<p>I was wondering if anybody received their financial aid package? Also does anyone know what is the average financial package given to students?</p>
<p>I was wondering about that too. When I went on the website, I could not find any info on financial aid. But it seems that they really like to stress loans.</p>
<p>From their website...</p>
<p>First-year, transfer, and new graduate students
[ul]
Our office will begin to mail paper student financial aid notifications in mid-March.[/ul]
[ul]You will receive a notification if you have been offered admission to the University and we have received your 2008-09 FAFSA information.[/ul]
[ul]If you submitted your 2008-09 FAFSA more than four weeks ago and have not received a notification, make sure you have released your FAFSA information to Penn State and contact the Office of Student Aid.[/ul]
[ul]We will continue to mail paper notifications regularly as we receive FASFA information.[/ul]</p>
<p>I got a letter yesterday encouraging me to apply to the 'Saldazzi (sp) Family Scholarship' and they would send info for it. I havent gotten a package though</p>
<p>Well, I think PSU is off my list after receiving my package today, I'm going to do a bit more research but all they offered me was a 3500 stafford loan.</p>
<p>The total cost is like 34k, lol it's like they didn't even try. I'm glad i got FA from my other school.</p>
<p>I got my financial aid package today and I was wondering the same thing =</p>
<p>omg im in the same boat. im oos and kindof low income and i only got 7k in aid including loans, leaving like 28k per year. </p>
<p>after recieving my fa from Udel i was shocked b/c that school cost like 8k less than penn state and they gave me an 8k merit scholarship, and that doesnt even include need-based aid</p>
<p>yeah, i can officially cross PSU off my list (4,750 in aid-3,500 of which is a loan-isn't very helpful :()</p>
<p>I'm kinda angry that they didn't offer me much in aid (8481) but I decided I'd apply for some of their scholarships, right? Wrong! I didn't see any general merit based scholarships, each had specifics that I just didn't meet! Italian? nope Polish? nope Cancer patient? nope Family member at Penn State? No, no, no. Grrr....im angry</p>
<p>Depending on your stats the college that you applied to may offer you a scholarship. Often times there is no application.These letters come later. 20% freshman offered scholarships, 23% kids at PSU have a scholarship.</p>
<p>Some scholarship applications are buried in the colleges website at PSU.</p>
<p>I think this is a great thread for future reference of students considering Penn State. When my son decided to apply (OOS) I knew that there would not be much in the way of financial aid. He got a 1500 scholarship and 3500 in subsidized loans. That leaves 29,000. With an EFC of about 7000 it's not doable. Hopefuly next years applicants can view this thread and understand what "poor" financial aid means, and eliminate the application process altogether if these numbers are not financially feasable.</p>
<p>o ....wow :-O</p>
<p>I got $17,081..... but I'm poor as all get out. so that's probably why.</p>
<p>(On FAFSA, my EFC was 0.)</p>
<p>Again, financial aid comes first..scholarships from dept. come later (1 in 5 students)</p>
<p>Financial aid was discussed at the PSU trustee's meeting last week. The folks in charge at PSU know they have a problem here...the percentage of lower income students has dropped by 4% in the last few years. They need more money from the state but the state has been cutting back. They're in a bind - and it's worse now that many private schools are opening their pockets to low, middle and even upper income students (Harvard gives FA to families with up to 200K in income). Not that PSU competes with Harvard... but other lesser ranked privates are beginning to follow suit. This will REALLY be a problem with the applicant pool starts declining...as early as next year.</p>
<p>Our financial aid package was a joke unfortunately. We received nothing except a stafford loan (which every freshman can get, anywhere). That's it. So after that loan the gap between our EFC and the cost for PSU was still over $15,000 per year. It would be hard enough for us to come up with our EFC, but an additional $15,000 per year??? Impossible. Our D was very interested in the school, but she's not going there.</p>
<p>What's wild to me is that someone with an EFC of 0 got only half tuition in loans AND grants. How does that make the school more feasible?</p>
<p>Penn state's gotta do something, I mean miami is around 34k a year and 10k room and board, and they gave me 25k In Fin Aid and like 17000 of that was in grants, 5k was in work study and only 3500 was a loan. And I still may be receiving more. THAT's AID.</p>
<p>But they don't have it to give it...and then you need to realize if you can't afford it and go elsewhere, someone else is right behind you in line to take your spot.
I do not know if this is accurate but a friend whose son got accepted to his choice of branch campus (not UP) was told that they had over 100,000 applications this year. Does anyone know if that is accurate?</p>
<p>I also heard that Penn State had over 100,000 applicants. I heard that it is the most applied to school in the country.</p>