I think that the questions that you should be asking are:
Is the school scholarship of $2100 guaranteed for all 4 years.
What are the requirements to keep this particular scholarship?
It seems on face that the
SEOG $300
other scholarships $1832
school grant $800
may be one time events.
How will you make this up in subsequent years ($2932)?
Again, How much are your direct costs?
How much will you need to meet the direct cost (tuition, fees, room and board) ?
Will your daughter have to borrow to make this happen? if yes, how much?
You said that the self help portion of her financial aid $1200 (FWS) was reduced by her outside scholarship.
What I would ask is if her subsidized loan could be reduced by $1200. Since she will need pocket money anyway, she might as well keep the work study and reduce the her costs. this would bring her sub loan to $1800 and her unsub to $2000.
I would not be spending my time wanting them to reduce the $448 Plus loan that you as the parent may have to take out(you are going to save more than $448 once she goes off to school in reduced food monies, electrical costs, pocket money ~$1.27 per day. I would ask if the $448 be contributed back to her cost reducing her sub loan from $1800 to $1352.
Again, she needs a summer job so that she can have some start up monies, to purchase her books and school supplies when she gets to campus.
Originally your family contribution was $7148: $5500 student loan, $1200 work study, and $448 parent loan
Add to that the increase in board which has nothing to do with the outside scholarships, it is a price increase for some reason perhaps pertaining to the meal plan she chose? So with that $165 added to the COA your responsibility was $7313.
Now you are saying your responsibility is down to $5480 in student loans. The savings based on adding the $2300 in outside money is $1833, so yes your $467 of her outside scholarships didn’t “count” if that is how you want to look at it, but $1833 did so you are still way ahead.
As far as the $5480 loan is concerned, she certainly does not have to take all or any of it if she chooses not to. First, more than half of that amount must be indirect costs such as books, transportation and misc. How much? She doesn’t have to spend all of that-it is just an estimate and she can spend much less if she is frugal. She can get a term job and easily earn $50 a week which would be $1500, she could earn much more if she really wanted to. Did she get graduation gifts? Did she have a summer job? Are you willing to give any support at all?
I didn’t look at the work study as family contribution, but i guess that makes sense when you look at it that way. And i had no problem with the 448, I was just going to pay it not take out a loan. Just paid out 568 for books last week on Amazon. Alot cheaper than the schools prices. We were just hoping when she was getting the scholarships that she’d reduce her loans. Oh well. Thankfully she should only have to do 3 years because she took 35 credits in Jr/Sr years.
Since the textbooks will be used at a school in New York state, you can apply to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance for a refund of the sales tax that Amazon collected from you. Use form AU-11:
@BelknapPoint Wow, thanks, good to know. @sybbie719 She’ll be able to renew the 2100 shool scholarship and one 700 private scholarship. Indirect costs are 810 Est books and supplies, 510 transportation and 1150 other. So if she gets a part time job, that can cover some of those. Transportation would just be me going to get her (1-1/2 hours away) for breaks.
Schools have certain packaging philosophies, and outside scholarships can affect packaging based on the particular philosophy. For example, I used to work at a school that promised to cover the “average” cost of tuition minus the family’s EFC with grant aid for students who applied for aid before the preferred filing deadline. We packaged the student, and then we had to adjust the package if a scholarship was received. In this case, the outside scholarship would simply reduce the institutional grant … leaving no net gain for the student. Although it may seem unfair on its face, the purpose of the policy was to allow as many students as possible to have tuition covered. Schools have to make tough choices when trying to stretch limited dollars.
Okay, so given the $5480 offered in the loan, subtract out the $510 from the COA(assuming you are not asking her to take a loan to reimburse your gas?) so now the loan is down to $4970…you said you just bought books, are you expecting the loan proceeds to reimburse that, or is that something you are covering? If you are going to pay for her books, subtract the $810 and you are down to $4160 loan. Is she going to work at school? If so, she can easily cover The $1150 misc. so you are down to $3010, or just $1505 a semester. Does she have any gifts or summer job savings? Can you help out any more?
If you are really opposed to loans, I bet you can make it work this year! Good luck.
She probably will be able to reduce her loans, and no I will not charge her for gas. She will get a job, so FWS is made up with the same effort on her part. She can cover the “other educational costs”with that. She actually has another scholarship STEM for being top 10% and going into Biochemistry– that won’t kick in unless tuition is not covered in subsequent years.
Question is: Has anyone else had this done differently. If so I suppose they wouldn’t be on a forum reading posts about financial aid, they would have been happy with their college’s decision. But there are one’s that say this has been the policy, which I actually am greatful for. One said s/he never heard of a school applying to aid before loans/FWS - although they did do FWS first then she received 1832 more. Until she emailed to complain and they changed things, they had removed aid only, didn’t even apply her scholarships to unmet need. Maybe I am wrong, but I am looking at the 615 Parent PLUS loan they had as unmet need of the net cost (“Options to Replace Expected Family Contribution or Net Cost” on the award letter) since EFC was 0 – again, maybe I’m wrong. The changes they then made were “making an exception.”
The local scholarship boards should probably ask for their award letter, find out about the different school policies, and factor that into their decisions. The SUNY she’s attending doesn’t have their policy on their website, but I’ve found two other SUNY’s (Buffalo and Albany) that do and they’ll do unmet need, then FWS/loans before aid. She’s supposed to be getting a call from the director to explain their policy.
You need to contact HESC. She must start the scholarship the fall immediately after graduation she does not get to pick it up once she starts college. The scholarship covers SUNY tuition - any TAP. Since she has full TAP, the money that they are using from one of her outside scholarships to pay the balance of her tuition can be used for her room and board.
If your daughter has not completed the process, she needs to do so immediately because the deadline is approaching
Please contact the HESC Scholarship Unit at scholarships@hesc.ny.gov or 1-888-697-4372 with questions about this Program.
thanks @sybbie719, we just went to court house with the contract last Friday and got it notarized and mailed it. The college has given her SUNY Tuition credit of 1330 in addition to 5165 TAP which is why I don’t think she’ll get a dollar amount this year. If our income changes(it may because my husband is getting more overtime this year) It may reduce TAP and the tuition credit next year. We’ll see.
If you predict that there will be changes in your financial situation going forward, then take the scholarship. You are right it will most likely be a wash this year because TAP and the tuition credit will cover all of her tuition,
But if you receive less TAP next year, your tuition credit will also go down and the scholarship will make up the difference.
Yeah that’s what we figured. It’ll be there if she needs it. Only thing with the scholarship is the jobs you have to pick from for the five years. Right now the only one she’s interested in is Forensics. She doesn’t plan on leaving NY. She really wanted to do hospital lab work after college, but it’s not on STEM’s list. It can always be converted to a loan if she doesn’t do a job on the list. Maybe the list will be changed by the time she graduates and include hospital lab work.