Financial Aid Issues With Penn State

<p>Alright, i want to keep this short in simple.
Basically I am a Out Of State Student living in New York.
I am a african american student with a SAT of 1730 and a 3.3GPA
I did not get any type of merit based scholarship from Penn State
I applied to FAFSA and my EFC number is 024488
The total cost for tuition, room, board, and other non billable fees will be approximately $47,000.
For some reason my financial aid summary is stating that I have to pay costs for the Summer 2014 semester even though I applied for the Fall 2014 semester? If this is true i will have to pay another $11,000?
Furthermore I was offered $2,350 in a subsidized loan and another $2,350 in an unsubsidized loan.
My family saved up enough money over the past 17 years in my life specially in a college fund which ranges from around $30k-$40k and my dad continues to put money in there every month.
My parents are offering to help pay for college since I will be the only one in my family attending.</p>

<p>So what do you guys think I will have enough money to attend Penn State for the next 4years?
I will try applying for scholarships online but the chance of me getting any money seems pretty slim due to the vast amount of students applying for them; so if you suggest any I would be more than happy to apply.
Also do any of you know anyway to help pay for college?</p>

<p>$47,000 x 4 years = $188,000</p>

<p>$188,000 - $40,000 = $148,000</p>

<p>Could your family pay or borrow this much in next few years?</p>

<p>Public univer+</p>

<p>I just spoke to my dad about this and from the way he’s talking it seems like we’ll be able to pay for most of this but i will end up with a ton of money in student debt, approximately 80k+? I really need help finding scholarships and grants from private organizations. I feel like these scholarship search engines won’t really help. Any ideas?</p>

<p>You will need a cosigner who can qualify all 4 years to get more loans than about $27k. Will and can your parents cosign for 4 years? $80k is too much debt. It’s unlikely you will get scholarships and grants to make much if any dent. Do you have a planned major? Were you admitted to a special program that requires summer attendance?</p>

<p>Public universities do not “meet need” for out of state students, and Pennsylvania is especially bad in that it has high-instate costs AND doesn’t meet need even for in-state students.
Most money comes from the college itself, not from outside. The second source is federal aid, in your case, the subsidized and unsubsidized loans - $5,500 in federal loans your first year, then a bit more, for a total of $27,000 for all 4 years. That’s the federal maximum because that’s the maximum a college graduate can be expected to be able to pay off in 10 years of monthly payments.</p>

<p>The reason you are admitted to the summer session is that they need to manage enrollment in Fall classes and if you applied within the past 3 months and got University Park, that’s what you would have - if you want to attend the main campus, you have to start during the summer. This isn’t bad actually because you get a headstart on your required classes and there are fewer students around so it’s easier to get to know people, enjoy the campus, etc.</p>

<p>Your family is supposed to be able to pay $25,000. That’s $22,000 that you’re not supposed to be able to pay. For this, you got about $5,500 in loans. That’s a $16,500 gap (and that’s assuming your parents can pay the 25k without touching your college fund). Assuming the 25K come from income and savings, not from your college fund, you have 10k per year from that college fund. That leaves $6,500 that you need to find one way or another. You can call Penn State and see if they’ll add a work study amount. Or, if they don’t, since you’ll be there in the summer, you’ll be able to get a job before the freshmen descend upon the town. You should be able to make $1,500 per semester from that job, and probably $1,000 if you work through the summer. That still doesn’t cover the gap.
So, even stretching things to the maximum, Penn State is not affordable; they will not make it “more affordable” except perhaps by offering work study.
Talk with your parents. Do they have the 25K that their EFC says they have (because most parents don’t have what their EFC states they can pay). How would you pay for your education? Would you have to go into debt beside the federal loans?
Where else have you applied?</p>

<p>You are out of state for Penn State. Did you apply to any public universities in YOUR state? If you are. NY resident, there are a lot of SUNY and CUNY colleges that would be about half the cost of attending Penn State as an OOS student.</p>

<p>That is waaayyyyyyy toooooo much debt.</p>

<p>What is your career goal and how much do you think you’ll be earning upon graduation? You wont be able to afford the monthly payments and pay for your living expenses.</p>

<p>you are not likely going to find scholarships because those are often for small amounts, ONLY for freshman year…and for lower income students. You come from a upper-middle class home.</p>

<p>where else did you apply and get accepted?</p>

<p>Agree 100% with M2CK! Please heed her advice and seek one of the other schools you have surely applied to as financial safeties that also offer your major. I hate to see a young person absorb the kind of debt you’d take on to begin a career. </p>

<p>My wife and I are PSU grads but none of our kids will apply there as OOS students. Great school, but too expensive and little offered in non-loan aid. Heck it is very expensive for in-state students (I think they and Pitt make the top 10 list for state school cost to in-state students)!</p>

<p>What is your intended major? Is it one where you could co-op easily? At U of Cinci, engineering is required co-op and many students fund much of their costs that way while gaining marketable experience.</p>

<p>Yes, PA and IL lead the list of shame for charging the most for their own instaters. Though, the surcharge for OOSers is about in line with others states, getting need met, getting merit money at this point is pretty much a very low probability, most likely none. </p>

<p>Some Penn State students who are accepted for admissions are expected to attend summer session as a condition of the acceptance. That may be the case for you. If so, you do have to pay to go there in the summer BEFORE starting freshman year, yet another expense on top of the already expensive OOS cost for the school. </p>

<p>Even if you qualified for some financial aid, unless you are truly low income with EFC around the $5K range, you aren’t going to get any grants, and the PELL is a federal grant that you can get for any school. The same with the Direct loan entitlement. Penn State does not even meet need for instaters. </p>

<p>You need to talk to your parents about the financial feasibility of this option. If you have to go to the summer session, not only do you have to pay for it, including room and board, but you are not likely to find work to pay for some of your college expenses for the Fall 2014-15 school year, which is something I highly recommend kids whose families could use some financial aid. You really should be contributing to some of these costs, you know. But even with a fall start, Penn State is going to cost you more than double than what a SUNY, and I am talking about sleep away SUNYs here. You can save even more money commuting and there are SUNY options everywhere in your home state with reasonable tuition. That’s where your parents have paid their state taxes, and unlike PA, NY has subsidized their university system so that it is affordable to most everyone. You want to go elsewhere, you are buying lottery tickets as to what you have to pay for private and OOS public options. </p>