<p>Hi CC!
I'm an ED admit for Brown's class of 2015. My parents have been talking to the FA office a lot over the past month after our family contribution skyrocketed like the first week of May. Our original award, in December, was fine for my parents. After reviewing our case, the office revised my award to one that resembled the one in December, so we were fine.
My award has been changed like 3 times. So bear (:) bears!) with me please. There was the award in December, the decreased award in May, and the reworked award from a couple of weeks ago. These just included scholarship money and work study.
After visiting Brown this week and my mom and me meeting someone in the FA office about financing options, my new award includes unsubsidized and subsidized Stafford student loans, to make it easier on my parents.
I'm supposed to approve the new FA award on Banner pretty soon, but I'm a little confused and a few things literally don't add up. Sorry if these are dumb questions--I'm the oldest and my parents have never done this before.
1.) The expected family contribution in Award #3 (revised after our EFC skyrocketed the first week of may) is the exact same as the family contribution in Award #4, which includes loans. It just seems like they turned scholarship money into loans, which doesn't seem like it helps anyone. Can someone explain this to me?
2.) The expected cost of attending Brown for 2011-2012 is listed as $56,950. When you add my EFC and Brown's scholarship, work study, and loans, everything, you get $58,950. I don't want my parents, Brown, or myself to have to pay an extra 2k for no reason. Can someone explain this to me, too?
Thanks everyone! PM me if you want more detailed numbers.</p>
<p>Can you be more specific with your actual amounts. You have to look at actual billable amounts.</p>
<p>Okay, if it’ll help others answer my questions.</p>
<p>Cost of Attendance:
Tuition and Fees<br>
$42,230.00</p>
<p>Room and Board<br>
$10,906.00</p>
<p>Books and Supplies<br>
$1,312.00</p>
<p>Personal<br>
$1,702.00</p>
<p>Travel Allowance<br>
$800.00</p>
<p>Total:<br>
$56,950.00</p>
<p>This is the most current EFC:
Student Contribution<br>
$360.00</p>
<p>Parent Contribution
$28,600.00</p>
<p>Total Family Contribution<br>
$28,960.00</p>
<p>Brown Financial Aid Award (Per year)
Fed Direct Sub Stafford Loan<br>
$3,500.00</p>
<p>Federal Work Study<br>
$1,260.00</p>
<p>Brown University Scholarship<br>
$23,230.00</p>
<p>Fed Direct Unsub Stafford Loan
$2,000.00</p>
<p>Total:<br>
$29,990.00</p>
<p>I’m not sure what else you would need? The parent contribution is the same as in award #3, which didn’t include loans. My work study and student contribution did decrease from award 3 to award 4, but not nearly by 5,500 dollars. Wouldn’t taking out loans increase the overall total fund from Brown/outside resources and then decrease the family contribution?</p>
<p>Your family contribution plus you scholarship equal the tuition, room, and board. You only are billed by the school for tuition, room, board, fees. The books, travel, and personal are estimates of what these items will cost you. But the school does not bill you directly for these things. </p>
<p>You have been offered loans which you can take to help cover your books, travel, and personal expenses (or a portion of your family contribution if you choose). These are loans that all students who complete the FAFSA are eligible to take. </p>
<p>You will only earn your work study if and when you work, so it is money that can be used over the course of the year for personal expenses, travel, books. </p>
<p>If you and your family do not want to take the loans (or only want a portion of the loans) you do not need to accept the full amount.</p>
<p>It appears to me that you applied to Brown ED and got an estimated award when you were accepted in November based on the information you gave them which could not be accurate since the 2010 year was not competed and all info for that year was not available.</p>
<p>When your parents could complete the 2010 tax forms, they completed the PROFILE as well as the FAFSA to get a revised award. That is the way it works for ED students. The actual information differed from the estimate, so there was an appeal. </p>
<p>This, by the way, is why I don’t go for ED for those needing aid. By the time a student finds out the true aid package, it’s late in the season and other alternatives are gone since you have to rescind your other apps. You have no basis for comparison either.</p>
<p>Your final package comes down to the Brown grant. That is what Brown is giving you.$23,230. The rest of the money comes from the federal government and you would get that where ever you chose to go if the cost of the school justified it. Your FAFSA EFC is low enough and Brown’s costs are high enough that you qualify for work study and some subsidization of part of your Stafford loan. But those are things that most all colleges have. </p>
