Adult student - living expenses

<p>I completed the FAFSA and have an EFC of 0. I plan to attend the local community college in the Fall. Can anyone tell me, does the financial aid cover living expenses? I've read online that the school takes the tuition and fees out and holds the rest for books. Then after a certain date, they send me a check for the remainder. But when I spoke to the counselor (NOT finaid counselor) she said that if I was lucky, I'd have enough left over for gas throughout the semester. I am counting on having enough to pay most of my rent, so this is scary!</p>

<p>The cost of attendance listed on the website for my school is:
Tuition and Fees: 1680
Books and Supplies: 990
Transportation: 1980
Miscellaneous Expenses: 720
Room and Board: 6680
TOTAL: 12050</p>

<p>When I put this into the FAFSA4caster, it says everything is covered by Pell, WS and loans. The counselors I've spoken with never know exactly what I'll really get and refuse to speculate. To make a long story short, I just paid off a defaulted student loan at Michigan State from 1994. I'm waiting for the "paid in full" letter to arrive in the mail that they need in order to calculate my new FA package, I guess. </p>

<p>I'm hoping someone might tell me if community college students usually get enough finaid to pay for room and board. Thanks!</p>

<p>Your financial aid should be based on your EFC and the school’s COA. With a 0 EFC you should be eligible for the Pell (assuming you are otherwise eligible - ie don’t already have a bachelors degree and meet SAP for aid eligibility). The maximum Pell is $5550 for the 2010-2011 school year. Any other grant aid would depend on the school and whether they have other grant aid and their criteria for awarding it. At our local CC the only other grant aid is a small state grant for low income students and a very small SEOG grant ($200 for the year). WS would depend on the school. Some schools may not offer WS. Our CC does not. You should be eligible for Stafford loans as long as you have not already exceeded the aggregate lifetime total for Stafford loans. How much you would be eligible for will depend on what year (classification wise) you will be. As an independent student, if you are considered a freshman you are eligible for up to $9500 of which up to $3500 may be subsidized. A sophomore is eligible for up to $10,500 of which up to $4500 may be subsidized. BUT your total aid cannot exceed the COA for the school so you will not get the full amount of loans as well as the Pell as that would take you over the schools COA.</p>

<p>Schools sometimes have a different COA for commuting students and resident students. Your aid will be based on the COA for your status.</p>

<p>Our experience with FA is that schools take out their direct expenses and refund the rest to the student. So for a student living off campus they would take out the tuition and fees and any books bought at the schoolbook store. The timing of the refund varies enormously from school to school. I have heard on these boards that some schools refund right at the beginning of the semester. My daughter’s school pays the refund after the add/drop period which is two weeks after school starts. My son’s CC does not pay it until 5-6 weeks into the semester. I believe this is because they have had more problems with students dropping out a few weeks into the semester putting them into the position of having to go after the student to get back the the FA paid out.</p>

<p>I would guess they are not willing to give you a guesstimate for aid because they have to check all your data to see what you are eligible for. For instance the Pell is only for students without a bachelors degree. They would have to check what you have had in the past for student loans to make sure you do not exceed the aggregate maximums. And they would have to check that you meet their SAP (satisfactory academic progress) to be eligible for aid. (SAP takes into account your previous college history - for instance you generally have to have completed a certain % of all college classes attempted - at my daughter’s school it is 75%, have a certain GPA, and not have attempted credit hours that exceed a certain % of the credit hours required for a degree at the school - at my daughter’s school it is 150%).</p>

<p>Whether you get enough aid to pay for your rent will depend on your aid eligibility and what rent is in your area.</p>

<p>First of all, with a defaulted loan on your record, you are not eligible for federal aid. Until the information about the default clearance is received by the CC and reviewed by the employee responsible for default clearance issues, you are not aid-eligible. That is why no one can tell you anything right now. </p>

<p>As for living expenses, CCs have various policies for including living expenses in the Cost of Attendance budget. You can find out your school’s COA budget by looking online (or call/visit the financial aid office if you can’t find it online). With a 0 EFC, you “can” be awarded aid up to the COA. Assuming you do not have a prior bachelors degree, and assuming that if you are verified your EFC remains 0, you would receive the full Pell grant. Beyond that, what you would be offered is COA-Pell grant. There might be some other grant aid from the school, but let’s just assume there is not - so you’d have to borrow to cover the rest. Loans are determined by year in school, so you would be eligible for up to $9500 in Stafford loans as a freshman (I assume you are independent by virtue of your age due to the date of your defaulted loan) — but if COA-Pell grant is less than that amount, you can only borrow the amount of (COA-Pell grant).</p>

