Oh please. Harvard has extremely generous need based aid…extremely generous…
I am not sure I believe your story.
“I have gotten a few but it isn’t enough for my first year”.
Please elaborate @dancelance
How much did you get in scholarships (not the need-based aid from Harvard)?
What don’t you understand about self help, this is all on their website and mandatory for all students on FA @thumper1 instead of making conjectures about how aid works, it can be looked up
@planner03 thanks. I got the impression that I shouldn’t work and should find enough scholarships to cover work study and focus on academics. That is why I was crazy to cover that 4,000+
I got an 1000 scholarship going to the school directly and 1000 cash which I am worried will be absorbed too quickly with expenses to cover books.
So $2000 in scholarships reported to Harvard? And a summer job? That’s a good start.
When does your sibling graduate (and then your Harvard aid will decrease)?
That $1000 will be absorbed quickly by books, computer, and expenses. That’s what it is for, money to help you pay for college. BUT, that $1000 is also included in your COA estimate, so you may not need a whole lot more.
You do not have to hand the student contribution to Harvard unless your scholarships don’t cover your tuition and fees. Usually an amount of about $2000 is the estimate for travel, books, incidentals, so Harvard is just expecting you to cover them. If you don’t get a job for the work study, you won’t get that money. Harvard awards work study, so it must figure that the students can handle that and be top students too.
It looks like you’ll have plenty of money come September.
“If he got all his COA met with aid (likely since he’s lowish income) then he can’t get a Stafford loan”
But he/she said there was a gap for things like a computer and books and that’s what he’s trying to cover with loans. Those are items included in COA but need not met.
I am familiar with Harvard’s need based aid policies and their student contribution requirement. They have also given you work study, which can also be used towards this. Remember, you aren’t paying 100% the first term…only a little more than half (because there are some fees in the first term costs that are not in subsequent bills).
Did Harvard give you enough need based aid to cover your billable costs…tuition, fees, room and board? Of not, then they assumed a parent contribution as well. Will your parents be able to help all?
If Harvard gave you sufficient need based aid to cover your billable costs, then the remaining costs are a bit under your control. You can buy used books, a used computer. You can economize on personal expenses, etc.
Are you short for,the billable costs? If so, by how much?
What amount IS your student contribution? What is your parent contribution?
And yes I have enough aid for billable costs. There is no student asset contribution, only the summer contribution and work study which is my contribution. So let me rethink, I have work study to keep, and 1,625 to pay to the school. I have a 1000 going to Harvard, which would get my summer contribution presumably to 625.
1000 can be allocated to a computer. Then I guess I have 4,500 less taxes for dorm and some book money.
My mother can pay the parent contribution at once with our savings. My sister and I overlap in college for all but one year.
Keep in mind the federal and possibly state income taxes you may owe by April 15, 2016 if your gift aid and scholarships (excluding loans) exceed tuition, fees, books.
See IRS Publication 970.
Take a deep breath. It’ll be OK! Definitely answer thumper’s question and the scholarship/financial whizzes of CC will be able to help you. I just wanted to offer a few tips for being frugal, that may alleviate your anxiety just a tick.
As someone else mentioned, you don’t have to buy an expensive laptop. If you’re earning about $4,000 this summer (which is awesome!), I would earmark $500 of that for a new laptop for school. Dell has a variety of laptops for under $500. You don’t need anything fancy (ie: do not buy a Mac!); just something functional. You can get special student prices on Microsoft Office suite or, if you want, just download Open Office software for free.
There are many ways to hustle, re: saving money on books. Buy used whenever humanly possible. Very often, even when a professor says you must buy the newest book, you can get away with one edition older, which is cheaper to get used. You can also sometimes be strategic in what classes you sign up for in terms of books needed. I purposely enrolled in a lot of classes that didn’t require textbooks, but instead required lots of softcover books/things I could buy used. ie: my writing seminar only required we purchase a few trade paperback books ($10-$15 per), ditto on a lot of my humanities/journalism courses. I also had classes that didn’t require any textbooks & provided required reading as handouts or online pdfs–I would not be surprised if you can find online forums where Harvard kids dish about which courses offer these sorts of workarounds. I would stagger my enrollments so if one or two of my courses required $90 textbooks, several other had lower amounts required so I wasn’t spend 1K on books a semester.
And in a pinch, if you think you have a decent social network, re: sharing, you could launch a GoFundMe. I would be circumspect, re: crowdfunding, but you never know what results that may yield. However, with your summer job, it sounds like you can probably swing things, as it sounds like your deficit is between 4-5K? And if you’re really, really desperate… you could always work evening retail on top of your internship.
Well that’s good you have 3 years overlap.
@Madison85 what do you mean! Do you mean Harvard+pell grant+My scholarships exceed direct costs, I’ll have to pay taxes?
Or is the Harvard grant excluded?
Also @proudterrier THANK YOU! That post gave me hope, I was literally freaking out today
I don’t think you need to pay the student contribution to Harvard. Your financial aid is usually enough to cover tuition, room and board, and the rest of the COA is to cover your expenses for travel, books, incidentals - things you pay to other people (the airline, Target, book stores. That’s what you’ll do with work study too.
Qualified educational expenses…any scholarship, or grant money you receive to cover these costs (tuition, fees, books, required materials for courses) are not subject to taxes.
If your scholarship or grant money exceeds qualified educational expenses…and is used to pay for things like room, board, and personal expenses, this scholarship/grant money is considered taxable income for your.
what amount of your aid will cover room, board, personal expenses, transportation? Any amount over the standard deduction will be subject to taxes.
Okay thanks! I talked to someone and they said that there is a gap between direct bills and Harvard aid and student contribution which is what I will be paying. So like tuition+room and board-(Parent contribution+Harvard grants+federal grants) is my real contribution. Does thus make sense @twoinanddone
@dancelance Again, take a close look at the COA figures for travel, personal and books. Just because they are calling the $1650 your contribution it doesn’t mean it necessarily is being paid to them, part or all of it could be to cover your expenses. That means that after the $1000 outside money is paid to Harvard you may get it back.
It seems that your objective is to get enough outside scholarships to cover your contribution, the work study, and a computer, is that correct? That should be every students objective, and hopefully things will pan out in the end. I know a lot of the community scholarships my S has applied to are not announced until June, so just wait and see what happens.
Either way it seems you finances are going to be fine but I totally understand that it would be a relief to not have to worry about a work study job.
For example if tuition, fees, textbooks cost $23000 (QEE) for fall 2015 semester and you received scholarships, pell, Harvard grants of $30000 and you earned $4300 in 2015 through working, then you have to pay federal income tax on $5000 ($4300+$30000-$23000-$6300). Each state is different, so state income tax may be due too.