<p>The COA is an average that Brown has calculated what it would cost the average student. My kids have always spent less; but there are kids who spend more. What Brown will cost you exactly is an individual thing. Usually the COA assumes an average double room and the average meal plan, for instance. You will be getting a bill from Brown soon, with 1/2 the Brown scholarship applied to it. Your family has to come up with the rest of the money. If you take the Stafford loans they will reduce your first term costs by $2750. You will still have out of pocket expenses during the term such as transportation, supplies, snack costs, books just like everyone else but the amounts can vary depending on your personal situation and how much you are willing to look for the cheapest ways to meet those costs. For instance, for us to go to our son’s college if we fly, rent a car , and book a hotel room would be a lot of money. If we drive, stay with friends and they lend us their car it would be a lot less. Cheaper, yet would be to let him go with his cousin who goes to school there, and for us parents not to go at all. Son can buy his books new, or look for used deals on the internet as well as locally. But we absolutely have to pay the amount the bursar’s office bills us which will be 1/2 the year’s tuition, dorm and meal plan cost. Freshmen usually have a default meal plan as they are required to eat on campus the first year if they are in the dorms. </p>
<p>So if you sign for the Stafford, the check your parents send to Brown will be $2750 less the first term. You have an opportunity to earn $1260 in Workstudy for your expenses during the year, but YOU have to pursue that. You get it as you earn it and you have to go to the Fin AId office, peruse the job listings and find one that works with your class schedule. If you don’t do that, you don’t get the money. You also have to sign for those Stafford loans before you get them. Brown is not lending you the money, the federal government is. </p>
<p>The term “EFC” is confusing. EFC is technically what is generated by FAFSA as to what that form says you and your family should pay. Brown also requires a PROFILE form, and ultimately, what they give you is a result of what that form generates, not the FAFSA EFC. Clearly, you came up with need on the FAFSA which is why you are getting work study and subsidy on some of the Stafford. </p>
<p>It would be helpful to give us your estimated package in November that Brown put together for you. At that time you would not have completed the 2010 FAFAS so you would not have a FAFSA EFC. </p>
<p>You would then have completed the FAFSA to get eligibility for Stafford and Work study fund which are federal monies, not Brown’s. You would have also done an actual PROFILE since you have actual 2010 numbers and the first one was an estimate only. Based on that, Brown gave you a revised package because the numbers were higher than on your estimated PROFILE or things that were not addressed on the estimated ones came up on the true form and your aid was adjusted accordingly. </p>
<p>Upon appeal, it appears that Brown offered you the full $5500 that nearly all students (US ones) are eligible to borrow if college COA is such that it will go towards that, Your FAFSA EFC was such that you got some of this subsidized. Brown also offered you work study. which is federal money. Basically what Brown is saying is that they are not going to give you any more money other than that grant, but you qualify for federal money and if you want it, here it is, to bring the award up to what the estimate was in November. If your parents prefer to pay those amounts out of pocket, instead , that is fine with Brown too. You don’t have to sign for the loans, you don’t have to get a work study job which will take further action from you when you get there, if you are going to get those funds.</p>
<p>Tuition and Fees - $42230
Room and Board - $10906</p>
<p>Total Direct Billable Costs - $53136</p>
<p>Family Contribution - $28960
University Scholarship - $23,230</p>
<p>Total - $52190</p>
<p>So there is a small gap of $946 between the Direct Billable Costs and the combination of your family contribution and scholarship. </p>
<p>The work study (assuming that you are on a payment play for the billable costs, and will have earned the work study money before the bill is due) and loans can be used to cover that $946, personal expenses, travel, books and supplies, and a portion of your family contribution if you so choose.</p>
