Understanding Financial Aid/DLOC

[85-29]

I'm an incoming D1 and I'm looking for some advice regarding financial aid. I plan on taking out loans to pay for school (both the direct unsub and the direct PLUS). I've filed FAFSA, so what are my next steps? What is the typical timeline for applying for financial aid? When would I hear back from FAFSA or my school? Also, has anyone used the AAMC/ADEA Dental Loan Organizer and Calculator tool? I looked into it and made an AAMC account, but I'm unable to access DLOC. Any tips?

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[anondent20]

Did you submit your parents' data onto FAFSA? It's needed for the Grad Plus loan if you qualify. Make sure to ask if your and your parents' tax returns are needed by the school to qualify for the Grad Plus loan.
Also other than filling out the FAFSA, it is just a waiting game. Your school will probably send you a FinAid Packet at some point and loans gets distributed once school starts. Unless your school has scholarships or grants, I do not think you need to do anything else.
Never used DLOC (also an incoming D1), but sounds like a glorified excel sheet. I would defintely make an excel sheet if you are meticulous about finances and it can help once you graduate to know how much to allocate to what loan. Also once your loans are distributed you can find a list of all your federal loans on studentaid.gov!

 

[artist2022]

Did you submit your parents' data onto FAFSA? It's needed for the Grad Plus loan if you qualify. Make sure to ask if your and your parents' tax returns are needed by the school to qualify for the Grad Plus loan.

I don't think this is true.... maybe you mean for the Parent PLUS loan, which is for undergrads. Dental schools usually require parental information for university loans and aid, like university scholarships and grants. So yes you should put that into FAFSA and either use the IRS Data Retrieval tool or send in returns, but those are only needed for university aid, not for the Grad PLUS loan.

I've never used DLOC either, but yes your loans will be accessible to you via studentaid.gov and you'll also have a loan servicer assigned to you.

Usually filling out FAFSA before 3/2 is all you need to do for federal loans, but I'd check in with the school to see if there are any other forms you need to fill out - UCLA requires a few additional forms in order for students to receive university aid. Otherwise, a few months before school starts (or the month right before for UCLA lol), you'll get a packet from your school detailing out what loans you are eligible to receive and their amounts. From there you accept them, sign MPNs and then they'll be disbursed out to your student acct/bank acct before tuition is due. It looks like all you may be waiting on is just that financial aid packet from your school.

 

[anondent20]

I don't think this is true.... maybe you mean for the Parent PLUS loan, which is for undergrads. Dental schools usually require parental information for university loans and aid, like university scholarships and grants. So yes you should put that into FAFSA and either use the IRS Data Retrieval tool or send in returns, but those are only needed for university aid, not for the Grad PLUS loan.

Yes, sorry I got my loans confused. I am talking about the Health Professional Loan, which is the need-based loan for dental students and requires parental data to qualify. Thanks for bringing up the discrepancy!