Simple question; it’s probably been answered before but I’d rather just ask it here. Are the OOS students that receive the full tuition scholarship eligible for any financial aid? And if they are, is it generally a small amount? My parents won’t be contributing any money once I get to college and idk if loans+frugal living+job would add up to being able to go to UA. From what I understand, there’s a limit to how much one can borrow.
I also may well be perfectly fine and just think the total costs are higher than they really are.
UA is a FAFSA only school, so only your custodial parents’ info will be used. What is the income of your custodial parents (is this your mom and stepF)?
In the $55k-58k range for both of them combined. And yes, mother and stepfather.
Ask them if that’s their AGI income
@mom2collegekids I’ve been told that that amount(their AGI income) is somewhere in the posted range.
You should run the numbers using the Net Price Calculator at the University of Alabama website. The calculations will be pretty accurate based on the reality of attending the school as an OOS. My son’s numbers were pretty close last year to the NPC estimates.
The Net Price Calculator shows the DEC as $39436 for an OOS (based on tuition rates from 2014.) You can alter that a little bit by choosing cheaper on-campus housing (so no Honors suites), but that is about it for your freshman year (which will be your most expensive year.) You must buy the full meal plan, the Dining Dollars, and you will have many course fees. Only your scholarship money can make any dent in this number, and while receiving the full tuition scholarship is awesome, you are still left with $14,486 that you need to come up to pay direct to the school just for your freshman year.
The university estimates your costs for books, supplies, transportation, and misc to be $4749 a year - that’s a good number to work with, and that is living a frugal lifestyle. You can reduce this number by choosing to rent textbooks, being frugal with purchases, and not having a misc spending category, but, even with renting textbooks, your book budget is going to be expensive thanks to all of the required online codes you have to buy to access material for math, science, and computer classes. As an OOS, you will have travel costs (if you cannot afford to go home during the holidays, be sure to choose to live in a dorm that remains open - not all do.)
As all students can, you will be able to take out a loan for $5500 your freshman year. Based on your parents’ $58K AGI, you might qualify for work-study (maybe around $2-3K a year), but you will have to run the Net Price Calculator to get your numbers. Only your parents can take out additional school loans, but you’ve stated they don’t plan to help with your expenses.
When all is said and done, even with the Presidential Scholarship, you are looking at an annual cost of at least $19K a year. Can you come up with that much money using a combination of any college savings your parents might have set aside for you, any personal savings, the one $5500 federal school loan, and work study and/or a part-time job?
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When all is said and done, even with the Presidential Scholarship, you are looking at an annual cost of at least $19K a year.
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I think that is a high net cost…especially for after year one. The first year, if a standard double dorm is used, the net cost would probably be about $13k…not counting personal expenses. After year one, a much less expensive meal plan can be chosen.
If your parents will get you to and from campus (will they), you work/save over summers, do work study or a small part time job while in school, and take the 5500 student loan, …and carefully buy your books (used, rent, etc), you may be able to cover the rest.
I think @chesterton 's estimate would be for the pricey dorms.
Does either of your parents have “bad credit”? If so, then they can apply for Plus, get rejected, and then you’d qualify for an extra $4k per year to borrow.
I agree that $19K/year is a high estimate. For my son’s freshman year our expenses were approximately:
$8800 for the suite style dorm (I believe the price has gone up slightly)
$3000 for the freshman meal plan ( I believe the price has gone up slightly)
approx. $600 in courses fees (approximately $300/semester)
approx. $1600 in books ($800 is about our average per semester, some semesters we’ve spent less than $500, but others closer to $1000)
dining dollars (which are refundable if not used)
A small amount of Bama cash and/or cash for laundry
optional football tickets
optional parking pass
travel expenses home (for my son he made 5 trips home during the year at approximately $150 in gas each trip since he had his car)
misc personal expenses (my son spent very little during freshman year)
And for my son he got to apply the $2500 engineering award to those costs + had a couple small outside scholarships.
Adding up the total is just slightly over $15K, but after the additional awards we spent less than $12K out of pocket.
Those costs can be reduced by opting for a traditional style dorm and the $5500 federal loan will make a significant impact in costs.
@bdnation5 what’s your intended major? If you are planning engineering/computer science, the additional $2500 will offset some costs. Also have you investigated any local scholarships, your high school guidance counselor would be a good resource - my son received several small outside scholarships from local businesses and while only 1 was renewable after freshman year, the remainder helped during the first year when the costs were the highest.
