<p>First of all, imagine yourself how I was when I went to the mail box: NDNU typically meets 69% of need according to collegeboard .com. I have a 0 EFC but only a 3.65 GPA. </p>
<p>Not including the Parent Plus Loan or the on-campus grant (since I won't be on campus), my award is $2,238 OVER the cost of attendance!!!!!!! I'm over the flipping moon!</p>
<p>Oh my, what a wonderful post. NDNU is known as a very nurturing college. Congratulations :)</p>
<p>Thank you very much, vballmom! I’m curious what you mean by “nurturing”? I can’t find much about NDNU’s atmosphere online and I haven’t visited yet. Do you have any advice on what I should expect? </p>
<p>Also, I’m a transfer and won’t be living on-campus.</p>
<p>I’m confused – did they include a Parent Plus loan in the package?
How about other loans?</p>
<p>Congratulations. It’s always great to read about someone getting more than expected.</p>
<p>megmno, yes, they did include a $14,000 parent plus loan and a few small loans to be in my name. everything including the PP loan brought the award up to ~$47,500. Tuition is ~$30,000. In my original post, I should have said “$2,238 over tuition”. But, I didn’t and I can’t edit at this point.</p>
<p>Now that I’ve had a few hours to really think about it, not including the parent loan, they met about 70% of my need. I guess I was just expecting part of that 70% to be a parent loan, not what bridged the gap.</p>
<p>I’m really hoping they won’t reduce grants and increase my other loans when I tell them I won’t be living on campus or getting a parent loan. But, I know that removing room and board will decrease my “need” which might decrease my award in areas I wish it wouldn’t. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could just tell them which of the awards I’d like to keep and which I’d like them to toss when reassessing me?</p>
<p>When you say you won’t be living on campus, do you mean you will be living with your parent(s) who will be supporting you or do you mean that you will be living in an off campus apartment?</p>
<p>If you are living at home, it sounds like this is a good package for you since you have reduced your expenses to just the cost of commuting. But if you are living in an off campus apartment you will, of course, still have expenses. </p>
<p>Will you have to take any loans, and if so how much? The reason I ask is that some colleges include large loans in financial aid packages to make it look like they are meeting your need. IMHO loans are not really “aid” since it is money you will eventually have to pay.</p>
<p>I’ve been living on my own for 5 years now. I have a good idea of how much my living expenses are and I don’t count them into my school expenses since they’re going to be there no matter what. I gave myself a budget of what I could afford to pay out to a school if my living expenses stayed the same and it seems like I can manage to pay about $6,000 per year towards my education. </p>
<p>And I would consider loans aid. I know I will have to pay them later but not having to come up with the money right this minute or during the school year makes college possible. The $5,500 in total loans per year is fine with me. The rest is grants, a scholarship, and work study. </p>
<p>By the way, megmno, having a parent supporting a student might decrease the student’s expenses but it increases the parent’s expenses. That’s really not an option for my family.</p>
<p>You do have to check with the financial aid office how the aid will work if you are not living on campus. Some schools do have that as a condition because they need to keep their dorms full. But many schools have comparable off campus housing costs to the dorms, sometimes even more in the COAs that they have. Also since you have not reached your EFC, it makes it more possible that there won’t be a reduction. It’s school policy that will dictate this entirely.</p>
<p>Thanks for your post, cpt, I hope you’re right about the recalculation. I can’t find anywhere on their website how much they calculate in for off-campus living. The FA office will be able to clarify when I call them tomorrow.</p>
<p>I hope they don’t force me into a dorm, though! I have a committment to 3 animals and a finacee (animals first). Also, I work from home and I don’t think I’ll be able to get as much done if I’m in a dorm. Last time I was in a dorm I was barely able to find the peace to sleep and do homework. </p>
<p>Anyway, I really just started the thread to share what I considered to be good news. When I just graduated high school, my mom and I couldn’t afford to send me to anywhere, really. I got one year at a state uni than had to drop with the financial factor being a big reason. Getting this letter from NDNU is a huge blessing as far as I’m concerned, even if I choose to go elsewhere after I hear back from other schools. It means that I can go back to college and stay there until I graduate. I didn’t know if I’d ever see this day.</p>
