Accepting or Declining Your Federal Direct Loans

Federal Direct loans must be accepted online via your myUMBC account before they can be considered as payment toward your bill. Consider the Cost Calculator to help you determine the amount of loan you may want or need to borrow.

You can accept your offered Federal Direct Loans by logging into myUMBC and navigating to Finances. In the Financial aid section, you should select Accept/Decline Awards, then the aid year you wish to review. You can check the box next to each Federal Direct loan you would like to accept. If you wish to accept all of your Federal Direct Loan offers, you can also select ‘accept all’. Be sure to update totals and submit them to finalize your loan acceptance. Please note that Federal Direct Loan offers are for the full academic year. Any amount you accept will be evenly split between the fall and spring semesters.

You can accept your offered Federal Direct Loans by logging into myUMBC and navigating to Finances. In the Financial aid section, you should select Accept/Decline Awards, then the aid year you wish to review. You can check the box next to each Direct Loan you would like to accept. The accepted field will then open and you can make adjustments to your loan amounts. You should then select update total and submit to finalize your loan acceptance. Be sure to accept all or part of your Direct Subsidized Loan offer first before considering Direct Unsubsidized Loans. Please note that Federal Direct Loan offers are for the full academic year. Any amount you accept will be evenly split between the fall and spring semesters.

You can decline your offered Federal Direct Loans by logging into myUMBC and navigating to Finances. In the Financial aid section, you should select Accept/Decline Awards, then the aid year you wish to review. You should check the box under decline then update totals and submit to finalize the decline of your Federal Direct Loan offers.

I declined my Federal Direct Loan offers or accepted less than my initial offer, but now I need them. How can I get them back?

Once you initially accept or decline your Federal Direct Loan offers, they will be frozen. To increase your loan amount, you can complete the Loan Increase/Reinstatement Request form. You may request up to your maximum eligibility based on the Federal Direct Loan borrowing limits.

Yes, if your Federal Direct Loan has not yet disbursed, you may request to reduce or cancel your loan online via myUMBC. If your loan has disbursed, you should complete the Loan Decrease/Cancel Request form no later than 14 days after you receive the disbursement notification. After 14 days, you can contact your lender to make arrangements to return some or part of the loan and reduce your overall student loan debt.

It divided my loans between the fall and spring semester, but I want less for one semester. How can I update this?

Check your alerts. Incomplete actions will prevent your loan from showing as anticipated aid and applying to your bill. If do not have any financial aid alerts, contact your financial aid counselor.

The alert will remain on your account until all offered Federal Direct Loans are accepted or declined. Once action is taken, please allow 2 business days for the alert to be removed from your account. If more than 2 business days pass and the alert is still visible, contact our office.

When will my Loan Increase/Reinstatement Request (or Loan Decrease/Cancel Request) be updated in myUMBC?

Please allow time for our staff to review your financial aid record and make your requested adjustment. Especially during peak times (primarily August, September, and January) it may take up to 4 weeks for the adjustment to be reflected. You will be notified by email when the adjustment is complete and visible in myUMBC.

The Department of Education assesses an origination fee for each Federal Direct loan. This is a percentage of the total loan amount and is deducted prior to loan disbursement. This means the money applied to your bill will be less than the amount you actually borrow. You are responsible for repaying the entire amount you borrowed and not just the amount you received.

First time borrowers must complete both. The Entrance Counseling and MPN remain valid for 10 years. You will receive an alert if either or both steps must be completed. Your loans will not disburse until both items are completed.