<p>Finally got all of my admission and financial aid info back, and I'm currently torn between:</p>
<p>1)Hunter College - Accepted as an OOS Undergrad, offered Hunter S&W Scholarship (Full in-state tuition + $10,000/year dormitory award)</p>
<p>2)Hofstra University - Accepted as an OOS Undergrad, offered Presidential Scholarship ($88k or $22k/year)</p>
<p>I originally leaned more towards Hunter,but after reading a few reviews online, I'm not as sure about my first choice, and I'm still debating as to whether or not I want to dismiss Hofstra as an option. If anyone here has attended Hunter as a regular full-time undergrad (not through Macaulay), or Hofstra University as an undergrad, could tell me a bit about their experience there, that would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>What is your expected final cost after scholarships and grants?</p>
<p>How do you expect to come up with that money?</p>
<p>What GPA do you need to maintain in order to keep these scholarships for all four years?</p>
<p>What is your major likely to be, and what is your own assessment of how difficult it might be for you to keep your grades up?</p>
<p>1)For Hunter, it’ll be around $8k-$10k per year that I have to make up, tuition + room expenses combined; for Hofstra, it’ll be around $12k that I’d have to make up for tuition alone, about $19k or so when taking room and board costs into account.</p>
<p>2)Outside scholarships and if need be, taking out loans.</p>
<p>3) For Hunter, I have to maintain a 3.0 for freshman year, a 3.2 for sophomore year, and a 3.5 for junior year and senior year; for Hofstra, I have to maintain a 3.0 each year.</p>
<p>4)I’m currently undecided on a major, but I do know that I want to pursue a major in the sciences, and that I want to continue my studies in Spanish when I go to college. I don’t feel like it’ll be incredibly difficult to keep my grades up, especially given a year or two to acclimate myself academically to college. (If it helps any, my current weighted GPA is 4.86, and my unweighted is around 3.89.)</p>
<p>Have you already been awarded any outside scholarships, or are you still waiting and hoping?</p>
<p>Are those scholarships for all four years, or just for the first one?</p>
<p>Who is co-signing the extra loans for you? You can only borrow $5,500 your freshman year as a federal/stafford loan?</p>
<p>Is there any work-study in your aid packages? Do you have a part-time job now, and if so are those job skills something that can help you easily find work when you are in college?</p>
<p>Do you have an affordable back up in case neither of these work out money-wise?</p>
<p>1)At the current moment, I’m applying to as many as I qualify for and waiting to hear back.</p>
<p>2)In both cases, the scholarships are for all four years of my UG study, as long as I meet the requirements and make sure to renew my reward at the end of each year.</p>
<p>3)In the event of extra loans, chances are that it will be my mother who cosigns on them.</p>
<p>4)I don’t have any work-study included in my packages as of yet. I currently have a part time job working in the Box Office of a local movie theatre that I’ve been doing since the end of summer last year. I plan on looking for another part-time job after I get into college (besides for the point of having money for personal expenses, I also like having a job to give me something productive to do outside of studying and socializing). I also do a bit of work as a tutor every now and again, but not as often as I used to.</p>
<p>5)Money-wise, Hunter’s the least expensive. I applied to UNC-A and UNC-Chapel Hill as an in-state student, and unfortunately I didn’t get much aid from Chapel Hill, and with the Laurels Scholarship I got at UNC-A, I only get $2,000/year for all four years of my UG study. In order to go to either school, I’d still need to make up over $12,000/year in tuition and other fees.</p>
<p>I know the university scholarships are renewable, but what about the outside ones? Are any of them renewable, or will they vanish at the end of the year? That could mess up your situation for years 2, 3, and 4.</p>
<p>With the federal/Stafford loans, you can borrow $5,500 freshman year, $6,500 sophomore year, $7,500 junior year, and $7,500 senior year. Students who can pin down summer jobs (and maybe work two or three of them), and can find part-time work during the school year (either through work-study or on their own) often can earn a decent chunk of change. $3,500 should be your minimum target for that. So if you don’t have any loans in your packages yet, Hunter should be entirely workable with a Stafford, your own earnings, and living like a cheapskate (hard to do in NY I know). You might not need any more loans.</p>
<p>The easiest loans for your mom to take on are the PLUS loans. She can apply online anytime after your FAFSA is filed, and find out if she qualifies, and she won’t actually need to set things up until she finds out that you do need a bit of extra money. If she doesn’t qualify, you would be entitled to an additional $4,000 in Stafford loans - not that I recommend that if you can avoid it, but it’s there. The PLUS loans start to accrue interest immediately like unsubsidized Stafford loans, but they are forgiven if anything happens to you or to your mom. Private loans sometimes have more favorable interest rates, but will hang over the heads of both signers forever. If you couldn’t repay them because of death or permanent disability, your mom would still be stuck with them. Before you two go down that path, pop by the Financial Aid Forum and ask a few questions.</p>
<p>1)The majority of the outside ones are just $1k-$2k scholarships which are not renewable, and I’d have to re-apply each year if I’m eligible. On the plus side, one of the scholarships I applied for awards $40k for 4 years of UG costs ($10k/year), so hopefully I get it!</p>
<p>2)Thank you for the info about the loans & financial aid!</p>