Hello everyone,
I received $65,600.00 as the Rochester National Grant plus $2,292.00 as the health insurance grant and $2,900.00 for university student employment. That adds up to $70,792.00 per academic year. I am a bit confused about all the costs so is there still anything that I need to pay on my own besides pocket money? Is dining included in this or do I still need to pay for it?
Many thanks in advance!
Your packages should have broken out expected costs and shown the difference as the expected family contribution that can be paid with loans if needed. The big thing to differentiate with tuition is direct and indirect costs, and when you get the aid. You will get an account at the college and your aid goes into your account and your direct costs will be taken off the top, if you owe money you will need to pay this up front before class starts with either a loan or payment plan. With this work study can never really be counted against the direct costs unless you pay semester 1 upfront and save semester 1 work stuffy money earned to pay semester 2 upfront. For my daughter I told her to consider that money to cover indirect costs, this covers things like clothes, hair cuts, toiletries, transportation home, entertainment, ect. The other big indirect is books but you can’t buy them off work study till you earn the money.
The direct costs will vary for students based on number of credits taken and possible lab expenses and other course fees. What I did when I went because of all this was purposefully took one less class my first semester, it helped with the transition but freed up money to buy books from being charged 3 credit hours less on my bill. I then saved a lot of my work study to use for books the next semester and balanced it out.
Not sure if I helped or not but you should definitely check the award letter and see if someone at your High School can walk you through it and help explain it, sounds like you got a great package but I understand if your coming from a household with little to no money to contribute the timing of when you get the money can make things complicated.
ps, the room and board number they quote includes the meal plan, and for freshmen is unlimited swipes at the dining halls so you won’t go hungry. One other way to reduce cost is ask for a triple room, they reduce the cost to you but not your financial aid so it will decrease your out of pocket expense.
Here is the Cost of Attendance for UR showing the breakdown for tuition, room, board, etc
https://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial-aid/costs/
It looks like direct billed costs are about $69,000 so you may need some cash or a loan upfront. Did you also get a Pell grant?
You need to really study your award letter and the parts of the website that say when payments are due. The insurance grant is only applicable to the cost of insurance so remember that when totalling figures. The employment money will only be available when earned so keep it separate too.