<p>So I've been getting my acceptance letters and I find out about my first choice school in April. To go to these amazing colleges which I am getting accepted into I need to pay my enrollment fees and housing deposits by like May. The housing deposit for my first choice is like $650 and the enrollment is like $400. My family makes under 30,000 a year and we are just POORPOORPOOR. I can attend schools with scholarships but I cannot pay these fees. Does anyone know of anyways to get money for these fees? I don't think you can get like waivers for these. HELP ME! I don't want my four years of hard work to go to waste.</p>
<p>If you are eligible for a Pell grant, you may be eligible for a deposit waiver. So I imagine you don’t have a job? Is there anyway you can earn the money for the deposit if you don’t qualify for a waiver?</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Yes, about the enrollment waivers for Pell students.</p>
<p>That said, EK4 makes a good point about getting a job…part-time now and maybe more during the summer. There are many college expenses that aid doesn’t always cover. Also, you’ll need money for dorm things. To buy your text books, you often have to use your own money since aid isn’t dispersed to the student until after school starts.</p>
<p>These things are going to come up…even if you are fully funded for college sometimes you need to purchase books before you get a check, housing deposits, perhaps you have to cover transportation to and from school in the fall, at Christmas, in the spring etc. as mom2 mentions. After you get all your acceptances and your financial aid packages it is time to find out exactly how each college handles it’s disbursement and where you will have gaps. Meanwhile, if your family is in bad financial straits, you need to get a job. The couple thousand or more you can save between now and fall will come in handy for covering gaps. You may get unbelievable financial aid that will cover much of your college if you are lucky, but you’ll still need some cash…and if it isn’t going to be your parents it will need to be you.</p>
<p>I don’t have time for a job. I’m in one of the top ten high schools in the nation, I’m in IB, I go to after school activities most days of the week, and I volunteer on Sundays for four hours. I plan to get a job during the summer but I can’t manage one until school is over and the fees are due in May which is before summer and the beginning of exams 
Where can I find out more about enrollment waivers? Do they have those? Does anyone know about housing deposits? It seems like there should be some kind of scholarship, or something along those lines, that would help pay for that?</p>
<p>Often the same thing applies for housing deposits. If you qualiy for enrollment deposits waivers, then you qualify for housing deposit waivers.</p>
<p>Contact your GC and your college admissions for more info.</p>
<p>I realize that you’re busy during the school year, but I also know that senior year can be rather expensive…prom, senior trips, senior pics, and all other stuff. Often, low income kids need to pay for these things with part-time jobs.</p>
<p>Often, low income kids need to pay for these things with part-time jobs.
Or middle income kids.
There are so many things that come up senior year- most students need to develop a way of picking and choosing.
Having to pay for them with their own earnings, can help them be a little more selective about what they think is a must do.</p>
<p>Once you file FAFSA ( which should be soon as you can after January 1st), you will know if you qualify for Pell grant.
After that happens- & after you receive offer of admission, you should be eligible for waivers from the university you plan to attend.
