Hey, guys. First I wanna say that I have been watching these financial aid threads for weeks now and I’ve noticed there are some pretty well versed people on these threads…hoping I can get some help also…I’m gonna try to be as specific as I can
I just got accepted to unc chapel hill as a transfer for fall. They were VERY generous with aid (way more than i expected)…I was given 2700 in work study, roughly 4k in loans and everything else taken care of by pell grant and institutional grants. I have done some calculations on my own and excluding work study, that is a combined total of 9k per semester (pell/institutional grant)…I was wondering this – is it possible to just use these grants for fixed costs (meal plan, housing, tuition) only?
There coa per semester is about 12k but that is also due to misc. things such as travel and personal expenses…I will not be bringing my car and I don’t see myself spending 1k in personal expenses like the site estimates…also for books I plan on renting online for much cheaper. And also for personal expenses…isn’t that what work study is for basically? I am thinking of reducing my loans to about 2k but wanted insight to see if that sounded plausible? If I reduce my loan, how will unc know that i am reducing it for the miscellaneous reasons and not for something fixed like housing? Not sure if it matters, but I plan to go to law school (hopefully unc) so saving now is key!! Though I am extremely grateful for the aid I was given. Thanks for reading.
The school will apply financial aid to billed costs first, so tuition, fees, room and board. If there is anything left over, you’ll receive a check for that sometime in the first month or so of the term. If you don’t need the loan or only need a part of it, certainly take less (and you can always go back and ask them for more).
On your aid page, it should have you accept or decline all the different types of aid, and usually there is a place to change the loan amount to a lesser amount. Just click and insert the amount you want to borrow.
Hi, @Madison85. I was given 3900 in subsidized loans which comes to $1950 a semester.
@twoinanddone thanks for the info. I see on my portal where I can accept/decline but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself just yet. Is it possible to know how much I will have left over before they cut the check? this is my first time taking out loans and also starting at a university so I apologize if these questions are redundant.
Look at UNC’s website for the direct billed costs for 2016-2017. This is tuition and fees, room, board. They probably bill on a per semester basis, so divide the yearly cost in half. Now take your annual grants and loans and divide this number in half to get a number for each semester. UNC will take your semester amount for grants and loans and apply this to the direct billed costs for the semester. Anything in excess of direct billed costs will likely be paid to you in the form of a check. If your semester amount for grants and loans is less than the direct billed costs for the semester, you will receive an invoice for the balance.
Take the subsidized loans even if you don’t need them now. Then save the money for law school since there are likely no subsidized loans for law school.
Work study is not tax exempt but any taxes that may or may not be due, depend on your total taxable income. Social security and Medicare are not withheld from your paycheck.
Keep in mind, depending on your dependent/independent status and the forms & info UNC requires, you may have to report money sitting in the bank, in case you want to look into accepting a loan but not using it right now.
yes to the above, don’t take a loan unless you really need it because it will reduce your aid in the future if sitting in your bank. a work study benefit is that it gets exempted from earnings when calculating FA (even though you count it for your taxes). you’ll probably be below the 6300 threshold though so not likely to owe taxes.
I disagree that OP won’t owe taxes; the scholarships in excess of tuition, fees and books are taxable and if UNC is covering room and board, that will probably bump him/her above $6300. Run some numbers on TurboTax or something similar to see what you’ll need come next April. Next year might not be too bad if you’re only dealing with the fall semester, but the year after that with two semesters’ worth of scholarships may come to a significant bill that you should save up for.
The money ‘sitting in a bank account’ from a student loan is not an asset for fafsa purposes. The instructions are to exclude that money. However, you have to keep it separated and not spend and replenish it. For example, if you have $3000 in your account from a loan, but then spend $500 and then earn $500 and put in that same account, the amount exempt is now $2500 and you need to report the $500 as an asset.
UNC is very quick to refund any excess FA. I suggest signing up for direct deposit both for the refund and for your work study. Your refund (using semester numbers) will be roughly Grants+loans-loan fees-tuition-room and board-medical insurance (unless waived). These numbers might not be fixed until the state budget is passed over the summer.
UNC (at least it did a few years ago) has very flexible meal plans. As you probably know, UNC has a great free bus system so food shopping is very doable. Easy to cut some costs if you are willing to do some cooking. Book cost will vary by major.
Keep in mind that since you have a lot of FA you will need to request that your bill be deferred each semester until you receive your FA. Very easy to do online. You can only defer the portion of the bill that will be cover by FA. The rest needs to be paid on time.
Add up the tuition, fees, room and board costs UNC will bill you for, subtract all grants and scholarships = what you have to pay per year.
Any shortfall can be covered with savings, summer earnings (keep some money for books) and subsidized (and if necessary unsubsidized) loans.
Can your parents help out?
Your work study income can be used for personal expenses, books. Income from need based employment (work study) will be subtracted from your income on FAFSA.