<p>What is the COA breakdown of your school?</p>
<p>Also, ask your GC if there are any local scholarships to apply for. </p>
<p>You don’t need to wait til summer to start working. You could start working part-time now.</p>
<p>ok…</p>
<p>You must come up with the EFC. You cannot use outside scholarships for EFC, but you can replace the $2750 workstudy, so that should be your goal. Then your package will look like this:</p>
<p>Tuition/Fees/R&B owed to college: $61498
less school grants and Pell: (58952)
less outside scholarship: (2750)
amount school refunds to you: $204</p>
<p>Estimated remaining costs(books, personal, travel): $3665
less outside scholarship refund (204)
Amount you and your parents have to come up with: $3461</p>
<p>Note that none of that money goes to the school. It is for your personal use and books and travel. You could possibly find a way to spend far less. Plus you don’t need all of the money up front as it is meant to be your full year budget. There are LOTS of ways to come up with the $3461, but NOT outside scholarships, sorry.</p>
<p>First, if you come up with a scholarship for the $2750 to replace the work study then you are free to get a job and pocket all of the money to put toward your expenses. You can work this summer and save up enough to get you started on the expenses. You can take out a student loan, but it doesn’t seem necessary. And your parents can help you out.</p>
<p>It shouldn’t be a big deal, truthfully. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>You have a very very good package. Remember that the school doesn’t bill you for all of the costs associated with school. They will bill Tuition/Fee+resident comp fee totaling 61,498 which is covered by grants of 58,982. So you are short 2,516 at the beginning of the semester between you and your parents. This is usually paid in a lump sum. If you want monthly payments you will have to ask if they allow it and you usually pay a fee to do that. Payments will start earlier than school year usually.</p>
<p>So yes, if you get a grant and it can replace work study then you will have that amount up front to supply toward your payment. Any excess that goes to your school to replace need aid is just a contribution from you to the wonderful package they provided, maybe it is ‘paid forward’ to someone else.</p>
<p>Now you need money for your books, personal expenses and travel. You will have to buy your books right away for the first semester and you can’t be billed monthly for that. So you try to buy used books and check book rental options to reduce costs but you may need up to 800, say, it really depends on your classes. Your work study is supposed to cover your personal expenses and save up for books next semester, plus you have to figure if you are going home to Calif winter and summer that will be expensive, scour the internet for tips for cheapest travel options. </p>
<p>In my opinion it is not wise to turn down available light work during school. It can be only 10 or 15 hours a week and there are usually a lot of options some allow you to study during a slow shift or working with a professor which can lead to more research opportunities. My kid did everything from administering cognitive tests on human subjects, calling alumni for donations and chat about the colleges and your studies, aide in a research office, and paid teaching assistant. The TA was valuable for grad school applications.</p>
<p>After your first year, you will work it all out how to make the money work. but it does sound like your EFC will go up with only one in college your Sr year and you can borrow the shortfall to finish up. That is not too bad. Just don’t borrow all the time instead of working. As long as you don’t work more than 10 or 15 hours, studies show students that work are better at time management. Campus jobs are not onerous and my daughter even worked her first year despite getting a grant to replace it because she liked the jobs she found. Often the jobs are posted online early.</p>
<p>@BrownParent I also agree that work study will benefit me! I want that working experience. </p>
<p>So does that mean all my pay checks from work study will be forwarded towards the fees from Wes? This is starting to make much sense now!! 