<p>As cptofthehouse says above, you do not need to take the loans, you do not need to do work study, but you and your family will still be expected to meet the non grant covered portion of the direct billable costs ($28960 + $946 = $29906), and cover any travel, books and supplies, and personal expenses.</p>
<p>Basically Brown is saying that you can take the loans out to reduce your family contribution, and take the work study to meet your student contribution with a bit extra thrown in there in terms of work study. Brown is giving you the grant, and showing you what government loan and work options you have to meet what they say you have to pay.</p>
<p>The real question is whether or not your family can pay that much ($28,960) if you do take out the loans, find a work study job, etc. Will they be able to do this for the following years? If they do this for you, will they be able to continue to do the same for your younger siblings?</p>
<p>From the overall tone of your letter, I think that you don’t quite believe this would be possible. Please remember that it is OK for you to defer your enrollment for the fall while you re-think your future.</p>
<p>I don’t know Brown’s specific policies but most schools, even those that meet full need, expect the student to take increasing responsibility for the cost each year. Also prices go up each year at about the 5% + clip. So the chances are you are looking at the bottom line cost. You will be entitled to $1000 more next year in Stafford loans, but bear in mind, that is loan money that has to be repaid and if you take out the full amout of Staffords (which Brown has suggested to you this year for freshman costs), you will owe about $30K by the time you graduate. Given your family income and situation as your parents and you reported on that PROFILE, you can clearly see what Brown discounts on their costs for you. Usually, the first year is the most generous in financial aid. </p>
<p>Hopefully you are working this summer and you and parents are looking into some cost cutting regiments for the next how ever many years your family is going to have kids in college. Though Brown will increase your aid somewhat for a second kid in college, it will not cut your figure in half but will probably give what ever your sibling’s costs in college a less than half impact on your family’s contribution figure. So it won’t be a windfall, though it will be something. </p>
<p>You’ve already committed to Brown, so none of this is likely to change your destination, but you should get an understanding, as should your parents, since there are more college kids to come, what the financial impact of going to a school like Brown is. Bear in mind that Brown is one of the most generous schools in terms of financial aid, so anything a sibling gets is not likely to be more generous.</p>
<p>I think one of the OP’s main questions was about the $2K difference. It looks to me like his/her full “need” was met with the subsidized Stafford loan in the package (which is a GOOD thing - for many students, an UNsub loan is packaged in), and the school is pointing out that $2000 of UNSUB Stafford is availableto you as well, if your parents want you to take it out to help meet their EFC. The package is good in other ways - $360 is VERY low for a student contribution - usually they expect at least $1800 or so for a freshman, more for upperclass students. $1260 is low for Work/Study, meaning that the student won’t have to work very many hours to make the full amount. Basically the extra $2K of unsub loans is kind of a “cushion”.</p>
<p>Unless your parents really need the extra $2K - unsub Stafford -to help them come up with their EFC you could just go with the subsidized loan. Later on, if more cash is needed, you could get the unsub loan then.</p>
<p>Second the advice to make and save as much money as you possibly can this summer. Also, either here in the FA forum or in the Parents Forum or Parents Cafe, there are multiple threads on cutting costs, being frugal, etc. which would be helpful for both the OP and the parents.</p>
<p>Yup, looks pretty good to me. a $2,000 surprise on a $50,000+ college can be offset by limiting the cost of living type expenses and easily with a summer job or it’s a federal loan. Many kids are in far, far worse positions now in June and not going to an exceptional college. Your parents aren’t paying $2000 for no reason, they are paying $2,000 because things have changed either at the college or with the finaid paperwork between the application last fall and now.</p>
<p>Hey guys, thanks for all your replies. I appreciate the depth of your insight. I voiced my confusion to my mom, and she’s just going to call Brown’s FA office. They’ll be able to give us more direct answers.</p>
<p>You can always take out the sub and unsub stafford loans and lower your parents contribution.</p>