Does living at home reduce my aid?

Paying for College
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<p>Hello everyone. For my financial aid this year, I received the following financial aid package: 10000 in Pell + other grants and 7500 in loans. I was still short a few thousand for school after factoring in summer jobs, so I decided to save money on renting a house and instead live at home with my parents and commute to school.</p>

<p>My reasoning was that I did not want to put an enormous financial burden on my parents. Plus the grants I got would have covered my tuition for the year and I would only have to spend on transportation and books. </p>

<p>However I learned that my cost of attendance is changed. (It was $22k before, and now it is $15.5k). My EFC is 2270 so that left my need as $13,230.</p>

<p>My total aid is $17,500. I now think I may have made a big mistake, since the school cannot give me more aid than the cost of attendance. I might lose a large portion of my grants and instead add a few more thousand dollars to my student debt :(. Do schools normally take off grants or loans in this situation? The university opens Tuesday so I have to wait to call them :(</p>

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<p>I do believe that living at home does reduce your aid because the COA is less. This is what happened to my son. Unfortunately, the cost to live at home is assumed to be zero.</p>

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<p>I mark off campus</p>

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<p>Madison85: Really? My school has a budget for students living at home. It assumes transportation costs and misc. expenses. </p>

<p>gfountain1: Um…isn’t that unethical?</p>

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<p>The cost of living at home is lower than on campus or in off-campus housing, but it isn’t zero.</p>

<p>OP, go talk to the financial aid office and see what they can do to help you.</p>

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<p>susgeek is correct. I think many schools assume certain expenses with living at home (stuff like transportation)</p>

<p>I will talk to the financial aid office when it opens tomorrow. Since universities are closed today due to the holiday, I couldn’t ask them today. That is why I posted on here, seeing if anyone has had a similar situation and what was the outcome.</p>

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<p>It depends upon the school as to how they calculate Cost Of LIving (COA) for those kids living at home and commuting. It almost always reduces the COA from what it would be if you lived on campus. So it would reduce your financial aid. It pretty much HAS to reduce your financial aid if the amount you have been given exceeds your COA. YOu are not supposed to be making money off of the financial aid.</p>

<p>But some college severely hit you if you live at home or even off campus. Those schools do not want to spend a dime on housing outside of their own dorms and apts because they need to have full house there for their own budget and could have empty spaces if too many kids live off campus. I saw that situation with Barnard.</p>

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<p>*However I learned that my cost of attendance is changed. (It was $22k before, and now it is $15.5k). My EFC is 2270 so that left my need as $13,230.</p>

<p>My total aid is $17,500. I now think I may have made a big mistake, since the school cannot give me more aid than the cost of attendance. I might lose a large portion of my grants and instead add a few more thousand dollars to my student debt*</p>

<p>Even if your “aid” (which is currently $17,500) gets reduced by a 4 thousand, you probably won’t end up with more debt. </p>

<p>Your COA will be MUCH lower by living at home. Schools usually put a generous amount for living at home, which for many kids never materializes in a real cost to them because many parents don’t charge rent or food for their college kids. </p>

<p>Your new COA is $15,500. </p>

<p>How much is your tuition?</p>

<p>Books will be about $1k</p>

<p>Are there any “fees”?</p>

<p>What school is this?</p>

<p>If your new aid is about $13,500 plus your EFC of 2270 gives you about $15,750 towards school.</p>

<p>If tuition, fees, books, and transportation totals to less than $15,500 why would you end up with more debt?</p>

<p>When you were going to live at school, you had a gap after EFC of about $2500 (which was in addition to your EFC). I doubt you’ll have a bigger gap living at home.</p>

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<p>^Agreed, at most you should have a proportionally equivalent amount of gap unless part of your aid was specifically designated as a housing allowance. It shouldn’t be that difficult to find the exact COA differences for living at home vs. living off campus…it’s probably on their website. The ones I’ve looked at often have 0 for housing, a small amount for meals, and an increased amount for transportation.</p>

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<p>Thank you all for the responses.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>But wouldn’t I be losing the four thousand in terms of grants? My whole reasoning was that by living at home, I wouldn’t be taking out loans to help pay for housing. My tuition is about 8k a year, which would have been covered by the Pell grant + the other institutional grants I was receiving. The combination of loans, summer jobs and family help would have gone towards housing and such. I decided that living on my own could wait and I could avoid taking out loans completely and use my grant money to pay tuition.</p>

<p>However, it seems my logic may have been flawed. The school’s financial office will be open tomorrow so I will try to speak to them then. Thank you all for your responses.</p>

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<p>You may be losing $4K in grants, but you’re losing $8K+ in expenses so therefore you should not have to borrow as much in terms of actual dollars! Figure it out on a spreadsheet both ways and focus on the BOTTOM line!</p>

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<p>If you lose $4k in grants, that should be **less **than the cost of room and board.</p>

<p>My tuition is about 8k a year, which would have been covered by the Pell grant + the other institutional grants I was receiving.</p>

<p>$8,000 = Tuition
$1,000 = books
$500 = Transportation (approx)</p>

<h2>$500 = misc (approx)</h2>

<p>$10,000 approx cost for the year to college</p>

<p>What is the exact breakdown of your CURRENT aid package?</p>

<p>Pell = ___________
institutional grants = ___________
work-study = _____________
loans = ____________</p>

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<p>Yes, you lose aid. But you also lose need.</p>

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<p>I double checked the COA calculator at son’s school - the assumed difference between living in the dorms and living at home is $10,000; there IS some cost associated with living at home.</p>

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<p>I remember looking at some calculators and was surprised at how much cost schools attribute to commuters. The cost of daily commuting is added in there, the cost of a meal a day on campus and other items that can bring that cost up there. But every college has its own way of calculating COA and what it defines as commuting. There are schools that won’t give you anything unless you live in the dorms.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>$3300 Pell Grant
$6700 Institutional Grants
$5500 Sub. Stafford Loan
$2000 Unsub. Stafford Loan</p>

<p>Total Aid: $17,500</p>

<p>Cost of Attendance (living at home):</p>

<p>$8416 Tuition
$6054 - Personal Expenses and transportation</p>

<p>$15,070 COA</p>