</p>
<p>No, work study paychecks will be yours. If you want to use that money to pay the school, you can but don’t have to.</p>
<p>Please excuse me, I am off today, I really thought you said you do <em>not</em> want to participate, thus my mini rant.</p>
<p>No, you don’t have it quite right–the paychecks come to you during the school year. You have to pay the school your fixed costs up front per semester when the semester begins (unless the school allows a payment plan.) Those fixed costs are tuition, fees, room and board (what they call Resident Comprehensive). You also have to buy your books. Then your work study comes weekly or twice a month, whatever their pay schedule there, to you for your ongoing expenses. It is just like a regular job, you get paid as you put in your hours. So you need a little extra up front, because they paycheck comes as you work.</p>
<p>So you will pay 1/2 in the fall of your fixed costs =30,749 will be your bill. But you have aid they will subtract out so that’s 29,491. that leaves you with 1,258 to pay them before you start school. Then when you start you have to pay for yourself to get there, you might need some things for your dorm. They you have to buy your semester of books. Maybe it will be a few hundred. You have to come up with that. Then you apply and get a job on campus or even close by in the town. You start working and they issue a paycheck and it comes to you just like any job. You use it for notebooks, for shampoo, pizza out with friends one weekend. You put some aside because you will need travel money home and you will need to buy books at the beginning of next semester. Before that semester starts, you and your family will also have to pay the other 1,258 to cover your fixed costs. Is that more clear?</p>
<p>P.S. I heart Wes</p>
<p>By the way, you can browse jobs at Wes online there are some now and you don’t have to be on work/study to apply for all of them some are available to anyone. Likely they will have more jobs posted when fall semester begins.
<a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/finaid/employment/finding_a_job.html”>http://www.wesleyan.edu/finaid/employment/finding_a_job.html</a></p>
<p>@Brownparent Can you clarify something regarding work study? If OP gets the $2750 scholarship to replace the work study, he is still entitled to have a work study position for the extra money, or does he need to then find a job independent of work study?</p>
<p>He would not be entitled to work study in that case, as it is dependent on need (which has been met by the scholarship). He can still get a job, though — just not one reserved for work study. </p>
<p>Proudmom…that would be a discussion to have with the college. It is possible they will still allow the work study…unless it is a very firm policy that outside scholarships MUST replace stusent self help awards first.</p>
<p>He should contact the school with this question.</p>
<p>If your aid has to be reduced due to Federal and/or school rules, would you rather lose the work study component of the award or the grant? That’s what it may come down to. </p>
<p>I was asking about the work study, because of what @brownparent was saying about NOT refusing the work study. Seriously, if the school offers you the choice between earning $2750 or keeping a $2750 outside grant for yourself, why would anyone choose the former? He can pocket the $2750 and still get an non work study position.</p>
<p>Work study earnings are not counted on NEXT year’s FAFSA. Regular job earnings are.</p>
<p>^^ right but nothing is counted as 100%. So he earns $2000 in regular income. He’d still have $2750 in scholarship, $2000 in wages which is more than $2759 in work study.</p>
<p>Yes, I’m sorry if I was being confusing, if you got the 3k grant and all it could replace was the work study then sure, you take the grant. But if it can replace a student loan then do that first. I was a bit twisted up by misreading something. I just wanted to make sure the student wasn’t averse to work study for no reason. That is all.</p>
<p>He’d have to earn more than $6k for any of his non-WS earnings to hurt his FA.</p>
So basically any scholarship I receive will help me reduce my work study and NOT my EFC. So my scholarship goal if I was not not want to work would be to get a scholarship of at least $3,000 since work study is $2,750.
EFC will be my transportation, books and personal expenses… From what @mom2collegekids said. And since I calculated that Wes Scholarship, Jose Scholarship, Grants will cover everything expect transportation, books, personal expenses and work study.
And any excess scholarship will be used to reduce the Wes scholarship which is good for other students as well.
Am I right? Happy New Year’s Eve!
Can you copy/paste the COA details?
mom2, see post #18. Wes is different in that they don’t put in a token amount for personal expenses., or a transportation allocation as it varies.
What is the COA? @mom2collegekids
Estimated Cost of Attendance for 2015-16
Your estimated award is based on the actual cost of attendance for the 2014-15 school year as shown below. We will adjust your award for the updated cost of attendance when we produce your finalized award in late April. This estimated budget includes not only billable* charges, but estimates for the cost of books & supplies, travel, and other personal expenses.
Budget Category Amount Tuition and Fees* $48,272
Resident Comp Fee* $13,226
Books & Supplies $2,665
Travel $1,000
Miscellaneous $0
Non Resident Study $0
Health Insurance $0
--------- Budget Totals $65,163
@mom2collegekids