Advice for USD financial aid (transfer student)

Paying for College
1

This is my situation and since I am not familiar with financial aid for transfers, I would kindly appreciate your advice.

Just a few days ago, I transferred successfully from CSU school to USD. My main reason was because I hated the campus, atmosphere and I was commuting 5 days a week for almost three years (40 miles). Also, the reason why I choose USD is because I live in San Diego and I really like the USD campus. I am planning to live off campus and continue to live with my parents; my estimated family income is $11.000 (extremely low).
Now, the problem is that at CSU I was offered full financial aid (no loans) and it covered my whole tuition. I even had leftovers to for gas and books. However, I just opened my financial aid awards window at USD portal and this is what I see:
$30,347.00 -estimated cost of attendance
$22,000.00 - cost of tuition alone.

This is the package that I got:
Federal Pell Grant

$2,812.00

Fed Direct Subsidized Loan

$4,500.00

Fed Direct Unsubsidized Loan

$2,000.00

Fed Direct Parent PLUS Loan
$21,035.00

I don’t know if I am reading this right, and I’ve received an email that I still have to submit certain forms, but this looks terrible. I basically need to take majority of loans in order to afford last 2 years of college and obviously will end up in huge debt, which is certainly not worth it. I was expecting to receive a better package since my family’s income is very low. I heard that USD is not a generous school when it comes to funding but this is really, really disappointing. What would you suggest?

Btw I’m a biology major, if that helps.

2

Did you use USD’s Net Price Calculator on their website before you initiated the transfer process? If so, what numbers did you get?

3

@BelknapPoint , I did and I received around $16,100 as total estimated gift aid and about $37,000 estimated net price.

4

Were you able to indicate that you were a TRANSFER student on the NPC?

Where is your cal grant?

I hope that you haven’t cut ties with your CSU. Have you?

BTW…that is for one semester. Your situation would be WORSE for next year.

Schools like USD do NOT have the funds for low income students.

Your CSU was affordable because tuition is low, you got a cal grant that covered all of the tuition, and a Pell Grant to cover books, etc.

Tuition at USD is very high, a Cal Grant doesn’t put much of a dent in it, and neither does a Pell Grant.

5

@mom2coIIegekids I didn’t see any options for transfer students on the NPC but I will check again.
My cal grant is not indicated, maybe because I still need to submit certain forms.
The good thing is that I am still enrolled in CSU, so I am not completely ruined.

6

Was that $16,100 merit aid, need-based, or a combination? Many schools give much lower aid to transfers as opposed to entering freshman. Does USD’s NPC make that distinction? If not, that might be where part of the confusion comes from. The numbers in your first post are just for spring semester 2016, right? And if you ran the NPC and it showed you with a net cost of $37,000 (presumably for a full academic year), how were you planning on paying that?

7

I just looked at USD’s NPC, and it appears that it’s really for first time frosh admitted for fall. It’s not really for transfers, particularly for spring transfers.

<<<
students on the NPC but I will check again.
My cal grant is not indicated, maybe because I still need to submit certain forms.
The good thing is that I am still enrolled in CSU, so I am not comp
<<<

Your Cal Grant would only be about $4k-5k for the semester, so not enough to make much of a dent in the cost. And, again, the aid pkg you rec’d was only for one semester. So, they’re expecting a HUGE PLUS loan for next year.

The problem with the USD NPC is that it asks for stats as if you’re an incoming frosh, so likely your results were including a merit scholarship that you’re not eligible for as a transfer.

If you re-run the NPC, can you copy/paste the results.

8

NPC for USD which does not meet need for all students, least of all transfers is useless. Transfers often do not get any institutional aid at all. That would mean federal aid only, plus is you are eligible for cal grant you could get up to an additional 4,500 per semester, I believe. That would leave usd extremely unaffordable, being a high priced private.

If you are actually missing forms that would have allowed them to decide to give you some institutional need aid then you need to get on it asap, you may have missed the opportunity.

9

I attended a speech by USD’s admission director a couple of years ago and she said they don’t really give much in aid to transfer students. The package you received is typical for a USD transfer student with the exception of your missing Cal Grant. As a suggestion I would appeal your award, I have know situations up at USD where the “squeaky wheel” got a bit more aid to make it affordable. At your family’s income level, you should push that point with USD. They may just say “no” but it doesn’t hurt to appeal. Good luck.

10

You won’t be in huge debt but your parents will if they qualify for and take out Parent Plus loans of $21k per year for 3 years. How could they ever repay that?

How does your family live on $11k per year? Wouldn’t their rent be at least $11k per year in San Diego? At $11k per year income I would think you’d get a full Pell grant. Are they self-employed?

What will you do in three years with a degree in biology?

Do you have any college-bound siblings?

You’ve spent almost 3 years in college already and have 3 more? When will you run out of Pell grant?

