<p>Has anyone received these yet???</p>
<p>yea i got accepted on 2 weeks ago but i think they release them in april</p>
<p>My daughter’s financial award offer was posted on the Duckweb tonight. I’m so disappointed - her offer is $3,500 in subsidized loans, $2,000 unsubsidized, and $15,700 “federal parent direct” loans. No work study, no grants of any kind, all loans, for $21,000+ a year. Does it even make sense for her to go to college if she comes out with $85K in loans just in undergrad in-state college??? :-((( She can have a part time job while in school, and probably earn around $6,000 a year, but even at that, she’ll come out with $60K+. I’m soo disappointed.</p>
<p>That is very disappointing. And you’re right, that level of debt for undergrad makes NO sense. I hope she gets some better offers from places she’d be happy to go.</p>
<p>How can they expect a single parent to take $15,700 in loans, and the student to take another $5,500, when your EFC is $5,314? Why even accept a student? We are in tears here.</p>
<p>They do go heavy on the loans. I’m surprised your daughter didn’t have any workstudy in her award though with your EFC. Not that work study helps that much with the big bill, but at least the student can earn their own spending money and textbook money that way, plus it’s just easier to get a job.</p>
<p>Eabeeb, I don’t know what other options you’re looking at, but my daughter did her first year of college at Southern Oregon U because she could live at home and attend there. That saved a TON of money. She transferred to UO the next year, but I was tempted to have her do one more year where she could live at home before transferring. My brother helped us out with some money for this academic year at UO, so we were able to avoid loans, but next year will be a different story. But anyway, I understand how awful this is. If there’s a possibility of your daughter going to one of the regional state u’s or even a community college for a year or two, boy can it save a lot of money.</p>
<p>My daughter wanted to start with the traditional away-from-home first year of college, too (like her brother did), but once she settled into SOU she had a terrific year there. She was busy and the time flew by. She made sure to take classes that would fill requirements for UO, everything transferred and she started there as a sophomore. Are you close to any of the other state u’s?</p>
<p>We are in Portland. I think her option up here might be Mt. Hood Community College because of its music program. Or Portland State (which might also be un-reachable financially). Has it been difficult for your daughter to assimilate socially beginning in Eugene as a sophomore?</p>
<p>I’ve heard Mt Hood CC has a strong music program. Being in Portland, it’s nice you have some good options.</p>
<p>As far as socially adjusting, I don’t think that’s a big problem. UO is a big school so students go in and out of situations (classes, clubs, jobs, etc) that put them in contact with other students all the time. </p>
<p>My daughter started college a bit younger than most students, so when she transferred to UO she opted for a freshman dorm. She was a sophomore in terms of the number of credits she had, but age-wise she was closer to a typical freshman. If your daughter wants to have that dorm experience, though, there is an upperclassmen dorm too. Lots of students move off-campus after their freshman year. My daughter has ended up really not liking the living-in-a-hive aspect of dorm life, so she and another girl (who she met because she’s a friend of a friend) are moving into an apartment a couple blocks from campus next year. Living off-campus will actually end up being somewhat cheaper than the dorms.</p>
<p>There is a student housing office where students are advertising, looking for off-campus roommates all the time.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, my daughter is more of a task-oriented type of kid than a people person. She has her small group of friends she’s made there, and she’s very happy with that, but mostly she’s just extremely busy – she’s taking 18 units every term, plays in the symphonic band, works 8 to 10 hours a week at her job, is on the literary magazine staff… and a lot of the remaining time she’s studying, writing papers, etc. So, I’d say for her personality structure, socially her adjustment has been just fine. For a more out-going social people-oritented person the path could be a little different, but those people also put out a lot more energy toward establishing a lively social circle than my kid.</p>
<p>UO is a busy, friendly place though. It seems to me that a person could build whatever kind of social environment they like for themselves there without much effort.</p>
<p>Im right there with you eabeeb…Just got my financial aid award too and its pretty insulting. Im out of state and they want me to take out 33k in loans out of a estimated cost of attendance of 39k. My mother doesnt even make that much in a year. Its really insulting considering my efc is about 1500. Apparently the only non-loan aid I qualify for is work study and a pell grant. These state schools are so stingy with money, its really depressing.</p>
<p>I agree it is depressing, but virtually all state universities are on life-support financially. Programs are being cut, faculty losing their jobs. It’s not like they’re trying to make life miserable for students and families just for the heck of it. It certainly isn’t a personal insult, it’s just financial reality. Also the financial responsibility of public universities has to be to their own in-state students first. It’s the very definition of “state university”. They do that by keeping the prices lower for in-state students, even when they don’t have the resources to give even them viable financial aid awards.</p>
<p>At public universities a student may feel like “why accept me if I can’t go?” – but colleges don’t make that judgement for you. If you are someone they choose to admit for academic reasons or because you have a strong overall application and they feel you’re someone who would benefit by being there, they’ll admit you. They don’t discriminate based on who appears to have the money to attend and who doesn’t – it’s hard to even know that. One lower income student may have a generous grandma, the college has no way of knowing that, but surely we wouldn’t want to see that student rejected based only a limited snapshot of his parent’s financial situation given by the FAFSA. That does mean, though, that a lot of students will be admitted, but then can’t make the end meet financially and won’t end up attending.</p>
<p>College is just really horrendously expensive. I think it’s hard to appreciate just how expensive it is until you are dealing with it directly. I do volunteer advising at the local high school helping kids out with the whole college application and financial aid process, so I see kids and families dealing with the shock of this all the time.</p>
<p>I think I will have my daughter send a letter appealing the award and asking for more. Anyone know how often these appeals are successful? </p>
<p>When I crunch the numbers, factoring in the funds I can scrape up, my dad’s small contribution, and assuming she can continue working part time, if she could just get $6,000 in a grant or loan or something, we could make it work with only $7500 a year in loans, which is still a lot, but I think “do-able”. I’m not going down without a fight. 
