<p>Thumper, in all fairness, romanigypsyeye already has 2 jobs in addition to work study; is living and attending school in an area with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country; and is contributing money to support and meet family medical expenses – and is attending an in-state, public u. So this is not one of those cases of a kid with a sense of entitlement trying to figure out how to manage to come up with the tuition for NYU – this is a hard-working, responsible, serious young person who is stretched to the max financially and feeling stressed about meeting costs. </p>
<p>The OP clearly is willing to work, as many hours and as many jobs as necessary – but is rightfully concerned that the work may not be available. </p>
<p>I do think that things will work out, precisely because the OP is responsible and hard-working, and thinking about the future. </p>
<p>Also, at most colleges, there is some source of emergency loan funds available, separate and apart from the financial aid system – so it might be worthwhile to ask around. These funds may be administered by student associations, or via religious or charitable associations in the community-- but this might be source of money that is not tied to COA, and where particular issues like the medical expenses might be given more serious consideration. I think that should be a last resort, because obviously too much debt can just make things worse in the long run – but that is at least something to keep in mind.</p>
<p>@thumper- I did make some money from the summer. However, I had to go to the ER in late July and most of my savings went to hospital bills. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have an issue covering the extra costs.</p>
<p>@psych- I already looked before I came on here, I couldn’t find anything. </p>
<p>I went to the FA office yesterday, but it was swamped. I will try going again this week.</p>
<p>@cal- Thank you for that. As I said before, I am willing to work to do whatever I need to do to get through school.</p>
<p>ETA: I am extremely fortunate to only be graduating with about $20-25k in debt. I am not against taking out additional loans, I just can’t since I am already at my COA. I’m going to try to pick up a temporary job around Christmas (don’t some places hire additional people to help with the holiday rush?)</p>
<p>I meant loans other than student loans. That’s why I mentioned the possibility of charitable organizations or student associations. If you get grant money from an outside source, then it comes out of your COA – but a loan isn’t income. So if some outside entity lends you money… you’ve got to pay it back, but it doesn’t impact your financial aid. </p>
<p>Check this page - [MSU</a> Short Term Loans | Office of Financial Aid | Michigan State University](<a href=“http://finaid.msu.edu/msuloans.asp]MSU”>Loan Resources | Michigan State University) - it appears that MSU does offer emergency short terms loans of up to $450 for undergrads – “short term” is what it says – you would have to pay it back quickly - but if your problem was that you were coming up short on some required fee, it might be a help.</p>
<p>I don’t know what other local resources there might be. My d is Jewish, so if she had need emergency funds, I might have suggested Hillel. (At her campus, Hillel did better than that for her – knowing how hard up she was for money, they gave her a part time job and also gave her a whole lot of referrals for various odd jobs). </p>
<p>So basically you will really want to keep your eyes open to see what is available. </p>
<p>Also, be creative and remember that you can offer various services for pay. If one of your profs mentions having young children – maybe they need a babysitter from time to time. Check Craigslist or other local services for odd jobs listings. </p>
<p>
yes, they definitely do – and if you have retail experience you might have a good chance of getting those jobs, especially if you think well in advance and apply early.</p>
A school can increase the COA for a student that can demonstrate that their school related expenses are higher than the average allowed in the COA. For instance my daughter’s school lists the following criteria as reasons that may be used to ask for an increase in COA: </p>
<p>@calmom- I don’t have any retail experience, but I am still going to apply early. I will look and see what I can come up with. Unfortunately, even last year around Christmastime, no one was hiring. Stores are lucky just to be open around these parts :/. </p>
<p>@swim- Thanks for finding that list. I will go to the FA office this week and see if I can get a COA increase. I am taking over the 14 or 15 credits or however my school defines it. That is why my costs are higher (it’s over $400 per credit hour). I talked to one of my friends last night who had a COA increase from MSU because of her illnesses. Her medical costs are astronomical so I don’t think I can get a medical COA increase, but I redid the math and I’m only falling about $800 short. If I could just get the COA to increase to cover my extra credits, then I’d be all set. If not, as I said before, I’ll just drop a class. It sucks, but hey you gotta do what you gotta do, right? </p>
<p>Romani, did your scholarship come in after your first aid disbursement & refund? It looks like maybe they adjusted the second semester in order to keep from creating a first semester balance when they added the scholarship. If so, you WILL be getting that much less next semester & you will need to plan for that reality.</p>
<p>Did you have to pay more for tuition/fees than the budget allows? If so, you can request an adjustment based on actual tuition/fees … but they do NOT have to make the adjustment for you. If you are paying less than the budgeted amount for tuition/fees, asking for a budget adjustment may not helpful; the school is required to adjust your tuition/fees component to actual if they adjust anything else in the budget.</p>
<p>You already have a 0 EFC, so there is absolutely nothing that can be done to help you aid-wise. The only thing that might be helpful is a budget increase in order to tap into the loans you haven’t used. But budgets can only be increased within the federal guidelines and institutional policies.</p>
<p>You can cancel work study (or a portion) and request sub loans for that portion, instead. That will keep you at COA & give you the up-front money you need. You can try to get a non work study job if you need money from work to help out throughout the term.</p>
<p>No, my scholarship came in in the beginning of August- well before refunds. I think it just got screwed up for whatever reason. My scholarship actually came in later last year and there was no issue.</p>
<p>I did end up paying more in tuition and fees. I was at 18 credits both this semester and next. That puts me at almost $2500 over the limit. </p>
<p>I think I have it figured out. I might just drop down to 12 credits this semester and then everything will be hunky dory. Or, I am going to pick up a 4th job over the holidays to earn a few extra hundred bucks. </p>
<p>I was just freaking out when I wrote this. I had just found out that my mom was going on a pretty much unpaid medical leave from her job, I found out that she had multiple surgeries lined up that no one bothered to tell me about, surgeries that could leave her blind, and I had also just got done paying half of my ER bills. So my stress was at an all-time high.</p>
<p>I’m going to bump this up to see if this sounds like a good idea: </p>
<p>As of right now, I am going to owe the school $2858.50. I am applying for a COA increase, which, if approved, would put me down to owing ~$1640 out of pocket (I only have ~$2100 in Subsidized Stafford loans this year after a $600 grant from Michigan came in, so I would use Stafford loans to pay for that ~$1200 COA increase). </p>
<p>I have $3k in work study. I will have about $1200 of that used this semester, and I will be working far less next semester because of schedule conflicts. I plan on converting about $1k into a Stafford loan and then just increasing my hours at my non-work study jobs. This will leave me with about $4400 in Stafford loans this year. </p>
<p>If I don’t get the COA increase, then I am going to take a similar course of action but get a $1k loan from the MSU FCU and pay it off quickly. </p>
<p>I am also considering dropping down to 15 credits. I am dropping one course and hoping for a 3 credit paid internship in place of that. If I don’t get the internship, I might just stay at 15 credits.</p>
<p>As for where the work-study money from this semester has gone, I have had nearly $1500 in medical bills just from this semester. It might get worse next semester when I start going to a new specialist at U of M. I wish I could get a COA increase to include medical costs lol. Ah well.</p>
<p>ETA:
If all else fails, I will just take 12 credits and go full time in the summer. My absolute last option, but I am thankful that it is an option nonetheless.</p>
<p>I think your idea sounds good. You can also request that they decrease your second semester work study award so that you can increase your sub loan by that amount (since you don’t plan on earning the $1500). It would be best to do what you can to get the COA increase rather than borrowing outside of education loans.</p>