Twoin–their NPC does not have a live-at-home option. It only calcs for “traditional” student. Bummer!
Thumper1–here’s the breakdown of loans the NPC spits out:
$0.00 Federal Perkins Loan
$3,500.00 Federal Subsidized Stafford Loan
$2,000.00 Federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loan
$2,620.00 Federal Parent Loan
And the grants it spits out:
$3,865.00 Federal Pell Grant
$9,348.00 State Need Grant
$2,615.00 Other Grants
$0.00 Work Study
So from what you seem to be saying, it might be possible that they would “deduct” the 8K housing allowance by, for example, eliminating the “Parent Loan” (but require us to take the Stafford Loan) and then the rest out of some of the grants.
As far as automatic state funding for income-qualified, I think that is likely. I notice that when I tweak parental income up by 1K, then the overall loan and grant amounts stay exactly the same, but the State Need grant goes down 2K and the “Other” grant goes up 2K.
The school can reduce your aid ANY way they choose to.
Why don’t you ask in the UW forum? Maybe another family has a similar situation and knows how UW handles it and how the state grants work.
The school can’t make you take any type of loan. It is ALWAYS going to be better to take the Stafford loans than the Plus loans, so the Plus loan will reduce first (a good thing). The total amount of the stafford loans won’t change (up to the COA), just whether they are subsidized or not.
Is the NPC based only on tuition, fees, room and board, or does it show things like estimates for books, transportation, personal expenses?
What is the tuition amount alone?
Also for the state need grant, if you qualify income wise, most likely you can get it. Some grants can only be used for tuition, some for room and board.
Pell like was said earlier you would get no matter if commuting or living on campus. State grant might depend on if it exceeds tuition.
http://readysetgrad.org/college/state-need-grant some info on SNG
http://washington.wgu.edu/tuition_financial_aid/state_need_grant_FAQ#
So if COA on campus is $26,000 and off campus ($26,000 - room and board $10,000) is $16,000, you can get a max of 75% of COA in grants, so about $12,000 (if commuting).
But what we don’t know is if UW has an allowance for living with parents as part of their commuting COA. Or if they simply use on campus COA minus room and board amounts.
Actually…the Plus is a parent Loan. It is not a student loan. It is offered as a way for parents to pay whatever is left to pay AFTER student financial aid is credited to the student account.
In my opinion, that will be the LAST thing to be reduced in terms of need based aid…because it is NOT need based aid.
On the link I posted upstream it was pretty clear.
- LIving Away From Home- COA $25948
- LIves with Parents- COA $18153
- Non-traditional (these are independent students, or older students) COA $29764
So…if the student lives in a dorm or their own apartment off campus…not with parents…they would,be Living Away From Home at COA $25948
If the student lives with parents…COA is $18153.
This is from the U Wa website…costs for this year.
You say the NPC gives you $15,000 in grants. If your kid lives at home…you will very likely see a reduction in that grant money.
But anything goes for 2020!
Sorry @thumper1 I didn’t see that
Twoin–great suggestion to post in UW forum. Just found it and did it.
Someone last year posted that the applied to BC as an on campus resident. When they changed to a commuter their financial aid package was reduced by $10,000, all in grants.
I think the 75% rule makes it clear that the state grant will be reduced. The Pell won’t be reduced.
Live at home =$18,153k
Maximum state grant that can be received, including Pell of $3865 = $13,614 (75%)
Awarded above ($3865 + $9348) = $13,213
It’s unclear if the ‘other grants’ also have to be in that 75% figure. If so and the student lives at home, it’s possible about $2500 in ‘other grants’ might be removed from the package.
The student would then have:
Pell - $3865
State - $9348
other(?) $401
Total $13614
$18153 - 13614 = $4539 to meet full COA. Likely this would be in Stafford loans
If on the other hand the student chooses to live on campus:
COA = $25,948
Max grants = $19461
Current grants from list above: Pell $3865, State, $9348, ‘other’ $2615 = $15,828
You’d get to keep all that $15828, but you’d need another $10,120
Stafford $5500 + Parent Plus $4620 +grants $15828 = $25,948 COA
To live on campus, the parents have to be willing to pay/borrow about $4600.
Thanks thumper, momm, and twoin–all helpful in making me understand this, esp the 75% rule, which I was unaware of.
The analysis that twoin wrote basically suggests that it’s likely we would lose about 2K in grants and shed about 6K in pay/borrow if my son lived at home instead of dorming.