11

@madison85 The Plus loan debt would be even higher. That $21k is for ONE semester (spring).

I also wonder how the family lives on $11k per year. The OP mentions “parents” so it’s even harder to believe that two parents combined could have an income that low…unless on parent is on disability and that income isn’t geting included. Rent and utiliites would eat up $11k rather quickly.

12

Oh, right!

13

Time to pick up the phone and ask. It’s a private school and costs a lot. Can’t you transfer to UCSD or SDSU?

14

Yeah, both UCSD or SDSU would be affordable (full aid) and cut down your commute. USD just won’t give you the $ you need.

15

Pell grant covers up to 12 semesters. However cal grant won’t go past 4 years total for a freshman or 2 yrs for a cc transfer I believe. And student loans are 7,500 part year until the 32k cap is reached.

16

At this point, she can’t apply to another CSU or UC until next fall’s app cycle.

Uh oh…I just noticed that the OP mentions that she’s been at her CSU for nearly 3 years (sounds like 2 1/2 years). THAT means that she only has 1 1/2 years of Cal Grant left. So, she has to graduate within the next 18 months otherwise she’ll have funding issues.

She needs to stay put and graduate. sounds like she’s at CSU San Marcos. Maybe try to schedule classes for MWF to avoid driving so far 5 days a week.

17

@mJgirl I’m sorry this won’t work out for you. Problem is, it is easier to get into en expensive private than to pay for it, as a transfer it is quadruple so. If anything you should have targeted colleges that meet full need, and not all that do for freshmen do for transfers.

Ironically, ucsd would have given a much better package, just student loans. Did you apply?

18

Someone mentioned that I am attending to CSUSM and that is correct. My family lives on $11,000 because we receive assistance from human services. We also have some money leftovers from my country since we moved from Europe 3 years ago. This should not be an excuse, but I am still adapting to school system here (I am not international student, I am a permanent resident but still, I feel like I am relatively new). I am really disappointed because USD was my first choice and I worked hard to apply as a transfer. The car that I use to commute to San Marcos stops on the freeway frequently and it’s really hard to get classes only 2-3 times a week. It was possible in the first few semesters, but not anymore. In my first year I lived on campus and I could not afford it, so I decided to commute. I also work part time, which only makes things more complicated. I understand that I should have informed myself better, I naively assumed that USD helps a little bit more, especially when it comes to students in financial need.

I have considered UCSD even though I do not really like the school, and also, if I choose to attend, that means waiting for another semester cycle, and I feel quite discouraged now when it comes to applying. I do not even know how to tell my parents that I won’t be able to afford USD, since they are not familiar with school process here. At this point, I am thinking about giving up on college, because I get sick when I just think about coming back to CSUSM. If I got into USD and cannot attend because money is the problem, I really do not see the point of continuing my education, especially at institution that does not suit me.

I had a few things on my mind, so I would appreciate your advice once again. I have realized that expected tuition costs and school expenses are usually lower. I calculated that if I take 12 units, the tuition would be lower than their estimated price ($22,000). It would be about $18,000 plus other fees, lets say 18,500. Since I really want to attend to USD, I was thinking to appeal FAFSA (especially because I am missing Cal grant) just to get some extra funds and make my gap smaller, if possible. Then, I was thinking to loan the money for the upcoming spring semester that I am supposed to attend and since I am starting with my GPA from the zero, to do very well in the upcoming semester. Then, hopefully, good grades can open new scholarship opportunities and I can apply to scholarships (inside and outside USD) and they should cover at least 80-90% of my expenses.

So with the combination of scholarship opportunities, federal aid a little bit of loans I could cover my tuition. Now, I am not sure if this is a realistic approach to the problem.
Thank you so much, I really appreciate your time!

BTW, this is my status on the website: “You have unsatisfied student requirements for this aid year.” and they are requiring Dependent Verification Form. So I guess, my FAFSA decision is not official yet? Or I might be wrong?
More precisely it says: “you and your parent(s) need to complete and return this form and provide all requested supporting documents before your application for financial aid can be evaluated.”
I will drop the dependent form tomorrow or on Monday.

19

Your Cal Grant is not fed aid (thru FAFSA). You can’t “appeal FAFSA”. Your fed aid is set because you have an EFC of 0. No more aid is available for you.

Taking fewer classes is a horrible plan because you only have 3 semesters left of Cal Grant.

You can’t afford this school.

That status on your website sounds like it means that your FAFSA was selected for verification. Likely because your family’s income is too low and some info is provided. It’s unusual that your family was permitted to come to the US and get a green card when it doesn’t have the income to support itself. The country doesn’t often issue green cards to people who will then immediately go on welfare.

20

What career / job do you hope to have with a degree in biology? How will you support yourself and pay back loans?

Count on getting zero in outside scholarships. The majority are for high school seniors.