I have $4,000 in scholarships but it goes to tuition/books only, I can get it yearly if I keep re-applying. My EFC is 0000 and I literally have no one to rely on since I just live with relatives. I believe im eligible for cal grant B and for pell grants, my rent is $539 every month (includes EVERYTHING besides food) and my tuition is $3,500 every semester. Does anyone know if my scholarship and grants are enough to pay for tuition and rent? I really can’t afford to take out loans because I have no one who could help me. I go to a CSU btw and I’m working part time.
STOP yelling.
You are allowed to use your Pell Grant, other grants and loans to pay for Tuition, Room and Board. What is your $4K in scholarships composed of? If you have an EFC of 0 and are a Full Time student you should be getting $5815.
Sorry. But that’s the thing, I really want to avoid taking out loans since there’s no way I could pay it back.
It may be unrealistic to try for a degree without loans (but a good idea if you can swing it). You don’t have to start paying back until you are out of school 6 months.
You’re supposed to get a JOB after you graduate so that you can afford to pay the loans back.
I could only use my scholarships towards tuition and books but not room and board. For the grants I’m not 100% sure how much I’ll be getting
If you have a $0 EFC you should get a $5815 Pell grant. I don’t know how much Calgrant B is. Did you get a financial aid letter? It should specify how much your tuition is and any fees. Then it might give an estimate for your commuter housing and food, books and other expenses. It should say how much grant aid you can get.
You pay to the school the tuition and fees. The scholarship is $4000 a year and Pell $5815. That’s $9815. So if you pay $7000 a year for tuition then you would have $2815 to use for books and living expenses. (Pell can be used for living expenses). And possibly some more if you get Calgrant.
You can rent books. You could ask your relatives if they could lower your rent a lot while you attend college. See if you could do odd jobs for them on weekends. Also make sure you work in the summer to save up some money.
If you can attend college without loans, good, but if you need to take out some loans then borrow what you need.