Hi guys! I am going to be attending UCSB this fall and will be paying for college entirely myself through loans and savings. I would be so grateful for some advice from people who have already been in college/have kids in college.
The entire point of this post is to have experienced people view my financial situation and tell me if i am being realistic on my available budgets throughout the school year. I will be very cautious about my spending and am mostly renting books/living on ramen. (I just rented a calculus book valued at 200 dollars for 36 dollars on Amazon!)
Please comment below on your experiences of saving money throughout college! I truly will appreciate any kind of advice or comment or suggestion. (I will be the first in my family to attend a 4-year university so i really dont have anyone to learn from)
Here’s a summary of my situation!:
The general cost of attendance of UCSB is $35,289. (However I waived the 3k health care insurance!)
I will be billed about 2,748 dollars directly from the school each quarter. First payment is sept 15th
I am receiving about 20k in grants and scholarships, I received an outside scholarship of 1500 that has not been processed in my aid letter
My EFC is 4,471 based on my parent’s income of 71k last year (family of 6) but one of my parents are unemployed now and their income has dropped to about 50k (not a drastic change according to financially struggling UC schools) but i appealed for a reduction in the parent plus loan and i am not expecting much of a difference! It has not been processed.
I have accepted 7,600 dollars of loans for this year
I have about 3600 dollars saved through my full-time summer job for other expenses that I am not being billed by the school (toiletries, books, etc)
I am hoping to work during the school year! (i am eligible for 2,500 in work-study)
Here is a breakdown of ucsb expenses in case you are wondering! Please disregard if you believe it is irrelevant :
Tuition $12,294 (RECEIVED PELL GRANT)
Campus Based Fees $1,779
Books And Supplies $1,431 (HOPING TO SAVE MONEY through used/rented)
Health Care Allowance $3,150 (DISREGARD! WAIVED)
Loan Fees $117
Room and Board $13,605
Personal Expenses $1,740
Telephone/Cell Phone $411
Transportation $762
Total $35,289
-I believe my parents are able to contribute only about 300 possibly throughout the entire school year.
Are you living on campus? Meal plan? If so, no need to live on ramen. If not, then what the school listed as r&b, and the other expenses, are just estimates. No way to know if your “plan” is good or not because we have no idea what your expenses are - rent, phone charge, transportation.
You need to list your actual expenses and the amounts you are receiving.
Hi! @twoinanddone Yes, I am living on campus, and I am on a 15 meal per week meal plan. I can’t tell you my actual exact estimates because I don’t even know what they are! I have received my official award letter from UCSB with my loan eligibility/ total scholarships, grants etc. yet they are still inaccurately include the health insurance that i waived (and has been approved) in my net cost and a room an board fee that is more expensive that what I signed up for. (The award letter includes the price of a double, i am going to living in a triple (cheaper)).
Your parents may get the up to $2500 American Opportunity Tax Credit (see IRS Publication 970) each year for 4 years. Ask them if they will give you that money toward your college costs.
It seems a bit stingy that they will only contribute $300 for your education. They are saving many times that in not feeding you while you are at college.
However, I do see now that they are taking out a Parent Plus loan which is their responsibilty to repay (how much is that loan?).
Did you contact the financial aid office at UCSB to request “professional judgment” for your FAFSA EFC due to your parent’s job loss? Maybe your Pell grant could be increased.
The transportation question has to do with how would you get from your parents’ home to campus for the beginning and end of school year and for winter and spring breaks. It doesn’t mean getting from your dorm to your classes. If your parents are driving you, then the $762 in the budget is too high.
From your other threads I see that you could have lived at home and commuted to UC-Irvine, that you are interested in medical school, and that one of your UCSB scholarships is for freshman year only.
Do your best this year but keep in mind the idea that you may need to transfer to UC-Irvine and live at home if UCSB is unaffordable.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear. You have $762 budgeted for transportation. That is for the cost of getting you to campus in the fall, home and back for breaks, and then home again in the spring. It would also include the cost for commuting if you were living off campus and driving or taking public transportation to get to campus.
If someone will be driving you to school in the fall and picking you up again for breaks (since you live in the LA area), then you can drop that $762 from your budget except for gas or “chip-in” costs.
$32,139 total cost (excluding waived health insurance)
minus
$21,500 grants and scholarships
equals
$10,639 remaining cost.
$4,344 of that is books, personal, travel, phone, where you may have opportunities to cut by living frugally (e.g. you can see if putting the textbooks’ ISBNs on amazon.com can find the book at a lower price than locally, but be aware of shipping time and charges). Room and board can also be trimmed in future years or quarters if you move to cheaper housing (e.g. http://sbcoop.org/?q=node/17 ).
Seems like a federal direct loan of $5,500 plus some work earnings should cover the rest.
**Tuition $12,294 (RECEIVED PELL GRANT)
Campus Based Fees $1,779
Room and Board $13,605
**
$27,678
After scholarship and grants, you are billed $8,244 (3 quarters)
If you take the $5,500 loan and pay $3,000 out of work earnings, you should have costs paid with about $200 left.
Why are your parents taking out a Parent Plus loan? You would not need that much.
During the school year you can earn money through work study.
If your grants exceed the cost of tuition, fees and books (looks like they will), then the excess is taxable income to you and will need to be reported on your tax return.
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