<p>So the school I've been accepted to and most likely attending requires that you live on campus or with a parent within 35 miles. Well I'm not really planning on doing that. I have a very best friend who will be a sophomore next year and I was planning on living with her in an apartment just off campus.</p>
<p>Here's the dilemma. I'm super poor and want to be sure I can afford my share of rent so I really need financial aid. So my question is this:</p>
<p>What kind of repercussions will saying you are going to live on campus in order to obtain more financial aid entail? </p>
<p>I'm really sorry if I sound like a money grubber :/ I just don't really know what else I can do.</p>
<p>If you have to live on campus, then you have to live on campus. you can’t live with your BF, she’s not family. </p>
<p>What school is this? Does it meet need? If not, then you may not get enough aid to live on campus, off campus, or wherever. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what you’re asking. Are you asking if you can “say” that you’re going to live on campus, get the money, and then use it off-campus? I don’t think it works that way. The school will expect the money to be used on campus and may reserve a room for you.</p>
<p>Well, when you don’t sign a housing contract and move into the residence hall, fin aid will assume you are living with a parent (because those are the rules) and adjust your aid package.</p>
<p>When you get aid, it isn’t a check you get. It is processed through the Bursar’s office. If you say you are living on campus, the money is transfered by the Bursar to that department. If you change your mind, Financial aid will have to review your need again, and adjust accordingly. If the the rules of the college are such that you have to live on campus freshman year or commute, that is what you have to do. If you say you are commutng, your needs will be calculated as though you are living at home with your parents and will need far less money. </p>
<p>There are special cases, and you can petition, but there is no way a school is going to subsidiize your off campus costs. A friend of mine was really upset when her daughter’s awards were yanked when she decided to commute at the last minute. They were merit within need awards and the college does stipulate that freshmen live on campus that first year and that awards are given with stipulations of living on campus. Fine print and hard to find, but it was there.</p>
<p>I want to add that for future years you might be able to do this. My son lived off campus while at college. His school’s COA for off campus living assumes a fixed cost that was far more than what it cost my son for his room and board, as he shared a room, lived in a dive, and worked at a diner part time so his food costs were particularly low. Though he was not on financial aid, some roommates who were did get windfalls since the school does not use actual rent figures but a composite when giving aid. IF you can get full or significant need met, and IF the school work their calculations that way and IF you can find housing and keep food costs below what they calculate, it is possible to end up with extra. But for freshman year, it is a no go. Any aid you get goes to the housing to which you are assigned. If you don’t take the housing, it doesn’t go back to you, but you need is recalculated as a commuter and you lose it.</p>
<p>At my school, the COA is the same on campus or off. If you live off campus, any extra financial aid well be refunded to help you pay rent and such. </p>
<p>With that said, you’re likely not going to get a waiver to live off campus with your friend. You can try petitioning to ask to live off, but there are no guarantees and you might not get aid for off campus anyway.</p>
<p>“So the school I’ve been accepted to and most likely attending requires that you live on campus or with a parent within 35 miles. Well I’m not really planning on doing that.”</p>
<p>Then you probably shouldn’t attend that school. Just because you don’t want to follow the rules doesn’t mean you can do what you want. If your parents live within 35 miles of campus you may be able to LIE and get around the rules. If you get caught, which could easily happen, you could have all of your financial aid taken. They also probably won’t give you financial aid to break the rules. Most schools take fraud very seriously. Think twice before you you sign a lease. My daughters school will not let you register for classes if you don’t have a housing contract or your parents live close to campus.</p>
<p>The FAFSA asks if you will be living at home, on campus, or off campus. I assume that it figures a rent amount for living off campus, so I would check off-campus on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>At the schools my son looked at Freshmen also had to be on-campus or with parents. They required a NOTARIZED statement from the parents that the student was living at home with them if they were not living on campus. Will your parents sign that, knowing it’s a lie???</p>
<p>Live on campus, make new friends and have the experience as a freshman with all the other freshmen. You only get to do it once, then the chance is gone. Live with your friend next year.</p>
<p>thanks for the help guys… a little harsh but helpful. i’m really not trying to be all sneaky and stuff. the apartment is literally just off campus so i’ll have the exact same experience as if i lived on campus just with much much much better living conditions.</p>
<p>I received my financial aid package but there were issues so they are readjusting it right now. I just edited my FAFSA not too long ago so I can’t switch it back to living at home just yet. The only thing I’m confused about is why everyone else basically gets like a check. Is that just for student loans? Everyone says it’s to cover living expenses while you’re in college but how am I supposed to live off of it if I can’t access it? Like i personally know at least 3 people who got money deposited into their bank account and used it for daily expenses so what do I make of that?</p>
<p>If you are living with parents off campus, you are a commuter, and your aid is going to reflect that. If you are living off campus as an upper classman, and are on financial aid, a school will often calculate aid as living on campus or a separate category, but with more generous allowances than given a commuter. Looking at the COA numbers for a given school will let you know how they do their calculations, or you can call and ask.</p>