<p>speakingez what I meant by nurturing is the experience that a friend had. Her son is high-functioning autistic. She researched many local colleges and narrowed down to two, one of which was NDNU. She felt that his disability would have been understood and that appropriate accommodations would have been made for him. Her interactions with the administration were all very positive.</p>
<p>If your aid is described as need-based then it is likely to be reduced if you live off campus-- but you do have to contact the financial aid department to find out how much. However, if they have designated it as a “scholarship” it may be that you have been given a merit-based award, and that probably will remain in place. </p>
<p>I do agree that it is good news – just be sure that you realize that could be substantially reduced depending on the school’s aid policies. I found this on their web site:</p>
<p>
See: [NDNU</a> | Admissions | Financial Aid | Other Factors Affecting Your Award](<a href=“http://www.ndnu.edu/admissions/financial-aid/other.aspx]NDNU”>http://www.ndnu.edu/admissions/financial-aid/other.aspx)</p>
<p>Be sure that they understand that you are supporting yourself and <em>not</em> living in your parents home. Many colleges do end up giving as much in aid for off campus, but they might want more info about your expenses, such as the amount you pay for rent.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response, vballmom. That’s very good for your friend’s son. I’m glad I asked for clarification, too. I was afraid you meant “babying”, which would be a negative to me! I’m glad you meant more, understanding and accomodating, if I took that correctly? That’s always a positive. </p>
<p>Thanks, calmom, I will make sure they know my situation perfectly well when I call and write in. I don’t know where the misunderstanding could have taken place, since I double-checked my FAFSA and I did hit “off-campus”. And I share your worry that they’ll decrease need-based aid. Thankfully, the merit scholarship won’t go anywhere and neither will my pell grant. I hope the cal grant B won’t be reduced too much, since I got the max and it’s the bulk of the award. The two things I’m almost sure they’ll remove is the “on-campus grant” and the work-study. Maybe the Perkins loan, too. </p>
<p>I’ll update in a couple weeks when I receive the revised award.</p>
<p>Is you and your mom’s combined income less than 20k per year, per another thread? Not trying to be a downer, but a 14k plus loan and other loans does not sound like a good package to me. Maybe I missed something.</p>
<p>There won’t be a parent plus loan, bthomp. Anything I’m gapped when the new award comes in will be paid out with a payment plan.</p>
<p>And, again, whether or not anyone else thinks this is a good package, the fact that it seems like the revised award will be doable is fantastic to me. Doable is the key word, here–especially considering they give out the least amount of aid out of all the schools I applied to (except UW, but that’s only because I’m out of state). It was uplifting to get my first aid package and think, “yeah, I can swing that” instead of throwing the acceptance in the trash like I had to 5 years ago. (Different school.)</p>
<p>I am happy for you. It is rare that COAs for different situaions are given on the college websites. It’s sometimes difficult to get the true absolute COA number from a college, and to be sure you have the most current one, it is always wise to go to the financial aid office to get it. That figure is the one that dictates the maximum federal money you can get to pay for a given school in different situations. The figures are set by the school by formula when it comes to on campus living, but colleges have leeway in coming up with it. When it comes to off campus or commuting from family home figures, it can be all over the map, so, yes, it has to come from your financial aid office.</p>
<p>Good luck to you,and your post does make me feel good. It’s great when some break like this happens to someone who is trying to get that degree. Keep at it.</p>
<p>Thank you, Cpt! I guess it’s really in the eye of the receiver how good the awards are.</p>
<p>Anyway, I called the FA office and the counselor had great news for me: they’d only take away the on-campus grant (1,000) and work study (2,000). She said my cal grant was automatic based on my income! So, including the loans in my name, my FA is still above tuition. I’ll be able to refuse the unsubsidized loan.</p>
<p>Over the moon mood: maintained. Huzzah!</p>
<p>Cool!</p>
<p>As you have been out of school for 5 years, do you already have a job? I think that as a non-traditional student returning after an extended gap, you might actually be able to earn more with regular off campus part-time job than you would with work study in any case. I’m guessing that you have enough work experience to qualify for a fairly good job at this point, assuming you can arrange for flexibility in hours.</p>