<p>Firstly, I'm really excited to be accepted into SBU however there seems to be a lot of complications in my way. Since FAFSA and TAP will only add up to almost half of the total budget needed for a year at SBU ($21k) I was wondering if there will be some financial aid or scholarships given to needed students, I already taken a look at the scholarships page but there weren't really any figures and few that I qualified for. I'm hesitant to take a loan because I'm never really comfortable with borrowing money and don't want to end up in debt. I've been also accepted to Baruch and can commute there saving a lot more money, but SBU feels like a place where I can learn and experience more.</p>
<p>Was also wondering if we need to send in a mid-year report? How about the final transcript, is there a deadline for that?</p>
<p>Does anyone know roughly when the 2 mandatory orientation are held during the summer? I have an important family trip across the globe which will take the 2 months and am planning to perhaps go in between the time from the 2 orientation if possible.</p>
<p>Call the Financial Aid office and talk to them. Maybe they can tip you off to other things that might be out there. Scholarship notifications will go out probably mid-March, so you might get some help there too.</p>
<p>We don’t need a midyear report unless we ask for one; and the final transcript with date of graduation needs to get to us over the summer, so don’t worry about that now.</p>
<p>You’re assigned an Orientation date after you pay your deposits; for freshmen, the Orientation is a one-day program in July. They fill roughly chronologically, so when you pay, you’ll be assigned a date. (Probably not right away, as I don’t know if the dates have been set yet, but soon.) The second Orientation is the weekend before classes start.</p>
<p>If for some reason you can’t make the Orientation date that you’re assigned, then call the Orientation office and they’ll switch you to another date. (No, you can’t request a date; wait until you’re assigned, then go from there.)</p>
<p>Thanks a lot Chris, sounds good. I’ll see what money I can muster up for freshman year, then hopefully have a job to pay off any other pocket expenses for the other 3 years. </p>
<p>Nice to hear I may be able to switch my orientation date to an earlier one so I can fit my trip right in between.</p>
<p>Since there’s no edit, I just thought of a question. How’s the crime rate at SBU?</p>
<p>Over a 2 year period at Stony Brook University, there were a total of 481 crimes for a reported 23,347 students. In the year 2007, there were a total of 0 murders, 5 forcible rapes, 2 aggravated assaults, 212 burglaries, and 3 robberies reported at Stony Brook University.</p>
<p>That’s a bit outrageous but you can’t believe everything you read.</p>
<p>“Rave Guardian Watches Over Stony Brook Campus”
Is it really dangerous at night? I’m not really knowledgeable of how the college scene works, then again why would you be wandering around outside in a giant campus at night.</p>
<p>There is no danger on Stony Brook’s closed and secure campuses and rest assured they are among the safest in the country.</p>
<p>The University is in full compliance with federal regulations in terms of reporting crimes. You will find that other Universities routinely misrepresent their crime statistics. Stony Brook does not. The University Police Department is also only the second in the SUNY system to achieve accreditation status.</p>
<p>Additionally, you have numerous assets available should you feel unsafe to venture out late at night: police escorts, Residential Safety Patrol escorts and the blue light phone system.</p>
<p>I can personally attest to the safety of Stony Brook’s campus, having been a student and worked on the public safety side.</p>
<p>My close friend has a son at SB. He did not get a dime in merit or financial aid. Missed the cut offs by a pretty narrow margin, so this really hurts. He has taken out loans. His parents can handle SUNY/CUNY tuition so if he lived at home and commuted to one of the local schools or if he had accepted a scholarship offer from a local private school, he could have cut the loans down quite a bit. He is working part time and will work this summer as well, to try to bring down the loan level. He absolutely wanted to go away to school and this choice was the best of what he had in terms of cost and desireability. But he is going to be about $60K in debt vs $20 for his choice.</p>
<p>It sounds like you have a 0 EFC. If so, Pell is currently set at $5550/year, but that is facing cuts in the federal budget (the House cut 15%, or $845, from next year’s Pell award in the bill they passed last week). TAP should cover most, if not all, of your SUNY tuition, but not fees. You’ll be offered a $5500 Stafford student loan, of which $3500 may be subsidized (the sub rate for next year is 3.4%) and it’s likely that you’d also be offered a smaller Perkins loan, which is also subsidized (5%). On top of that, you might also receive small SEOG and SUSTA grants and a federal work study award.</p>
<p>Although loans aren’t the most desirable way to pay for your education, sticking with the federal programs, which have fairly low annual limits and a variety of repayment terms, doesn’t usually pose a big problem for students after they graduate. If you find that you need to accept some, but not all, of the loans you’re offered then accept them in this order if you want to save yourself money over the long run: Stafford (Direct) sub, Perkins, then Stafford (Direct) unsub.</p>
<p>Thanks, although I don’t know all the programs you’ve mentioned, this sounds reassuring. I much rather have a dorm-ing experience than commuting to a college, which would feel like high school all over.</p>
<p>I am a RD admit and I was wondering if I needed to go ahead and send my mother’s 2010 tax returns once I get them because my FAFSA is based on estimates based on last year’s return. I have not been offered financial aid yet because as I understand the packaging hasn’t occured yet.</p>