@austinmshaui I didn’t apply to WS at SBU yet, but this is definitely something to think about. I was planning to work at a local store or a waitress part time. There should be stores and cafes in a proximity to the college, so I won’t have any travel expenses. I don’t have a car either. I just looked up Facebook pages of some SBU dental students. Some of them graduated from cuny(Baruch and ccny), some from privates and suny. So maybe they do take people from cuny
Dina is a transfer student, not a first year freshman.
At most colleges, transfer students do not need to commit by May 1. The date is a little later. Of course she should check her colleges to see what their date is.
@sybbie719 do transfers have to commit to SUNY schools by May 1?
@thumper1 my admission letters shows may 1. I guess it is right
@Dinacoltrane, We’re you awarded Work Study in your financial aid package? If not, you won’t be able to get a Work Study job.
Is there public transportation to an area where you can work? How many hours do you have to work per week to earn $1000/month for room & board, travel and living expenses?
@austinmshauri no i wasn’t awarded for WS on my finaid package. I will have to work around two days 8-10h or so. Does LI have the buses ? If not I can find a close to the campus job so I can walk there
There’s a free campus bus that goes to the mall which is less than 10 minutes away. There are plenty of job opportunities there
@myos1634, @sybbie719, @thumper1, @bjkmom
Please check my math for @Dinacoltrane.
Dina, you said you need to earn $1000/month to cover your direct costs senior year plus money for personal expenses (say $25/week). That means you need to earn $1100/mo or $275/week. If you earn $10/hour and pay no taxes (FICA, state & federal, etc), you have to work 28 hours/week. Since you don’t have any Work Study and will be working a regular job and paying taxes you won’t actually net $275, but I’ll use that as an estimate.
You can work 8 hours each on Sat. and Sun. That leaves 12 hours. If you take 2 days off you’ll need to work 4 hours/day the other 3. If you have only 1 day off/week you can reduce it to 3 hours/day. When do you plan to study?
Can your parents contribute anything from current income?
You can’t work more than 8-10 hours A WEEK as a pre dental student. That’s it. You cannot think short term in this.
If you can’t check out if Bing is affordable (due to rents being cheaper it might work but not sure) then Hunter it is…
CUNY colleges are well known. You will NOT suffer adverse effects from the college’s name.
Your lease will most likely be a 12 month lease, which means that you will be paying rent for the summer when you may actually not be living there (factor in another 1400)
The good thing about going Thursday is that you will experience the commute for yourself. Then you can determine if this is something that you want to do daily.
Also remember that any monies that you make over $6000 will raise your EFC by half. If you make $10k, your EFC will go up by 2k , most likely cutting your pell and leaving you to have to make up money. IN addition any monies that you have saved will be assessed on the FAFSA also raising your EFC.
Dina, I think you are being short sighted and only looking at what you want right now. You have to take the long view at look at the bigger picture. You will have to work all of these hours just to make stony brook happen. This will be precious time you need for studying, research, shadowing, etc. You will be surprised as to how quickly the time is going to go by. By the time you start applying to dental school senior year, you will probably only have your junior year grades. This is another reason why you need to take the time to get the best possible grades. Having to work 28-30 hours a week while going to school full time will definitely take away from that.
All the best
So, where did you put in the deposit?
@bjkmom first I put in SBU, then I asked about commuting in this forum and decided to put in hunter. Then I wrote SBU to get a refund of a deposit, but yesterday they wrote me if I still want to be enrolled for the fall I can still do it. But they returned me my deposit and I will have to pay again. So basically if I’ll go on Thursday and think about it again, how I’ll manage everything I will pay the difference. If not, I’ll just enjoy my hunter
Speak to financial aid while you’re there
What did you decide?
@DinaColtrane, Just checking in. Were you able to make the trip out to Stony Brook? Did you get a chance to speak to the financial aid people?
@austinmshauri yes, i went there last week. I was at financial aid office, and they told me there are two loan options. Also, 1 credit is 406$, this is including all the fees.
I didn’t realize they had an option besides the federal student loan. So you’ll have to borrow $20k/year for the next 2 years to dorm there?
I think the only fees included in the credit hour charge are general college fees. My son attends a SUNY and pays extra depending on his classes. Lab courses always have an extra fee, and some art and theater courses do too.
Do you have enough health insurance or will you have to buy theirs? I think it’s ~$2k/year if you have to buy the plan thru SUNY.
@austinmshauri I’m not planning to live in a dorm. Instead I am trying to find a room around 700$ near the campus (there are such). Meanwhile I won’t have to spend extra money because my friend will live in my house in Brooklyn with my mother and she will pay us 700$. I will have to pay just the tuition. And I have my health insurance from my mom
That sound like a good exchange.
Fingers crossed for the room.
What did you decide?
@lilaw88 when I first set up my foot on campus I knew SBU is for me. It’s so inspiring! The labs are amazing