The rollover Dining Dollars are actually very useful. If you don’t use them in your freshman year they will be placed on your Action Card as Bama Cash and can be used at Publix for groceries and in a lot of local restaurants and businesses. My son opted out of the meal plan this year since he had enough Bama Cash to last for quite a while. No meal plan and lower rent off campus will make sophomore year onwards cheaper.
I was under the impression that COA for how I would be doing things was in the 12.5k-15k range, differing based on very specific things.
To simplify the original question, is it financially feasible for someone with the situation I’ve presented to be able to attend UA, preferably w/o outside loans?
I can probably pull $2k-$3k from my father for the first year if it would also be necessary.
And thanks to all who posted.
Not urgent, just a bump
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I was under the impression that COA for how I would be doing things was in the 12.5k-15k range, differing based on very specific things.
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It would be…@chesterton’s post is confusing. $19k would not be the net cost of a student who is being thrifty.
Also…as mentioned above…don’t use your Dining Dollars, so that you can get a refund at the end of the year (request that at the end of the year) so that you can put that money towards the “next year’s” DD’s.
Is it feasible for someone in your situation to attend without outside loans?
As you said, the COA should be $15K or less, you mention you may be able to get $2-3K, leaving $12-13K to pay. No, that’s really not feasible without loans. You can probably earn a few thousand the summer before college and can get a part time job and earn a few thousand during the school year, but earning $12-13K during the school year while a full time student would be exceptionally challenging. UA does not give any need based aid and depending on your family size you may or may not qualify for a Pell grant, but if you do, it most likely won’t be for a significant amount (I have a similar income with a family size of 2 (myself and my son) and he did not qualify for any federal aid). If your stats qualify you for the Presidential, they are most likely strong enough for you to get some additional outside awards and depending on the amount of those, it may be more feasible, but still would be a huge challenge.
Is it feasible with the government loans?
Freshman are eligible for $5500 in federal loans and as M2K noted above your parents can also get a federal PLUS loan or if they don’t qualify you can get additional federal loans. If you take out the maximum in federal loans you are eligible for, then with additional work during the summer and part time work during the school year, it would be far more feasible without getting any additional outside scholarships. If you did locate an additional scholarship, you could reduce the amount you borrowed.
Depending on your major, you can investigate a co-op/internship for future years which should allow you to earn more than you can in a typical summer job and you can use that money toward your expenses. Also after freshman year, you can reduce the meal plan and find an economical off campus apartment to reduce costs so you would not necessarily have to borrow as much in future years.
I definitely wouldn’t advocate private loans. I personally would never advise anyone to take out private student loans, but in your situation the only way it seems that it will be feasible to cover all your costs is to locate additional outside scholarships or to borrow the federal loans that you are allowed.
Don’t forget to account for health insurance. Will your current plan allow you to access medical care in Tuscaloosa and if so will you have to pay an additional amount if you are considered out of network? If your current insurance won’t cover you in Alabama UA offers a student insurance policy but that will be an additional expense to consider.
http://shc.ua.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/2015-328-1-Summary-of-Benefits-for-Domestics-R.pdf
When I has said ‘outside loans’, I was referring to private loans. And I have completely forgotten to mention that the salary previously stated is used to support 7-8 people(idk if one of my brothers would count), meaning that a Pell Grant will most likely be a helpful amount. I’m not quite sure how I forgot to bring that up lol.
Over the past month or so, UA has become my #1 choice and I’d like to make sure that it is actually a viable option. I believe a combination of federal loans+Pell Grant+extra few thousand from father would be enough to handle a costly frosh year, and from there things should be manageable.
If this last sentence is a correct thought, please let me know. And thank you very much for all responses.
@bdnation5 why weren’t you named a National Achievement Semi Finalist?? You need to ask your GC. Your PSAT was high enough.
My response to that is in the other thread, but I will ask her Tuesday once the weekend is over.
You might also want to run the FAFSA4caster which will give you an estimate of Pell and federal entitlement aid
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa/estimate
Make sure that you fill out the actual FAFSA later as this will be needed for UA to give you financial aid. The rules for FAFSA filing dates are going to change in the future so please read this link carefully.
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/about/announcements/fafsa-changes
Good luck!