via email about filling out the schools application.
Around end of march (or whenever ur fafsa is processed) you get a SAR, with additional instructions/missing documents (ie proof of citizenship). You send that to your school and all that.
You check your ds email> financial aid section & determine your estimated cost of attendance. Create a quick budget, factor in housing if u choose n get a estimated number.
recall in your fafsa you filled or estimated cost of attendance etc, n in your sar it states which finding u are entitled to receive (usually source unsubsidized loans).
But u gotta fill out some other requirements too like master promissary note, online loan interview (aka quiz too see u understand your loan obligations etc).
Fafsa relays that information to the school & u check off all these requirements.
Then school contacts you saying"hey soo yea your award letter is approved for this scholarship (amount x), direct unsubsidized loan for amount x, Perkins loan x ...u get the idea.
Additionally, u can choose to send your schools financial aid department your parents tax return to see of you qualify for preferable federal loans like health care professionals loan , etc (which r part of title 7 funding)...
In short the process is def new but your schools financial aid department is in constant contract with you by phone, email to instruct you/remind you/answer your questions along the way.
Right now, this should be last of ur worries. Worry about getting in first.process isn't difficult to follow.
* I highlighted the path I took. U can do it differently ex. Look for a private loan yourself with a bank, pay for school yourself etc.
This was a pia 2 type Hope this answers ur question
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