EFC 0 and private scholarship applications does this seem sketchy

Paying for College
1

EFC = 0
Daughter’s original award letter from a SUNY School:
COA: 22658
grants,scholarships and aid on original award letter: (TAP-5165, Pell-5815,SEOG-300, SUNY Tuition Credit-1330, School Scholarship she applied for-2100, School Grant-800) 15510 total
Loans: 3500 Sub/2000 Unsub
FWS: 1200
Parent Plus loan 448

She received 500 HESC(NY) Academic Excellence scholarship
COA 22658 (same)
Grants, scholarships… 15510 (same)
Loans 3500/2000 (same)
all FWS taken away
Parent Plus loan increased to 1148
Does this seem sketchy all by itself?

But wait, there’s more:
She received $1832.05 in private scholarships at HS graduation(500 check,632.05 check and letter for 700). gave checks and letter to college.
COA: 22858 ($200 orientation fee)
Lost School Grant-800
Lost SEOG-300
She still has to borrow 3500/2000
Parent Plus loan 615

She emailed and complained her over 97 GPA and earning over $2300.00 in scholarships is not reducing her debt at all and increasing her parents’ debt:
The college reinstituted 300 SEOG, and 500 of the original 800 School Grant, took away Parent Plus loan, decreased unsubsidized loans by $10 each semester($20 total), but added “Etra Board” - $165 (COA increased to 23023)

So from original award letter: over $2300 in scholarships effects the family in this way: $165 more to “Etra Board”, $448 Parent Plus no longer there, and $20 off her student loans She’s still borrowing 3500/1980. Net $303

Seem sketchy over all?

2

Contact the school…but it doesn’t seem odd to me.

Your daughter received a need based award from the university and that university does NOT guarantee to meet full need. It looks like the school reduced your Ned based aid from them because your daughter got these outside awards.

In most cases,mthe self help portion of need based aid is reduced first…that means work study and loans would be reduced before grants.

But ask the school.

@sybbie719 what do you think?

3

SUNY Buffalo’s website: (She is going to a different SUNY)
What is an overaward of financial aid?

When the total of all aid received by the student exceeds the student’s cost of attendance budget, awards in the package will be adjusted (cancelled or reduced) in order to eliminate the overaward. Loans will be reduced before any reduction is made to any other awards.

Federal/State Regulatory Overaward Requirements

Federal and state need-based aid regulations (laws) stipulate that a student receiving federal or state need-based awards (see list below) cannot receive assistance (from any source) in excess of his/her gross financial need as determined by the analysis of the information submitted on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Gross Financial Need

Cost of Attendance (COA) minus Expected Family Contribution (EFC) = Gross Financial Need

COA is established by the aid office in compliance with federal law.
EFC is determined by the analysis of the information submitted on the FAFSA.

Federal and state need-based awards include the following:

Federal Pell Grant (Note: The amount of the Pell Grant cannot be adjusted.)
Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)
Federal Work-Study
Federal Direct Subsidized Loan
Health Professions Loans (HPSL)
Federal Perkins Loan
Equal Opportunity Program (EOP)
State University Student Assistance (SUSTA)
State of New York TAP Grant
SUNY Tuition Credit

Normally this means your student loans will be adjusted to eliminate the overaward situation. This adjustment of the awards is required by federal/state law if any of the above federal/state need-based awards are included in the student’s financial aid package.

Did we just pick the wrong SUNY

4

Contact YOUR SUNY and ask.

5

wow thanks

6

Where are you looking to have happen?

SUNY does not meet 100% demonstrated need. It does not matter if you are EOP or have a 0 EFC, it is rare that you will attend SUNY without having to pay (or borrow, if you don’t have the ability to pay).

Even with the outside scholarship, your daughter is not going to attend school for free, because she did not receive enough outside scholarships to cover her costs after applying her TAP, Pell, SEOG and school based/outside scholarships.

You may not be looking at the big picture. Either you or her will need to take out loans in order to cover her costs if you donor have the means to cover the charges out of pocket

What are her direct costs?

Are they all covered? No, they are not.

If she received $5165 in TAP, the remaining 1006 (will most likely come from the $2100 scholarship that she received from the school) Tuition now covered

FEES 1432 - SUNY tuition credit ($1300) = $132 (will be offset by the $2100 School Scholarship) remaining $962- Fees now covered

Room and board charges

$962 from Scholarship (unless it is a tuition/fee only scholarship)
$5165 Pell
$500 HESC
$800 grants

Total $7427 “free money” the balance of the room board charges will have to be paid by your child/family as a combination of loans or your family writing the checks.

