<p>Like everyone else, I am freaking about about the cost of college right now. I was hoping someone could give me somewhat of an idea of whether or not FSU is realistic for me.</p>
<p>FSU offered me an $1,800 grant - $900 per semester</p>
<p>I have 4-year University Prepaid - although, it was purchased after 2007 and I do not have the differential.</p>
<p>I will be receiving the highest level of bright futures.</p>
<p>My dorm choice is Deviney which is $2,360 per semester, and I will not be purchasing a meal plan.</p>
<p>I am willing to take out the $5,500 in loans if I absolutely have to, but I cannot take more than that. My mom has no way to get the Parent PLUS loan.</p>
<p>With what you’ve outlined above, once your tuition, differential, housing and books are paid it looks like you’ll maybe have $1500-2000 to live off for the year (food, personal needs, etc.). Are you going to have a job? You’ll need one. Otherwise, I don’t know how you’re going to pull this off. If your mother does not qualify for the PLUS loan then you automatically qualify for an additional amount of unsubsidized student loans (for freshmen it’s $4000). I’m not advocating that you take out $10K in loans for your freshman year but you don’t say what your intended major or occupation will be so I don’t know if that loan burden will be too much for you when you graduate. Maybe someone else has a more positive outlook for you…</p>
<p>I will definitely be getting a job once I’m up there. </p>
<p>But I should have enough to go to FSU? I’m not worrying too much about food or personal because the job will help with that and I will also receive help for that from my parents.</p>
<p>Well, your tuition and differential should be covered by your prepaid and the grant. The loans will almost exclusively go toward housing. That leaves books and I would think with the bright futures still in the mix you can pay for those and your immediate costs would be covered. I don’t think I’m missing anything but I could be…</p>
<p>How many credits are you going to be entering FSU with? If you have more than 30, they’ll actually bump you to the $6500 in student loans that sophomores are able to take out instead of the $5500 that freshmen are allowed (they did that with me and a few others I have talked about). That could also help if you are entering with more than 30 credit hours. </p>
<p>Let’s take a minute and look at what you were offered. I don’t know how much the PrePaid is worth, so I’ll leave that out.
$900/semester grant
$2750/semester in loans
$1515/semester in Bright Futures (assuming you take 15 credit hours)</p>
<p>Total aid is $5165 per semester, not including prepaid, although you’ll get a few bucks less due to loans taking out something like 1% off the top. So I’ll just go with $5150.</p>
<p>Tuition for 15 credit hours next year will likely be around $2800. That leaves $2350, which is about what Deviney costs. </p>
<p>That means that your PrePaid will essentially have to cover your food, textbooks, and other expenses. I’ve personally found that $200/month is very doable for food expenses, and textbooks are often cheaper elsewhere. </p>
<p>I think you can make it happen if your PrePaid is worth $1500 a semester or more. That would at least cover all of your expenses for FSU, as well as food and textbooks (if you’re thrifty with textbooks). If you also get a job, that will help a lot, too.</p>
<p>How much the Florida Prepaid covers will depend on whether you bought the tuition-only plan or added the local fee plan etc. I have the tuition-only plan and it covers $108.25 per credit hour this year.</p>