Don’t worry if you haven’t gotten a grant or if you only received unsubsidized loans - the package will change a lot. I 100% suggest not taking loans from FSU, especially unsubsidized. If you have to take loans out, shop around. A lot of students don’t even consult their parents and just accept it because it’s right in front of them
@STEM2017 yep same here!
@pg96fsu Why do you say that the package will change a lot? What I am seeing on my son’s account is $900 FSU Grant, Stafford subsidized loan of $1,750, and Stafford unsubsidized loan of $1,000 (all per semester). The loan amounts are the max allowed for federal loans to a freshman.
He has retaken the SAT in order to qualify for Bright Futures (ugh…only ten points shy last time). Other than that, how much could it change?
Also, why do you recommend not taking the federal unsubsidized loan? We’re new at this (our oldest). Of course, it is best to not take loans at all. But, if you have to I thought that the federal ones would have the best terms. No?
@jrmutley FSU had originally offered me about $1,600/semester in grant money (this was with me already having full bright futures), but then they saw that I received $3000 in private scholarships and so they took that away. They also took away any offers for subsidized loans and instead only offered unsubsidized.
You don’t want to accept unsubsidized loans - this means you son starts incurring interest on those loans as soon as it’s taken out. Subsidized loans means that the federal government pays the interest while your son is in school and for six months afterwords. Obviously subsidized loans are the way to go. So if your son isn’t offered any through FSU, he can shop around at your local banks and see what they can offer him. I know for me, taking out the unsubsidized loan would end up costing me wayyyyy more money in the long run because of all the interest. And from what I understand, you take out the full loan - so even if your son only needed $2000, FSU would still loan you that extra $750 with you paying interest. Like I said above, a lot of students don’t look around and then end up thousands of dollars in unnecessary debt simply because all it takes it checking a box to take out a $1000+ unsubsidized loan.
Here’s a link that explains subsidized and unsubsidized pretty well:
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized#subsidized-vs-unsubsidized
So basically, the aid package is going to change based on if your son receives bright futures or any other scholarships. I’m not saying that it will completely disappear like mine did (I know that most students don’t apply for/get private scholarships), but I am saying that it’s a possibility.
@pg96fsu Sounds dreadful. Like our package will go from bad to worse. Thanks for the explanation.
Theorietically, if my son accepts the unsubsidized loan, he will be paying MORE than full price for FSU. No thanks.
@stem2017 the aid package can also go back up. The only reason mine was downgraded was because my school board insists that they send our scholarships directly to the school. If a student simply receives a check, then the university has no way of knowing haha. One of my scholarships did this and I was very grateful. I’m expecting my package to increase again this next semester because FSU knows I’m no longer getting that scholarship money and clearly I qualified for it.
Also the earlier in the cycle, the more money/grants FSU has to give out. Accepting/Reserving is the same thing (derivative, I know) and it doesn’t bind you to FSU. Think hard about if loans are worth taking out, because like you said in the long run you end up paying above sticker price. If loans are absolutely necessary, finding a loan with a smaller rate of interest from a private banker would be a better bet, I’d think.
@pg96fsu Thanks…I knew the basic differences between subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Unfortunately, the financial reality for us is that we will probably need to take advantage of the unsubsidized money that is available to him. Of course, it is always smart to shop around and compare rates and terms. But, I believe that the federal loan programs (whether subsidized or not) typically have a bit more flexibility to them.
Question for those who received the summer acceptance. Where did it say that you were accepted for Summer? Was it in the Now a Nole video?
Under the video, the first section says personal information, the next section says application information - there you will see year and term.
OK Thanks @Raam1012
This isn’t true. You can cancel receiving all or part of a loan up until it is disbursed, and then you have a certain time period (it used to be 120 days, not sure what it is now) after disbursement where you can return all or part of the loan.
Without getting into the federal vs. private student loan debate, the federal loan rate for unsubsidized loans is 3.76%, with no payments required until after you drop from full-time or graduate. Most private student loans will want some payment before graduation.
Application Status: Accepted Fall 2017! w/ University Freshman Scholarship and Out-of-state tuition waiver
UW GPA: 3.76
W GPA: N/A
SAT: N/A
ACT: 33
Major: History (but Pre-med course)
Class Rank: my school doesn’t rank me
In state or out of state? out of state
Strength of classes? All Dual Enrollement Senior Year: Oral Communications,Psychology, Independent Studies of Psychology, Physics for Scientists and Engineers & Lab I, Calculus 2, Zoology and Lab, American Government, Introduction to Computer Information Systems, World Civilization to 1500
Other colleges you applied for?