She will still need monies for books and misc. items (hopefully, some of this will be covered by the $1200 they applied to her work study).

She will still need money to get to school and the start up cost associated with living in the dorms (sheets, pillow, pillowcases, blankets, etc).

Depending on your health insurance, if you do not have adequate coverage, she must purchase health insurance, which will be an additional cost.

If you don’t want her to take out any additional loans, make sure that all her direct costs are covered (tuition, room board and fees). There will be latitude on travel cost, how she purchases books and how much she spends as miscellaneous items. If she does not have one, she needs to get a summer job.

7

I think I get what you’re saying, maybe?

Going from Situation#1 to #2 “looks sketchy” because it comes across like your family was punished for D’s scholarship by having the PPlus go up.

The hard part is that every piece (I’m learning) has its own weird mechanics, especially when automated. As in, if the FWS is the “last piece” added and it would have put your D “over,” then it gets backed out first, and maybe there isn’t an option for it to be a value between 0 and 1200. Then the PPlus just becomes the dumping ground where the system has to make up the difference. If someone had manually moved pieces around, it probably wouldn’t have turned out like that and would have looked less strange.

Situation #3 is less sketchy as the school is now actively working with your D to manually adjust things. I would be curious what that Etra thing is and why it newly appeared.

Part of this is a perception issue. Right or wrong, the system doesn’t view that 5500 as a piece of need, but more like a fact of life. All the grants and aid and scholarships get factored in and out of the part that is beyond the 5500.

8

Actually…I read the OP again. It sounds like the school did work with your daughter to adjust this award. Your net cost is still low out of pocket. No more Plus. And while,she doesn’t have work Study…she should be able to find a small part time job of some sort to help out.

9

It was actually a typo on my part it was"Extra Board". She did contact the school. She was just hoping her scholarships would help her have less debt. Curious that it varies from one SUNY to another, that’s all.

10

The extra board may just be a price increase that happened after the financial aid letters went out in the spring. My daughter’s school doesn’t set final tuition and r&b costs until June. (and then for fun change them! one summer it changed several times, maybe because people complained? It ended up staying the same as the previous year).

I agree that the best aid to lose is work study because you can get a different job to make up that amount. Not as sweet, but still works.

11

She does plan on getting a job, they told her during orientation, there’s lots of student jobs, just FWS students are priority, no big deal. But generally if you want one you can get one.

12

Your daughter’s dorming at a SUNY for $7k/year? That means that, between the state, federal gov’t, and the college, ~2/3 of her costs are covered. That’s pretty generous. The outside scholarships reduced her need for institutional aid, which means that money can go to other low income students.

We’re a one income, Pell eligible family whose son is commuting to a SUNY. Our EFC is ~$4k, so our cost (for tuition and fees alone) is over $5k/year. I don’t think many (if any) students attend a SUNY for less than the federal student loan amount. The state seems to expect them to contribute to their own education. I don’t find that unreasonable.

13

Most schools I know reduce loans and work study 1st. Actually I don’t know of any school that reduce aid before loans and work study. Does any other CC user know of any school that does this?

14

The numbers on the aid award that they list for the loans, she doesn’t have to borrow the full amount if you can contribute or she has savings from a summer job. It lists her eligibility. She doesn’t get the loans until she accepts them.

Costs also go up every year and the outside scholarship might only be for the first year so it’s crucial that your D works next summer so she doesn’t come up short sophomore year.

Also keep in mind that any scholarships and grants that exceed tuition, fees and book expenses, are taxable income to your daughter.

15

http://www.finaid.org/scholarships/outside.phtml

“The school’s outside scholarship policy dictates how the outside scholarship is used to reduce the financial aid package. Most schools have favorable policies that first apply the outside scholarship to unmet need, and then reduce self-help (loans and work-study) before touching institutional grants. This lets you replace your loans, which must be repaid, with the outside scholarship. After all, it is in the school’s best interest to encourage you to win outside scholarships.” And they were VERY encouraging at open house to apply, apply, apply. But no mention of how they’d apply them.

16

The key words in this are “most colleges”. This is not a mandate for ALL colleges.

It still looks like this school has a net cost that is affordable…is that the case?

17

I never said it was a mandate.

18

I realize you never said it was a mandate.

Your school has its policy on how it handles outside scholarships…and has already shown a willingness to work with you on the financial aid award.

19

I realize you never said it was a mandate. But you keep quoting things that mention other ways of dealing with this.

Your school has its policy on how it handles outside scholarships and that is what matters…and has already shown a willingness to work with you on the financial aid award. And that is very positive.

20

thank you