<p>Here's my story: My friends (whose parents are covering all their college expenses) talked me (who is paying for college mostly on her own) into getting an apartment with them. At the time, it seemed like a reasonable idea because rent for the entire year costs about $1,000 less than a dorm, which is what i had lived in the previous year. While I was living in the dorm, I received enough financial aid that my semester bill only had $2,000 left on it and my parents managed to cover the bill. This year, because I am living off campus, there is only $700 left on my bill which I or my parents could handle. The issue is that I received significantly less financial aid this year than last year and i don't know why (i have good grades, do community service; scholarships just turned me down and two of my grants disappeared), meaning my refund will be zilch. My plan was to take out enough in student loans to cover any remaining costs on my bill AND cover rent, but because of my lack of financial aid, ALL of my loan money is going to my bill. Meaning I have to come up with rent almost out of thin air. Last year while I was living on campus, i couldn't find a job. Even if I can find one this year, I doubt it will be enough to cover my stupidly high rent ($600 a month) as well as food and books. My parents live too far away for me to commute to school, and I don't have a car so wherever I live has to be close to campus. Unfortunately, everything that is a safe walking distance to campus (campus is in a pretty bad neighborhood and i'm not looking to get jumped on my way to school) is just as expensive as where I'm living now. If anyone has any advice regarding scraping up funds, maintaining sanity in times of financial stress, or crying hard enough at the financial aid office that they give you more money, I would be eternally grateful.</p>
<p>post script:
i've looked into private loans, but the consistent answer is that i/my family doesn't have good enough credit.</p>
<p>Are you taking out the Direct Loans to the limit? Do your parents consider Direct PLUS Loans?</p>
<p>what grants disappeared? what is your efc? </p>
<p>Check the CoA. Some schools give an lower CoA calculation if you live off campus. My nephew at Berkeley ran into situation like that last year. He thought he could save some money by living off campus. At the end, the reduction in aid is larger than the money he could save. </p>
<p>My parents refuse to take out PLUS loans, believe me, i’ve tried to talk them into it 
As for the grants, I had a college opportunity grant from the state for about $900 and a supplemental grant from the school for the same amount. I’m still enrolled full time, my/my parent’s income hasn’t changed over the past year, and my gpa remains above a 3.5. My efc is $2,938, but my older sister goes to a more expensive private college and my younger sister goes to a private high school with tuition that costs about as much as mine so that isn’t exactly a feasible amount for us. (That might make my parents sound rich, but my older sister and i went to said high school so that’s where our college funds went/why we’re paying for college on our own).</p>
<p>You should discuss this with your financial aid officer. That you got less aid this year with the same financial picture is causing a huge problem, even as you have cut your personal costs by taking a less expensive place to live. Find out if there why this is the situation and ask for ideas and solutions. You can ask about the COA situation as well.</p>
<p>You can discuss the situation with your apt mates and see if you can get a roommate to share your bedroom bringing your costs down further. There may be others in your school in the same situation and by sharing your bedroom, you might be able to bring your rent share down to $350 a month with a roommate paying the same, and the rest of the apt mates split the additional $100 brought into the mix Also means the utilities get split more for everyone too. </p>
<p>The other solution is to have a parent apply for PLUS. They can do so in the privacy of their home, takes just a minute, and approval is very quick, like minutes. If declined, you get an additional $4K in loans for the years under Direct Loans.</p>
<p>^Too late to live in a dorm again?</p>
<p>If OP already signed a lease, then she is on the hook for it. A very good suggestion (above) is to try to find another roommate with which to share the bedroom. </p>
<p>The lease has already been signed, I don’t know if the complex will allow me to share my room but I’m looking into it</p>
<p>A lot of things are confusing</p>
<ol>
<li><p>All you lost in aid was 900+900=1800, so that is all you are short?</p></li>
<li><p>Did you check your school’s website to see if the COA is different for living on campus vs off campus? If that is the case then it will explain some and you will make more sense when you go to the FA office.</p></li>
<li><p>Why were your parents ok with taking private loan but not plus loan? (you know you as a student can’t get private loan alone, right?)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If it works out somehow that all the aid comes back if you live on campus, then you can try to find a replacement roommate to take on your lease.</p>
<p>I agree you should discuss this with your school’s financial aid office. Ask (politely, of course) if they can please explain why your aid was cut this year, since your family didn’t have a change in income and (apparently) has the same number of dependents attending the same colleges. Unless your older sister turned 24… that could have made a difference.</p>
<p>I am sorry this is happening to you. You absolutely should discuss this with your fin aid officer as I already said. Make sure you look at the numbers of your award and your FAFSA and see if your family finanicial situation is indeed very similar. Did you personally have some assets you reported as your own, like money sitting in an account? Did parents have an income spike? Sale of property, stock, some business transaction that resulted in additional income? Did they withdraw from any qualified accounts?</p>
<p>That second year is often fraught with uncertainties in aid. Most colleges are consistent with what they give in financial aid the following year, but there is often more self help awarded even at the most generous schools. It’s essential for students who can just afford a school to get a job during the summer. Often when loans and workstudy both are in the financial aid package, there simply is not that leeway to make the increased student contribution when it does increase.</p>
<p>The OP did compensate for some of these by moving off campus where room/board charges have more leeway and are less than the fixed costs that may be in place for on campus housing and meal plans. However if the COA is accordingly reduced, as Bill brings up, that benefit can be lessened. </p>
<p>It’s always an issue when one picks a school that is just affordable. Any increase in family income that may barely be noticed in terms of family consumption during the year and doesn’t get saved, can result in reduced aid, along with the expectation for the student to step up and take on more of the expenses. My own kids both got hit with increased housing costs their sophomore year when they stayed on campus as uppperclassmen housing was a significantly pricier than the double dorm rooms they got freshman year. Also outside scholarship on the part of one of my kids were just for that one year, and tuition increased as well All of those factors really hit hard. Though my one son worked a lot of extra hours that summer so the hit was not so bad, he sought employment during the school year as well, when he saw the gap between his sophomore year costs and what we, the parents, had agreed to pay. It was a shock when all of the increases in costs hit along with the decrease in scholarships. </p>