Okay so a college I applied to offered me $21,000 a year through a presidential merit scholarship, but the tuition of the school is $38,000 and with room and board it comes out to about $58,000. My question is will I still be offered financial aid through my fasfa (my family is in a lot of financial need) even though I got the presidential scholarship? I need as much financial aid as possible and $27,000 is still a lot of money that my family cannot afford.
So basically my question is will that $27,000 most likely be lowered further or will my presidential scholarship be the only aid I receive?
You may get Pell grants or state grants if eligible for such, and may be eligible for federal loans and work study.
Colleges which give their own need-based financial aid grants can vary in terms of their policies. It is unlikely that they will allow full “stacking” (a scholarship of any amount adds to the grants up to the cost of attendance), although some allow partial “stacking” (a scholarship up to the amount of federal loans and work study may be “stacked”, but scholarship amount beyond that results in reduction of college-provided grants). You need to ask the specific college what its policy is in this situation.
I think that $58k minus $21k comes out to $37,000.
I don’t know whether you will find out about need based aid at the same time or later. You probably should call admissions and ask. Do you also have more affordable options? Is this an out of state public university?
It depends on the university. Some give federal and institutional financial aid AND merit aid, some only give merit aid + federal aid, no institutional aid.
Does the university meet 100% need ?
(What university is it?)
Without more specifics, it’s impossible to tell for sure. Do you know what your family’s EFC is? Are you getting $27K because you have another $10K from another source to put toward cost? Is this a full-need-met school, or need-aware? Public or private?
Your best bet is to call the school directly, but if you post more details you might get more helpful answers.
Yeah I apologize I wrote this post late at night and I typed the wrong number in for my final costs. This is a private out of state university and while I do have more affordable options I really want to go to this one because it has a good program for my intended major.
My family’s EFC is basically $0, and I apologize I did mean $37,000 I wrote this late at night and I typed the number wrong. This is a private college and they are need aware.
This sounds unlikely to be affordable. Run the net price calculator ASAP. Unless the school truly meets all need (need as defined by the college, and very few schools are 100% needs-met), you’ll need to come up with much more money to pay for this school than you can borrow independently.
I also think this will be an unaffordable college because, right now, you are only thinking of the cost to attend.
You’re not thinking of the costs that come with living away from home.
If this is an OOS school, how will you pay and afford:
your travel?
Shipping of your personal dorm items?
Required health insurance fees?
lab fees?
supplemental books?
Our daughter went 3000 miles away from us. We had to fly her out and back each time. If you have an EFC of $0, this will add up. You may have to go home for the summer if the campus is closed to summer housing and if you can’t find work to support your summer expenses.
We spent a large amount of money on buying bedding, lighting, winter clothing, personal care items, a computer- required by her major, software required by her major, lab fees, books, clickers, etc. We also had to add money to her campus cash account to provide for on-campus quick purchases.
This cannot be the ONLY campus that provides your major. A Pell grant is $5900 per year (from the feds). This is chump change to your needed deficit of $37K. Work study usually adds another $3K. Your loan amounts will be very limited because you and/or your parents need to apply. They might not qualify for upwards of $30K per year.
I want to agree with others that you need to keep “other costs” in mind. For a few examples: My daughters each needed a new laptop for school (a bit over $1,000 each). Books can be expensive. One book can cost several hundred dollars. University students are outside a LOT, for example walking from class to class and walking to meals. As such both daughters found their existing winter gear was not enough and we have spent about $500 each on better winter gear (boots and coat mostly). We have spent some money on hotels when we visit, and some money on transportation just to get back and forth.
Even relatively wealthy families have to be very careful about the costs of university, and have to choose schools with cost as one of the most important considerations.