I have been accepted to two CSU’s and one private. Because I used a fee waiver for csus I don’t have to pay an enrollment deposit but will fafsa cover my housing deposit? Same with private. Will it cover my enrollment fee (500$) and my housing deposit(250$)?
Well just to get terms straight, FAFSA is an application only that’s all it is so it doesn’t cover anything as it is only a form you fill out in order to get aid.
Depending on what you are eligible for, you will get your aid, like Pell Grant, Cal grant and loans applied to your account after you enroll and around when you start school. So they will not be disbursing any funds to you until you are enrolled and attending school. If there are extra funds available, they will then be ‘refunded’ to you, sometimes it takes a couple of weeks. Then you can use that refund for school related expenses, like room and board books, personal and transportation. If you have work/study, and you find a campus job, you work and get a paycheck as you go.
So you need a bit of money up front to get started, later you can hold back some money so you will have some at the start of each semester. You will need to come up with money for your housing deposit. If there is a ‘refund’ later, you can give it to your parents or whoever you borrowed from. However, pell and cal grant are usually not enough to cover housing at a CSU, it covers tuition. If you are going to the private, you will have to come up with the enrollment deposit unless they will waive it for you. If you get enough in grants, you get reimbursed for it when your aid comes in after you start school.
If you want more help, please give the amounts of costs and aid your were given with your aid letter.
Usually the schools do require the deposit to be paid, in cash, up front. Some may allow it to be delayed, put on a payment plan, paid with outside scholarships, but generally it must be paid by you. I know one guy on a full scholarship (athletic, financial need) and his family absolutely could not pay it so he borrowed it from a friend and then repaid the friend when his FA came through.
Exactly what Brown Parent and Two stated above.
Reiterating:
FAFSA is like a paper application. After you fill it out online, the government and the school get copies of that application. The schools and the government determine what you may and may not qualify for in the form of a pell grant or a loan or school scholarships. The government’s Pell Grant, which isn’t much ($5730 max for a year), gives your university the OK to release that grant funding for your financial aid at your school of choice.
Deposits hold a space or room for you through the Housing Office.
The deposit tells that University’s Housing Office that you are serious about them holding a room for you at this time. The Housing office has nothing to do with your financial aid. It is completely separate. You have to pay that cost yourself. You can wait until the university disperses your check at the start of your semester, but by that time, most of the decent housing is gone-especially at the CSU’s. At SDSU they run out of housing.
The school (i.e. the university) that you have applied to and have agreed to attend, distributes the money, that comes from the government, either by check to you, or by directly paying your tuition, fees and room and board when you sign the paperwork at the financial aid cashier or bursar’s office. This doesn’t happen until the new academic year begins.
So your choices are limited:
- Find someone who can lend you the deposit money to hold a dorm room for you.
- Wait until you get your financial aid check in the fall, and risk not having housing.
The enrollment fee shows them that you are serious about attending that school.
Do you have a way to get a part-time job and save up the money for a few weeks? Or a relative who could help you with this?
Also find out if the deposits are refundable. By what date, fully or just partially?
And the private school might have a process where you can ask them for a reduced fee if it creates a hardship. It doesn’t hurt to ask.
In my D’s case, the deposit was used to offset the tuition when she was billed for the first semester.
call the school…some schools will waive deposits for Pell students.
Thanks all of you! The two csu’s are Monterey Bay and Channel Islands and the private is Azusa Pacific University. On my SARS it says my efc is 3000 and my estimated Pell grant is about $2000 or $3000 I forget. But the enrollment fee for APU super expensive! I plan on applying for a nursing program internship during the summer and it comes with a stipend so that sold help. I had some money saved up from voting poll working and I had about $220 but my parent needed it but will pay me back eventually. I just wish school wasnt so expensive