Accepted: KU, FHSU, K-State, FSU
Waiting: UCLA, USC, Miami of Ohio, NYU
EC’s: competitive swimming, media team, GSA, community service project I’ve been involved in since I was young, forensics, pre-med club
Essays: I enjoy writing essays so I thought they were pretty decent
Status: accepted for fall 2017 with university freshman scholarship and full OOS waiver
GPA: 3.9 (4 point scale)
ACT:
29 first time
30 retake
31 superscore
Couple questions, if anyone could give input it would be appreciated!
-How is the “FSU GPA” calculated? I’ve seen a few mentions of this and I’m wondering how it’s different from my unweighted high school GPA, also does this have any impact on the OOS scholarship
-What was the cutoff this year (GPA and ACT score) for the full OOS waiver?
-I got the freshman scholarship and invite to apply for the honors college, I’ve read several things that say that if you get the invite it is very likely that you will be accepted into the honors college, however I have no community service other than the 10 hours required by my high school and the only EC I have is my part time job. Should I bother applying to the honors college? It seems very focused on community involvement and ECs and I know I am not strong in those areas of my app.
-I applied to colleges fairly early (started in the summer and was submitting apps basically as soon as the fall 2017 term apps were available) at the time I was pretty uncertain about a major and decided it was safest to list intended major as exploratory 1, now I’m fairly certain that I will be majoring in psychology. Is this something I should change right away on my app? Also if I change it, can it affect my scholarships?
Status: Accepted for fall 2017 with freshman scholarship
UW GPA: 3.95
W GPA: N/A
SAT: N/A
ACT: 33
Major: Pre-Health
Class Rank: N/A
Classes: Very challenging (but can only take APs starting junior year) AP Bio (4) and APUSH (5)
Senior Year: AP Chem, AP Gov/Econ, AP Lit, rest are honors
Lots of extra curricular surrounding my major and other interests and decent volunteer hours
Also got an invitation to the honors college and I’m very grateful!
@TRS2017 FSU WGPA is based on your core classes. 4.0=A for regular classes, 4.5=A for honors classes, 5.0=A for AP/IB/Dual Enrollment (with B’s all being a point lower, so a 4.0 in AP/IB/etc). Your WGPA must be higher than 3.9 as that’s near the bottom of the incoming class profile.
The cutoff is somewhere in this thread; I believe it was 30 ACT for Full OOS and 29 for partial.
Apply to the honors college. If you got the invite, they like your numbers. You’re never guaranteed anything or guaranteed to not get something, so it’ll only hurt you if you don’t apply. Don’t not apply just because you don’t think you’re gonna get it - that’s not a good precedent to set for your future self.
Major has nothing to do with acceptance or scholarships at FSU. The University Freshman scholarship is the only merit scholarship they give out (besides Presidential, which requires you to apply and be in the honors college) so it will not be affected by a change in major. Nothing will be affected; you can change it at orientation if you’d like. The only way you receive “money” in a major is by applying for research grants which you can’t do until you’re in a lab.
Application Status: accepted fall 2017
UW GPA: 3.3
W GPA: 4.2
SAT:1300
ACT: 28
In state or out of state? In state
Strength of classes? Freshman year : 5 honors ; sophomore : 1 AICE, 2 honors ; junior : 2 AP, 1 AICE, 3 Honors ; senior : 5 honors, 2 AP
Other colleges you applied for? UCF, UNF, UF, FGCU, USF
EC’s: 300+ volunteer hours, President of Teen Club at Humane Society, HOPE Club, GSA, Feminism
Also got some academic awards that had to do with my major.
Application Status: accepted fall 2017
UW GPA: 3.6
W GPA: 4.5
SAT:
ACT: 31
In state or out of state? In state
Strength of classes?10 honors 3 AP
Other colleges you applied for? UF, UM, USF, OSU, Minnesota, Pitt
EC’s: NHS, job, volunteering
Honors College decisions are out!
Does anyone know if your invited to apply to the honors ay FSU and offered the freshmen scholarship will you get in?
Application Status: Accepted for Fall 2017
UW GPA: 3.3
W GPA: 4.3
Rank: Top third of my class
SAT: 1200 (New SAT)
ACT: 25
In state/out? In state
Strength of classes? 8 AP courses, the rest were honors courses
Other colleges you applied for? UCF-accepted, UNF-accepted, UF-rejected, Ohio State-rejected, Auburn-accepted
EC’s: Orchestra, Band, Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra, Latin Club, Pre-Med Club, Tri-M music honor society, Soccer, and Volleyball.