</p>
<p>'rentof2, I really appreciate all your thoughts and kind words.<br>
And hblock44, I’m really sorry that you also got a lousy offer. There was an article in today’s Oregonian about the Oregon Scholarship Fund being millions short of what it committed, and how it is affecting financial aid for the 2010-11 school year: [Oregon</a> scholarship fund millions short of what it committed to students | Oregonlive.com](<a href=“http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/03/state_scholarship_fund_million.html]Oregon”>Oregon scholarship fund millions short of what it committed to students - oregonlive.com) Makes me sooo angry.</p>
<p>Definitely see if you can shake a little more money out of the tree, eabeeb! You won’t know if you don’t ask.</p>
<p>In the meantime, though, I’d fire off an application and your FAFSA to Mt. Hood or wherever else you might consider. Your daughter will stand a better chance of getting any available aid (maybe even workstudy?) if you get the app and the FAFSA in earlier rather than later.</p>
<p>Good luck with all of it! I’ll have my fingers crossed for you and your daughter.</p>
<p>I had a question… I got my financial aid package today (which was great btw).</p>
<p>Though I still have yet to have gotten an acceptance letter.</p>
<p>Does this mean I was accepted?</p>
<p>You can confirm that by logging into Duckweb.</p>
<p>My daughter did enroll at UofO last fall (and was accepted into the School of Music five days before fall term began!!). After much soul searching, we decided that this was the best decision for her. She is THRIVING, and I believe, for her, staying at home and attending community college would have been the wrong choice. </p>
<p>We have $18,000 in student loans for year #1 (<em>gasp</em>) … but for the next 3 years her expenses will go down substantially (off campus apt w/friends she made in the dorms), her income will go up (she didn’t work this school year, but will for the rest of college), and her younger brother will probably also be in college during her junior/senior years, which will make the financial aid package better (Pell Grants? Oregon Opportunity Grant? Work Study?). We think she can swing the next three years with just the Stafford loans ($6500/yr) or less. It is a LOT of debt, and it is scary, but she is pursuing her dream. She understands she may have to move back in with mom and work two or three jobs for a couple of years post-graduation to get the loans paid off, but we both think it’s worth it. Some people think nothing of taking out a $35,000 car loan – this is an education.</p>
<p>My financial aid package was just posted online, and for an out of state student I was quite suprised with the generosity of the school. I received almost $16,000 in Grants and work study and also received a scholarship from the Journalism School. Lowering my cost below what I expected, Uoregon is looking like a better option each and every day.</p>
<p>Congratulations! That’s great news.</p>
<p>eabeeb:</p>
<p>My situation is very similar, and I’m so afraid I will not be able to attend. Please assist me. </p>
<p>Parents EFC was 15,000 roughly.<br>
Subsidized was 3,000.
Unsubsidized was 2,000.
Federal plus loan is 20,000 roughly.</p>
<p>I assume you took that 18,000 dollar loan privately? May I ask who you went through, and what the interest rate is like? My mother is so afraid of variable rates. However, my parents credit scores are near flawless. </p>
<p>This is my dream, and I do not know what I will do if I don’t go. Please help and give me some tips. I will do anything to go.</p>
<p>This is really up to your parents, WarpedSeth. That is a lot of money to borrow. I think it may be time, in your heart and mind, to really give your in-state schools a chance.</p>
<p>WarpedSeth,</p>
<p>Are you out of state? We are in-state, and this is how we paid for my daughter’s first year:</p>
<p>9,100 - dorm/meal plan
11,300 - tuition/fees - 56 credits (a lot) + lots of music class fees
(5,500) - Stafford loans
(12,500) - ParentPLUS loan
(2,500) - Grandparents helped
- Pocket money and books came from summer savings</p>
<p>The ParentPLUS loan is a government loan, with a FIXED rate of 7.9%. Thus PLUS loan is in the parent name only, but can be deferred until the student is finished with school. </p>
<p>If you can get a part-time job, and live off campus sharing an apartment, you can save a lot. (You can search Craigslist under rooms/shares – tons of students seeking roommates … a little scary, but lots of kids do this). On campus housing/meal plan was $9100. If you had a $400 rent payment and could survive on say $75 a week food (beans & rice!), you’d save $2,800 or so, and then if you earned $100/week, that’s another $3,600. And of course work as much as you can in the summer, two or even three jobs. </p>
<p>My daughter lived in the dorms this year, did not get a job, and has taken 56 credits (a lot!), so our loans are crazy scary big. Living off campus and working part time next year, we expect her to take only Stafford loans from here on, and then hopefully she will get Pell/other grants the following two years when she is overlapping college with her younger brother. She understands (as do I) that it is a distinct possibility that she will move home after graduation for at least a couple of years to pay down a good part of the loans. We have decided, in her situation, it is worth it. </p>
<p>All that said, if you are out of state, I agree with 'rentof2 that looking at in-state options is an excellent idea. My daughter’s dream was University of Washington (she really wanted to live in a more urban setting like Seattle), but she didn’t even apply because we knew an out of state public was going to be completely out of reach. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>