Q:

Are universities legally allowed to adjust, or deny private loans?

I'm curious about my rights to my own private loan. (Co-signed by my brother) After getting my tuition and fees, I took out a loan to cover the remaining costs after aid. 
I do live with my parents - however, they purchased a car and cell phone in my name and then told me that I must pay for it myself. And because those bills are attached to me, my credit will obviously go down if I don't pay them. My parents do not support my living at all, even though I live with them.
With that being said, I also have to add on car bill, gas, groceries, etc onto that private loan. I do not have time for a job, as I am taking 18 credit hours. So I desperately need the money in order to survive while going to school. 
Now, my school is denying my loan with the amount that I am asking for. They told me that if I want to take out that loan then they will only accept it if I reduce it. 
In my own personal opinion, they do not know the circumstances of my financial/home life, therefore shouldn't have any say in what I take out of a private loan. I am not doing this to buy clothes, unnecessary things, or anything that isn't absolutely needed. Which I have explained to them, but they do not care.
I tried to search for any laws about private loans, but I am not an expert in law at all. 
Could somebody please help me? If you know anything about whether or not they are even allowed to do this, that would be helpful.

A:

Student loans work very differently than any other ordinary loan you could take out. They have explicit restrictions that limit what kinds of things you can use them for, including your tuition, books and other required materials (sometimes even a laptop), room and board, groceries, transportation (like a bus pass), and a few other minor essentials for going to school (like school-provided health insurance, if needed). Your university should publish a public cost of attendance document somewhere which lists exactly what expenses are needed to attend there, and only those expenses can be covered with student loan financing.
Student loan financing explicitly cannot be used to buy a car or pay off loans. You'd also be hard-pressed getting them to consider a phone plan essential, so you can't use that financing for your phone either.
Now the other part of a student loan is that it's not actually a loan where you get all the money up-front. It is disbursed on an as-needed basis. It can almost be thought of as a pre-approval. It is a maximum amount that a certain bank is willing to allow you to take out in order to pay for college expenses, but not necessarily an amount that you will actually receive in full. That is up to the school and how much they evaluate you are eligible to take out.
When the school is evaluating how much student loan financing you can receive each term, your car loan and phone plan are simply not relevant. They're not covered expenses for that financing, and they are things that you should be covering on your own outside of any school expenses. They are evaluating how much you actually need to cover all of your tuition and material expenses, and maybe groceries if you convince them that's necessary. Since you're living with your parents, room and board is not included.
So yes, an university can control how much of a student loan you actually receive. They're explicitly in charge of determining that. If you want loan money that is not ultimately controlled by the school you are attending, then you would need to get a personal loan, but that doesn't really solve your problem since it's unlikely you'd find a personal loan with deferred payments.
If the car and phone plan are causing you financial burdens, then you'll need to pursue other legal options to get out of those contracts (you might be able to void them if they were created in your name without your consent, or you might be able to strong-arm your parents into taking over financial responsibility). You cannot use a student loan to cover those payments, and the university will not give you additional money because of those financial obligations.

