<p>So, I'm trying to start school again after a five year hiatus, due to family and financial issues. I've been accepted into Fordham's College of Liberal Studies. I got an EFC of 1392 on my FAFSA, filled out the CSS profile, and have spent the last two years in Americorps. I do have about $10,000 in scholarship money from Americorps, but am trying to find more scholarship money. I haven't heard about my financial aid package from Fordham yet, but am trying to plan for receiving little money from Fordham, so if I get more, it'll be a happy surprise :) I've tried various scholarship searches online, but all the scholarships I find seem to be geared either towards people currently enrolled in some sort of school, whether it be high school or undergrad, or continuing ed students who are much older than me (I'm 23, soon to be 24). Also, since I'm currently in Americorps, my term of service ends in June, meaning my income will be changing either for better or worse June 24th, depending on what jobs I can find. I do plan to work as much as necessary while in school, and have about 2.5 years left. I've been working 50-90 hours a week for the last four years, so I'm not afraid of long hours.</p>
<p>I'm planning to major in Middle Eastern Studies with a Political Science minor. If I can keep my current rent and food budget up, my expenses are looking like:</p>
<p>$25,000/year - tuition
$6,000/year - rent
$3000/year - food
$3000/year - living expenses
$1200 - books
$1300 - transportation
$700 - random fees
About $40,000 total</p>
<p>My questions are:</p>
<p>What sort of financial aid is available for incoming continuing education students? Also, any scholarships for
Does anyone have ideas of what my financial aid package may look like coming from Fordham?
Any other suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>I'm still applying to other schools, but Fordham's my first choice school.</p>
<p>Will you be an incoming freshman or do you already have college credits?</p>
<p>You might get a small amount of state aid.</p>
<p>You will get a small Pell Grant.</p>
<p>Since you’re independent, you’ll get a federal student loan. The amount will depend on whether you’re a freshman or not. If you are a frosh, the loan will be about $9k.</p>
<p>Frankly, I don’t see how you’ll have enough money for Fordham. </p>
<p>Are there any SUNY/CUNYs that will work? Can you live at home and commute to a state school?</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the income that you earn, if it’s more than about $5k or so, it will raise your EFC and likely you’ll lose Pell and maybe other aid for following years.</p>
<p>What is your career goal? If you borrow too much, that will be a problem when you graduate.</p>
<p>BTW…where will you get an apt for only $500 per month for your share?</p>
<p>You would most likely be be eligible for TAP. However, this will not put a dent in the tuition to attend Fordham. Even with your $10,000 in scholarship money, you will have massive debt once you finish Fordham, which IMHO, is not worth the money when you can get more depth and breath by attending CUNY for a fraction of the price. Your TAP, Pell and scholarship, could fully fund you completing your undergrad work at CUNY</p>
<p>I meet most of the requirements to be a NY Resident, I’ve been living here and paying taxes for two years, I just would need to get a state ID. I’m holding off on that last step until I know for sure that I can afford to remain here, otherwise Ohio State will become the same price.</p>
<p>I already have about some credits, but am still a freshman. I am paying tuition by credit through FCLS, so I can reduce the number of credits I take as necessitated by my budget. The current cost is $700/credit, I calculated $25000 by assuming I’d take 35 credits per year.</p>
<p>I am hoping to offset any financial aid lost through increased income by the scholarships available once I’m in school. </p>
<p>I want to go into the Foreign Service. I haven’t been able to find the type of Middle Eastern Studies classes I want to take at CUNY. Another possibility I may look into is taking my general education classes somewhere like CUNY at a lower cost, and transferring them to Fordham. I’m also looking at studying abroad next year, which, there is money available to people looking at government service for.</p>
<p>I could move back to Ohio, but I’d be paying more in rent to live with my dad, and Ohio’s not the best place for me to be emotionally.</p>
<p>I’m living somewhere right now in Harlem where I’m paying $400 a month, and it’s rent stabilized. I’ve been living in NYC comfortably on $13,000 a year for the last two years.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your responses! I really appreciate it!</p>
<p>The number of course offerings for political science and Middle eastern studies blows Fordham out of the water, especially if you look at Queens, Hunter, and City colleges. Have u considered the CUNYBA program? This may be a way of your designing your own degree.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that Fordham does not meet 100% demonstrated need through the traditional colleges, so there will be even less $ flowing through the school of continuing ED. Not trying to tell you how to spend your money, but for what you are paying to go to Fordham (which this is really not their strength, if you are going to go in big debt, look at Georgetown or possibly Columbia), you could do CUNY and the grad program at CUNY in middle eastern studies. The degree through school of continuing ed, is not going to hold as much weight at the end of the day.</p>
<p>I would take that final step to become a NYS resident so that you can get instate rates at CUNY and also apply for TAP. You can easily find out what your TAP award would be by using the quick estimator on the HESC website. My guess is that it would be around $3K/year, but you do have to apply for it separately through the application on their site.</p>