<p>So if you say you are living with parents, then you are a commuter in their eyes and you will get less aid than if you are calculated as living on your own on or off campus. IT all depends on your aid package too. What kind of aid did you get? If you didn’t get any need met, that might be a whole other story. You could then get a hardship waiver for on campus housing. I knew some kids that did get that sort of thing going to CMU which has an on campus requirement for freshman (even for commuters, as a matter of fact). But I knew kids who got no aid, so they requested to be released from the housing requirement and were able to live with relatives within the area for less than the college room and board numbers. Had they been getting aid from CMU, however, you had better believe the school would have adjusted the aid to take into account that the student had become a commuter.</p>
<p>It’s not going to be much, much better conditions if you can’t make your payments. Also, there is a reason why colleges like their freshmen on campus and many are putting them all in freshmen dorms that first year. You can get to know your fellow students better and it’s easier to address all of you and keep a bit of an eye on you that first year when things are still all new. It’s not much protection and nurturing but it can be helpful After freshman year, it’s all up to you for most schools. Though there are colleges who have invested enough in student housing that they require kids to use it for longer than just the first year.</p>
<p>XXD, I don’t know people who get school money or federal money just deposited to their accounts. Even loan proceeds from federal programs go through the school. They take their share first and reimburse the student afterwards. THe only people I know who get checks are those who get awards privately either from independent scholarships or non govt loans. What freshmen do you know who are getting checks now? If it 's upper classmen, they could be getting money from the beginning of the term just now, what’s left after it pays the school.</p>
<p>Not everyone gets a check. It depends on the individual and their FA package. FA is first applied to the direct charges at the school (tuition, fees, room and board etc). If the direct charges are higher than the FA you have, then you owe them money. If the direct charges are less than the FA you have, then they “refund” you the difference. Many people do not have aid that exceeds their direct charges. Whether you will depends completely on your own FA award, no one elses.</p>
<p>Schools that require you to live on campus Freshman year will question your living arrangements if you are not living on campus. They do not generally make exceptions unless there is a good reason. </p>
<p>If you are not living on campus and tell them you are living with parents, it may reduce your aid. Some schools have just one COA for FA purposes. Others have one for on campus and another for off campus. Others have 3, On campus, off campus not with parents, off campus with parents. Off campus with parents is generally much less than on campus.</p>
<p>I dunno. It may be that they were independent loans and scholarships. the friend that I’m moving in with is a freshman now and she just got 2400 dollars deposited into her account and then my sister used her student loans for living expenses back when she was in college and then my guidance counselor used scholarships for daily expenses. but you guys have sufficiently explained your point that it can’t be done in my situation and I just fixed everything so that I’ll be living with my mom. I’ll just get a kickass job and call it good. :)</p>
<p>If your friend is a freshman now, she is likely getting BACK money that she was allotted at the beginning of the term that is left now that all charges have been taken out of it. The schools tend to make sure that everything they can get out of that money is exhausted before issuing a check, believe me. It’s not next year’s money she is getting in a check. It 's nearly April and she is just getting money for the semester beginning in January, most likely. That gives you some idea how long it can take to get federal loan proceeds. </p>
<p>It is possible to use student loans and scholarship money for living expenses, but schools have their own rules on how they handle this. How is your friend who just said you are not moving in with, getting around the freshman on campus rule?</p>
<p>The FAFSA doesn’t assume anything. That is used by some schools to determine whether or not the student will live off campus or on and SOME schools adjust their packages accordingly.</p>
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<p>Depends on the school. OP, what school are you going to? We would be able to tell whether or not you can get aid for housing while off campus if we knew what school it was.</p>
We can’t really tell what can be done in your situation. It completely depends on your FA package and we have no idea what that is. We are just telling you to look into how your school does it and whether they have different COAs for different living situations. Do you have a good FA package that exceeds direct charges to the school?</p>
<p>My daughter does get a refund that she uses for her off campus living expenses. She a combination of scholarships, grants, and loans that exceed her tuition and fees. Her fiancee does not get anything because his Mom’s income is high enough that he gets no FA so they pay for everything. It depends on your own personal situation. You can’t base it on what other people get.</p>
<p>How did your friend get around the living on campus requirement? Maybe your school is more flexible if she was able to do it.</p>
<p>IME, if there is a rule that you live on campus, you are expected to accept a room on campus and pay for it. If your parents do not live within X miles, this is perfectly obvious on all your paperwork. It’s usually not about what you want and whether the rental is across the street. It’s more often about filling dorm space. Housing and FA talk. (Just as they both talk with the Registrar’s office.) Each has access to some of the same computerized records, as needed. </p>
<p>My kids have the option of excess aid being returned to them- but it’s as others note above and it relates to Plus Loans. They can request X dollars or have the entire excess given to them, to the parents, returned to the lender (to lower the total loan amount) or carried over to the next year. Each college’s particular curcumstances, environment, etc, may be different.</p>
<p>^^other aid can also be refunded. My daughter’s scholarships covered her tuition and fees so all her other aid (Pell grant, varying other grants in different years [SMART, ACG, SEOG, and a state grant] along with her loans were part of her refund.</p>
<p>The other thing to consider if you get a refund is timing. My daughter’s school was very prompt and everything was complete by the 2nd week of school, so she really only had to worry about having the first months rent and bills in hand. My son’s school was painfully slow, taking 6-8 weeks to process refunds. His final semester they did not process them until 3 weeks before semester end.</p>
<p>OP - My daughter’s school did not have differing COAs for different living arrangements. My son’s did. You have to check with your school as there is no one correct answer.</p>