I am a new student at Stanford University. The college gave me a full ride scholarship because my family is very low income. All my expenses are covered except a self-help portion of $4,700. According to my financial aid letter this self-help portion would cover books and supplies, personal expenses, and travel. I can comfortably pay my self-help portion using outside scholarships I earned, but today I was informed that I am on the hook for close to $1,000 in fees, including a $500 new student orientation fee. This money will be garnished from a scholarship check I am expecting to receive, and will make things VERY tight for me financially this quarter. A person I spoke to at the finical aid office told me these fees fall under “personal expenses” but that didn’t sound right. Is anyone familiar with Stanford financial aid polices? Can I ask the university to waive these fees, seeing as I am low income and on a full scholarship? Don’t get me wrong, I can pay the fees, and I won’t starve, but these hefty fees will make paying for books very tight this quarter and will eliminate any money for the occasional social expense.
You should call or email the FA office and ask about the fees.
Fortunately, Stanford does allow outside scholarships to reduce your student contribution (many schools don’t): http://financialaid.stanford.edu/aid/outside/
Just talk to your adviser. After admitting you and spending more than $100,000 a year on you, Stanford doesn’t want you to be in a bind over another $1,000.
Also keep in mind that the amount of scholarships and grants you receive in a calendar year that exceeds the amount of tuition/fees and books is taxable income to you.
For example if the total free money you receive in 2015 is $30000 and tuition/fees/textbooks are $22000, then you have $8000 in income to report on your tax return.
See IRS Publication 970.
We really can’t help you figure it out without a list of costs for the semester and aid for the semester.
Your self help portion is 4,700 per year so 2,350 per semester. How much scholarship do you have to cover that? You will be getting a work/study job right, which should bring in something each month. And buy used books on Chegg or wherever. You don’t actually pay those charges to anyone for personal and transportation, it is just an estimate of what you need.
The biggest issue for me is the outside scholarships. I received scholarships totaling $5,500. One check is still on its way, but another organization wrote me a check months before I matriculated to Stanford, and that money has since been spent on necessary expenses like travel, computer repair, etc. Unfortunately the finical aid office believes I have that money on hand, and has adjusted my financial aid package as if I have an extra $500 per quarter when I don’t. This adjustment wouldn’t have been a big problem had they not assessed all these one-time fees on my account, including the orientation fee, document fee, technology fee, residence fee, etc etc. I wish these costs were more clearly stated in the original financial aid letter instead of being lumped under “personal expenses,” which can confuse people new to the process.
Here is a link to Stanford’s financial assistance information on QuestBridge’s site. http://www.questbridge.org/stanford-financial-aid
It seems that if the money from the first scholarship was in your possession when you filled out the FAFSA and CSS Profile, then they would expect you to contribute 5% of that amount plus whatever other funds you had. You can call, email, or go to financial aid to see if they can help you further. Even a few hours of work study or other work during the quarter would help your situation.
Did you have any savings from a summer job?
How much are your travel costs? My D spent about $500 on her books. How much do you think you need for spending money a week, do you have a meal plan?
Keep in mind that the outside scholarships are usually for one year only or are they renewable?
Make sure you get a paid summer job so you will have money for these expenses next year.
It sounds like you have more in scholarships than the $4,700 that was the ‘self help’ so now Stanford is expecting you to contribute more because you have less need. If the COA was $70,000 and they expect you to contribute $4700, they have awarded you $65,300 in need based aid. If you actually received $6500 or so in outside scholarships (the $5500 you have already received and the new $1000), they are going to expect you to use all of that $6500 toward the COA, not just the $4700 you were originally expected to contribute. The travel and misc are included in the original COA.
If you have some unusual expenses, such as your travel is $5000 per year and not $1000 in the typical COA, you can approach the FA office and see if your COA can be increased, but be prepared to document these costs.
So of the $5500 in scholarships, you have yet to receive $1000 and you already spent $4500 on travel, computer repair and “etc.”? If any of the “etc.” was spent helping out your family with bills, can they repay you?
My self-help was $4,700. My EFC was 0. I already received a scholarship for $1,500 which I already spent to get to Stanford, and I am set to receive another scholarship for $4,000. The $4,000 scholarship will be split over three quarters. roughly $1,333 each quarter. For this quarter, I have to pay roughly a little over $1,000 in new student expenses out of my quarterly scholarship distribution, which leaves me with a little than $300 for this quarter, out of which I have to buy my textbooks and school supplies and other personal expenses. I appealed to the financial aid office that I couldn’t afford my textbooks now, and so they gave me a few hundred dollars more this quarter, which should allow me just to barely squeeze by with my textbooks (I have three classes, they all assign multiple textbooks, and all the books are pricey as heck).
@tothebay have you looked at buying used books at Amazon and the like? You can usually get a very good discount.
Or renting the books?
What about your summer job earnings? Could you spend some of that on the expenses?
Since I don’t have cash on hand until my scholarship comes through in the next week or through, I am left with using my campus card to buy/rent from the campus bookstore. Generally the difference between buying and renting is a few dollars, so not a big money saver but still I rent when I can. Naively, I didn’t work this summer but in hindsight I should have. I did a little volunteering and did an unpaid internship.
So here are the lessons I learned and that might be helpful to future students reading this thread: Even if you have a full ride scholarship, you will be expected to pay quite a few fees during your first quarter so prepare for that. Get a PAID summer internship, even if you have to work at McDonalds. And lastly, if you’re choosing between Stanford and another generous and elite university, come to Stanford because it truly is a paradise!!!
Most college profs set aside a number of copies of the textbook in the library. To get you through for now you might look into that.
Also…I advise kids to wait and buy books after class begins. Perfect example is my D’s current chem class. On paper she needed a 7th ed text that costs $270 new/$200 used. BUT the prof said, in the syllabus handed out the first week, that the 5th or 6th ed would be fine to use. Those are practically free from online sellers.
So you never know.
@tothebay, That’s really important advice for lower income students: full ride doesn’t mean you won’t be expected to come up with several thousand dollars/year. Raising that kind of money can be a struggle. Definitely work during the summer and save as much as you can. I think you have a great attitude. Good luck to you. 
More advice:
Start looking early next year for a paid summer 2016 job
Remember to look at IRS Publication 970 so that you are prepared to file your (the student’s) 2015 federal and state(s) income tax returns by April 15th 2016 to report the taxable income for the grants/scholarships that covered everything that was not tuition, fees, books.
Make use of the library’s reserve shelf to access textbooks, if needed.
Try the library first. For my D, the cheapest way is to buy used books early and sell them immediately before the next semester starts. We actually made money on that.