<p>Remember, though, that there are lifetime limits for Stafford loans. You can only borrow a total of $57,500 as an undergrad. Any unpaid amounts of old loans, including those that were consolidated, count toward that total. So you also have to take your outstanding undergrad debt into consideration … if you are at or near that limit, your borrowing power is limited.</p>

<p>Does the amount of the aggregate reset if someone paid off a loan while in school, for example? Such as I took out 9500 this school year in stafford loans. I applied for a scholarship that I was under the impression would be disbursed next school year. As it turned out, half would be disbursed this semester and half in the fall. Because I was already maxed out for FA by the COA already being met, this semester’s disbursement was applied toward my unsubsidized Stafford.</p>

<p>*I completed the FAFSA and have an EFC of 0. I plan to attend the local community college in the Fall. Can anyone tell me, does the financial aid cover living expenses?</p>

<p>The cost of attendance listed on the website for my school is:
Tuition and Fees: 1680
Books and Supplies: 990
Transportation: 1980
Miscellaneous Expenses: 720
Room and Board: 6680
TOTAL: 12050
*</p>

<p>Do you mean loans or “free money”.</p>

<p>Often all a qualified student can get in “free money” is maximum Pell $5500 plus a bit of other small amounts. I doubt you’d get close to $12k per year in free money. </p>

<p>However, as kelsmom says, if you’ve had a default loan in the past, you’ll have eligibility issues.</p>

<p>Re: Post #4 … Not quite sure what you are asking. I’ll try to answer based on what I think you want to know: If your unsub loan is reduced by the amount of the scholarship because you are at COA already, the school will return the unsub loan funds to the lender (or never disburse it in the first place, depending on the timing of the scholarship notification). That portion of the loan will be canceled & you will owe that much less. </p>

<p>The aggregate is based on outstanding loans, rather than on actual amounts borrowed as an undergrad. A student can actually borrow more than $57,500 as an undergrad if he pays off loans before borrowing more. He just can’t have more than $57,500 at any given time. Sometimes students think that if they consolidate, they’ve paid off their loans … because they are told the loan is “paid through consolidation.” The amount of the consolidated loan that is still unpaid counts against the aggregate, though, since that amount is still owed.</p>

<p>That was exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks.</p>

<p>It seems like your asking about federal aid ( like pell grant etc…) which will at its best try to fund your need base off the grants/ loans possible. Though usually federal aid itself does not cover extra cost like living expensive such money will likely come from the school or self.
I’m not too familier with community colleges but most I know do not have room and board.</p>

<p>Thanks for the responses! I must have missed the notification or I would have gotten back sooner.</p>

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<p>The CC only required the paid-in-full letter to clear the financial aid, which is now done. A paid-off default does NOT affect your ability to get future federal aid, as explained on the ed.gov website:</p>

<p>[Going</a> Back to School](<a href=“http://ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/going.back.to.school.html]Going”>http://ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/going.back.to.school.html)</p>

<p>The loan that I just paid off was a $600 perkins loan plus interest. I thought it was paid off in 1995 (no proof though) and it never appeared on my credit report all these years. When I applied to the CC last year after being laid off again, I was told about it. </p>

<p>Since my original post, I’ve learned the real reason for the delay of my SAR. My Summer loan paperwork won’t be processed until I register for classes and I can’t register because I was considered an inactive student. I had to submit my application to the CC again. I have to wait until next week to register which will get the ball rolling.</p>

<p>As far as COA, I’ll post my results for future reference in case someone stumbles onto this post. Thanks!</p>

<p>Yup, if you’ve cleared the default, you’re good. I actually rehabilitated my default with an income-sensitive monthly payment of about $24, got the clear paperwork, went back to school, and had my first payment returned. Because I had started school again full time before the first payment was officially due, my rehabbed loan went into deferral! So after 20 years waiting until I could afford to repay the loan so I could go back to school, I ended up not having to pay a cent to go back to school. :-0</p>

<p>BTW, apropos of your question, while you’re getting it sorted out, check your CC website and ask your financial aid office about direct deposit. Many schools now do their living expense refunds (the part of your financial aid that pays for books, housing, etc) through direct deposit, which can be <em>way</em> faster than waiting for a check. For some schools, it can get money to you 2 weeks or more faster! I <em>loooove</em> my direct deposit, because I get my living expense money 24 hours after the official start of the semester.</p>

<p>Why did you never come back and let us know the outcome. I am in desperate need to figure some things out soon.</p>