@baktrax
“But is the aid going to increase with loans? OP’s parents might (rightly) not want to take out extra loans to pay for something they don’t consider necessary.”
No. Student loans should’ve already been included in the original package, and USC does not pack in parent loans. They should increase the aid w/grants only, since these costs are considered standard/not extra.
OP should call the financial aid office and ask them. I’m pretty sure they’ll give him/her a similar answer.
This is not an issue, really. The EFC determined by USC should not change when adjusting the COA from “commuter” to “resident.”
Only thing that could be a problem is if the OP mistakenly has a “resident” COA on their current/initial package. Their current aid would decrease once USC sees that the OP’s living with parents. I hope this is not the case, since it’d mean that the student has an incorrect package/wouldn’t be able to pay even the tuition.
Does USC change the financial aid for resident versus commuter students? Some schools (e.g. UCs) do, but others (e.g. CSUs) do not. USC’s net price calculator does not ask if the student will be a commuter or resident (unlike the UCs and CSUs).
USC estimates room and board at $12,902. The cost of living at the parents’ house (including food and utilities consumed by the student) and commuting can vary greatly from one family to another.
^ The net price calc doesn’t, but the CSS profile and Need Access forms do. Huh, I thought every school did that…maybe I’ve been putting my foot in my mouth…
OP could you copy/paste your package?
I’m not exactly sure how I would copy paste it. It’s has images and things, making it hard to just copy paste.
Does your “Estimated Other Costs” section look like this:
Housing: 8352
Dining: 5500
Books and supplies: 1500
Transportation: 576
etc.
or are the numbers different?
Yes it has that in the Estimated Other Costs. Exact same numbers actually. The total Gift Aide is around 40k, which brings my estimated net cost to be 26k. If I commute, I’m guessing that could be brought down to 20k
^^ Ahh so that means they don’t use a “commuter COA”…I’ve been putting my foot in my mouth after all…
Ok, so if your parents can afford the housing but won’t pay/don’t consider it necessary, you still have some time to try to convince them. There’s studies about how living on campus helps you do better in school, show them a few of those. You could also try to trim the costs yourself: try applying to some of the alumni assoc. scholarships, see if some of the deadlines haven’t passed yet: https://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/docs/uscScholarships1516.pdf. You’ll have a $6,500 external scholarships limit as a sophomore, the amount of your stafford loans, before they decrease the grant. Combined with the stafford loan itself, this could make the costs more palatable to your parents.
If they simply cannot afford it at the end, all you can do is try to figure out an efficient commute for now. Later in the year you can apply for some of the scholarships above for next year’s costs, or maybe apply to be an RA.
By the way, you’re not required to get the $5,500 Cardinal meal plan as a sophomore. Getting only a partial meal plan and cooking the rest of the meals yourself (you’d live in an apartment as a soph, not in a dorm room) will save you about $2k a year.
Avoid the commute if you value your happiness. Avoid living on campus if you value your money. Either way there are going to be time commitments to make both a reality. Time used to make money to live on campus or time used to get there on time. Either way you’ll be losing your most valuable resource.
Romani, there is no need to call Jesus in this case. I do this commute daily so I know. In fact my commute is shorter. Perhaps 15 minutes shorter. The commute is hell. It’s not one hour commute, it’s more like 1.5 if you are lucky. I have a vanpool so I get to use the car pool lane, so that’s 1.5 with the car pool lane. But I’m a slow driver sometimes. I rather have the energy to study and not commute.
If you can’t dorm, why don’t you go to local UC, it’s much cheaper. Academic wise, it’s hardly any different.