<p>I am wondering if any merit scholarships given by Rochester reduce the amount of grant aid given? Starting to be concerned because UR estimator shows a significant gap after estimated grants, loans, and work study. D has worked very hard, and I thought scholarship $ would reduce the gap and eliminate loans and w/s. She will be NMF, but it seems that amount ($17,000) would be useless if it only reduces the grant. This is her absolute dream school. If no scholarship reduces the estimated family contribution, can we still apply for federal loans? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Merit aid reduces need aid (grants, w/s and loans). It will not reduced your EFC unless the amount of merit exceeds your “need” (the difference between the COA and your UR calculated EFC).</p>
<p>UR is “meets full need” school, so it sounds like you may have a EFC you can’t afford. You won’t get any “need” aid to cover your EFC.</p>
<p>Your daughter will be able to apply for a Stafford loan ($5500 for freshmen) if she has filed a FAFSA. However, UR does use Staffords as part its FA package. So if you have “need” remaining after her merit aid, that loan will already be included in your D’s FA package.</p>
<p>You may be eligible to take out a Parent Plus loan to help meet your EFC.</p>
<p>Re: work/study. My d’s merit scholarship filled our need and so made her ineligible for w/s. However, she has never had trouble finding a paying non-w/s job (or two or three) on campus. She makes enough to cover her books and personal expenses.</p>
<p>WayOutWestMom - How does one get work-study jobs and how much do they pay you? Is it based on your EFC or one can just ask to get a work-study job?</p>
<p>Work/study is a federally funded program and you are required to meet certain financial eligibility requirements in order to receive it. (Basically you must have “need.” Not being able to pay your EFC is not “need.”) Funding is limited and not all eligible students will be awarded w/s.</p>
<p>You cannot request w/s. It must be awarded as part of your FA pkg. Your award will state you may earn up to X amount. Once you have earned that amount, you may not work any more hours. </p>
<p>Most w/s jobs pay minimum wage. ($7.25/hr)</p>
<p>thanks WOWM, feel better now that I know about the Parent Plus loan.</p>
<p>retrolady</p>
<p>Here’s the link to the UR FA page</p>
<p>[University</a> of Rochester : Financial Aid](<a href=“http://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial/loan/]University”>http://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial/loan/)</p>
<p>Parent Plus loan information is about halfway down the page.</p>
<p>Early in the year they have a sort of job fair, with every university dept. seeking employees represented.</p>
<p>D attended this and easily found employment for all 4 years.</p>
<p>And there’s a job board on the Career Center website.</p>
<p>But the job market is competitive and you have to fit a job into your schedule. If you are science heavy with labs and what UR calls “recitations”, then you may not find a job that fits - or one you want. </p>
<p>I believe the minimum is $7.50 but it’s only a quarter difference an hour.</p>
<p>Many of the w/s jobs (and non w/s/ jobs on campus) will work with students to fit the hours into their academic schedules. </p>
<p>(D2 is a double science major with multiple labs and recitations each semester. Her employers have all worked with her to find a schedule that works for both the student and employer. Even science majors won’t be in class continually from 7 am to 11 pm every day!)</p>
<p>IT WILL REDUCE YOUR AID. </p>
<p>The look at your overall aid package and how much they “think” you need. </p>
<p>Don’t fall for the whole " We will match 100% of your needs" How do they match it? Yeah, it is called loans. Not aid. Heck, you can get loans all by yourself and these are though the government so don’t think U of R is helping you out. </p>
<p>Example: i have a EFC of zero. I applied for and got some merit aids and some endowed scholarships. I though, oh great, these are endowed scholarships, meaning someone donated the money to create a fund for them. I thought I would have to pay less, but no, U of R just decreased my Rochester National Grant ( U of R’s version of aid money). Basically, wasted all my time and energy to apply for these scholarships and the bottom line stayed the same</p>
<p>Another thing, if the merit aids you are getting are not from U of R, I would even be more careful and think of the future!</p>
<p>One of my friend got offered 1 year scholarships from her local town businesses, etc for being top of her class. They were only good for an year. U of R promised her that after the year is up, they will take over. They didn’t, it was a huge lie to get her to come here. After her first year of school at the U of R, she had a 3.8 GPA and was pre-med. </p>
<p>The financial aid office basically said “sorry but we never told you that we would take over your financial needs after your outside scholarship is gone” My friend ended up going to her state school where she was initially offered a full ride. Now she has to pay at that said state school. </p>
<p>Moral of the story: Either get everything in writing ( and if you try they will bulk at it, then you will know if they are serious) or don’t think Oh after my outside scholarship runs out, u of R will be nice and work something out with me. they won’t.</p>
<p>whatisit, most schools reduce need-based aid by the amount of merit aid. The logic is quite straight-forward. </p>
<p>Let’s say your need is calculated at $40,000. You get $10,000 from another source, be it merit aid from the school or elsewhere. That means that you no longer “need” $40,000 because you’ve gotten $10,000. Therefore, your current need is only $30,000.</p>
<p>This is not unique to Rochester.</p>
<p>You obviously have some major disappointments with the school, and Rochester itself. That’s too bad. We have not had the same financial issues with Rochester as you have, and my daughter loves the school. There are many experiences and I’m sorry they’re so negative for you.</p>
<p>retrolady, my daughter has had a wonderful on-campus job for the past two years. Even though she qualified for work-study, the job she got is not work-study. They have been very accommodating to her, working with her schedule of classes and study needs.</p>
<p>Whatisit has several negative posts re: UR, so take his/her statements with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>D has been treated fairly by fin. aid for all 4 years, and to respond to Whatisit’s posting on campus safety, she has felt safe, even living in Riverview.</p>
<p>Our FA award came in today via email notification to log onto the FA site.</p>
<p>It first indicated the award was calculated based upon his estimated COA which was 56K plus-when I went back to take that figure in again I couldn’t get it back-it was a bit of a shock to see such a high number even though I figured it would be about 55K.</p>
<p>Our aid package consists of his merit award and a $5,500 loan which is what we expected.</p>
<p>I hope all of you get what you need to attend UR-we did not receive any surprises here.</p>
<p>I did send an email to find out the actual COA since I want to make sure I saw that right.</p>
<p>My FA award + scholarship covers 79% of the COA. I’m surprised that tuition, rm & board have gone up 9% this year.</p>
<p>Is it 9%-where are you getting that number-it seems too high but I haven’t done an analysis.</p>
<p>I don’t remember the exact figure, but 9% is too high. My boss recently announced at a staff meeting that the Board of Trustrees agreed to raise tuition by less than the national average (which is 6% each year), and I believe it was somewhere around 4 or 5%.</p>
<p>Tuition, rm & board was $53.4k last year now its around $56.7k. That’s approx. 9% increase.</p>
<p>(56.7-53.4)/53.4 = 6.2 %</p>