If they don’t offer you a waiver, it may be that they will have other financial hoops that will be difficult to pass through.</p>
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<p>Would that waiver be included in the financial aid package that the college will send me after I complete FAFSA?</p>
<p>Shannen…</p>
<p>Do your schools promise to meet need?</p>
<p>The don’t promise to meet 100% and I’m not worried about tuition and such, I am concerned with fees I have to pay in like May. Even for colleges in my state which are public and cheap I cannot afford these fees.</p>
<p>^^That statement doesn’t make much sense. The housing deposits and such are small change compared to what it costs to attend college and I can’t understand why you wouldn’t be worried about tuition when you are worried about a smallish deposit. Keep in mind part of your financial aid may very well be work/study. It’s good that you are planning on getting a summer job, but you also need to learn how to balance priorities which may very well occur when you are in college and need to balance school, work and outside interests, if you are “too busy” now something might have to give when you are in college so keep that in mind.</p>
<p>Consider rethinking your after-school activities. A job is a great after-school activity, and it sounds like it may deserve a higher priority as you look forward. Your goals are becoming different now.</p>
<p>The don’t promise to meet 100% and I’m not worried about tuition and such, I am concerned with fees I have to pay in like May. Even for colleges in my state which are public and cheap I cannot afford these fees.</p>
<p>As mentioned above, your statement makes no sense at all and shows an inability to think long-term. If you’re worried about coming up with some deposit money for a school that you worked “so hard for”, then what the heck are you going to do when your FA package leaves you with several thousand to pay for? Your FA pkg will already have full loans in it, so you won’t be able to use a loan to cover any shortfalls.</p>
<p>You need to get your priorities straight. Afterschool activities are a luxury at this point. You need to cutback on those and get a part-time job otherwise, you’ll have your deposits from waivers, but you won’t be able to attend because the school is going to want X dollars paid at the time of enrolling.</p>
<p>If you think I’m being harsh, believe me, you’ll be harsher on yourself if fall comes and you can’t go to school because your school didn’t meet need.</p>
<p>Frankly, I do not understand why a student who has no ability to come up with deposits would have applied to schools that don’t meet need. It doesn’t sound like you have a couple of financial safeties. That’s just not good. You could end up at a CC.</p>
<p>What schools did you apply to?</p>
<p>Kids from POORPOORPOOR families don’t get to be “too busy” to have jobs if they want to be able to go to college. May be a hard reality, but it’s just a fact of life. If you don’t think it’s important enough for you to at least earn some money to help yourself, why should the school or government help you afford school by giving you waivers and other aid? You can’t worry about all the volunteer work, etc. This is time to work to help YOURSELF reach your goals first!</p>
<p>Tough love guys, tough love. It does make sense because before college starts I can get a job and will have aid which will help me. None of you have answered if there is aid for these fees. I am worried about these fees because I have to pay them before I can get aid or get a job and they are due when I am still in high school. My school requires me to always be involved in after school activities and volunteering in order to meet my IB CAS requirements. I have to be involved in these activities until the end of spring, and at the point I will have to prepare for my IB exams and AP exams. Also, these activities help me get hours which helps me get scholarships so quitting them wouldn’t help me. I’m not “too busy” with running around being dumb, I’m too busy being editor for the newspaper and attending NHS meetings and volunteering so i’m not wasting my time with pointless things. I just need to worry about these fees at the moment because for tuition and such I will have scholarships and aid from the school and the state, but for these I will not (I think, but I don’t know because no one has answered my question, they have only told me that I need to get a job and I’m not doing what a poor kid should be doing blahblahblah)</p>
<p>Re:#2
If you qualify for Pell you may qualify for waiver. That info will come with your aid offer after acceptance</p>
<p>So, let me get this straight…kids in IB programs never hold jobs? You have no classmates who are also able to have a small part time job for spending money, college money, etc? You can’t babysit, or tutor, a few hours a week, save that, and come up with $600 by May 1?
No, I don’t believe many schools offer help with the initial deposits, because that would be a huge red flag that you have not even made an effort to afford the smallest of your educational costs. I am sure if you are bright, you could think of some way to come up with $650 dollars by May, and I think most colleges expect the same out of potential students.</p>
Wow what some of the people have said on this thread is truly disgusting. This is a 5 year old thread but I’ll comment because people are searching for this information currently and might land on this. First of all, the ‘get a job’ argument - why should a low income child be able to handle MORE activity and a MORE hectic schedule with LESS resources? Replacing an after school activity which may be an hour with a 4 hour shift (at least) is ridiculous and no student should be forced into doing this to furnish their education. The entitlement going on here is nonsense and disgusting. Anyway, students who cannot afford the enrollment deposit which also comes full force along with the housing deposit can total to $750+. Students should call in to each individual school and explain their situation, especially if they will be recieveing financial aid anyway and attach your FSA ID in the correspondence as well. I worked in the University of Miami fin. aid department for some time and we dealt with these situations often. $750 is a lot for some people. The school will do their best to help and I guarantee you they will not encourage you to get a job. Also, students eligible for pell grants can receive waivers as well.
This thread is five years old please use old threads for informational purposes only. Closin thread