<p>I've heard that many colleges decrease grants and increase the work-study contribution from the student each year after freshmen year. I'm doing a no-loan policy at my school so that our family contribution does not include any loans at all (I'd hate to put my family through that), but I am just wondering about how much (what percent, how many thousand, etc.) do colleges decrease their grants by each year and increase the work-study load by? If anyone knows anything particular to Penn, that'd be great too, thanks!</p>
<p>I believe it’s fairly standard for “meets full need” colleges to increase the expected student contribution each year.</p>
<p>Yeah, unfortunately ): but does anyone know by about how much? For example, a thousand a year, or is it too much to handle? Since the work-study jobs of 20 hours a week is really difficult to fit into the schedule, etc.</p>
<p>You have to ask. The kids I know who have gotten financial aid awards have NOT gotten decreases. College costs go up each year, and the colleges simply do not give more grants to cover that increase, but offer more self help instead or say the student needs to take up the slack. The way many of them do is by going off campus and off the meal plan. I can tell you that for my kids, staying on campus is pricier as an upperclassmen. My son in college right now is in an upper classmen dorm that has suites, are more apartment style (some are actually apartments), more singles, bigger rooms, but higher pricetags. Upper classmen usually want the lower cost not as constrained meal plans which are more expensive per meal, so unless a the student makes an effort to cut those costs by prepaing his/her own food and budgeting to decrease, it is easy for the food biil to go UP instead of down. So many choices these days for eateries, but those choices cost. </p>
<p>Colleges don’t like to be obvious in their award cuts, so it’s usually done more subtley thatn just cutting down the grants. They don’t fund additional need and costs is a primary way they go. But ask around at each schools. look at the message boards. This is a hot issue among kids and you can get a more specific idea that way how a given school treats this issue. Also the increase in Stafford is used a lot ot replace grant money since you are entitled to more loans each year. There is an automatic $1000 increase from freshman to sophomore year, and you had better believe most school use that.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse, I see what you’re saying, thanks for the info! I’ll look into it, and see what the housing/meal options are</p>
<p>We did not see any decrease in grant aid over the years at a meets-full-need-no-loans college. The tuition and R&B costs went up each year, but grant aid was increased to cover it. Work study expectation remained the same. The one area where there was an increase was in student summer earnings contribution. The first year it was $1500, in subsequent years it was $2000 (never went above that.)</p>
<p>At some schools, nearly all the upper classmen move off campus and the rents are downright cheap. Not that the housing at those cheap prices are anything YOU might want to live in, but, hey, it’s the student ghetto. A student can do very well financially after freshman year at such colleges if s/he makes an effort to cut down those costs. SUNY Buffalo and other schools in that city, for example, fall into that category because the housing is dirt cheap there and there are many student neigborhoods. The room and board prices that most parents/students pay that freshman year are very steep as compared to what one can do and get off campus. SUNY tution is low–it’s the room and board that jacks up the prices, but if a family can get through that first year, going off campus really brings the cost waaay down. If the student is responsible enough to make an effort to do so. UPitt is the same way and so it goes with any school located in a city where the cheap rentals are available. University owned apartments are much more expensive for the upper classmen, but they have some standards, security, amenities. What’s particularly sweet is that if a student is on financial aid, the COA used is often that of the university set prices, so someone with a generous aig package can live well pocketing the difference.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if your kid goes to school in cities like NYC, Boston, etc. that may not be the case. BC is a popular school around here and it typically only gives a student 3 years of student housing which means s/he HAS to find a place off campus for one year or go abroad or something. I know some families who paid premium prices for that year. There are also those who did find some cheap digs. A big difference can be whether your kid can find a roommateA lot of kids these days do not want to share a bedroom after freshman year. And also whether your kid can find some nice “shares”. My son in college now is a bit depressed about the way things worked out for him this second year as he got ousted during room roulette negotiations and plans. When the kids are doing it on their own, it 's not always a fair conclusion. </p>
<p>My one neighbor’s son is commuting to NYU this year, because he went off campus his sophomore year and then plans for his housing off campus fell through this year and nothing in the area came up affordable! He’s lucky to even have that option. Had he been out of commuting range…well, you know. Even so the commuting cost alone is about $400-- a month.</p>
<p>So when you look at schools, do look at what the options and usual workings are after freshman year as they can have a large cost impact.</p>
<p>'rentof2 and cpt, thanks for all of the info! yeah, I’m hoping the grant won’t decrease, and I have something over the summer where I can hopefully do and make some money to help cover it. Also, I guess I could try to be an RA or something like that as an upperclassmen to save on the room/board fee. I probably won’t live off-campus, since i feel it’s pretty complicated, and unsafe in some areas</p>
<p>Once you get to know people, opportunities often arise in the off campus situations. My one son was all set to stay on campus in their very nice apartments —in fact he was all hyped and psyched about it freshman year. Well, he did get one and was begging us to permit him (needed some signatures) to move into a house in demolition condition about a mile from campus. SIgh. I would have rather paid the extra. But that was what he really wanted, and I just gave him what we would have paid anyways. He made out financially despite having to pay for electric, internet,cable, upkeep (? ha!), meals, and all the other costs that go into having a house share.</p>
<p>My daughter, now in her 3d year at Ohio State received a $3,000.00 Scarlet & Gray grant mid-way through the Fall term last year. The grant was not renewed and we never received a good answer. Her grades are very good. She lives and works off-campus. We are going to meet soon with the financial aid office in person.</p>
<p>Other parents of students at OSU and other colleges don’t seem to have a good idea either. It seems, however, that the students (and their parents!) have to fight to get these grants and scholarship dollars aggressively, but politely.</p>
<p>oh ): , barrister, did you all re-apply for the fafsa and everything before this year?</p>
<p>DD went to a private university where she received a small grant relative to the cost of attendance. It was a merit grant (it was not called a scholarship). Her very small grant increased but the exact %age the cost of attendance increased each year. We were VERY surprised. Her school did not guarantee to meet full need…and it didn’t.</p>
<p>I’ve known kids who have gone to schools that are not generous with financial aid, and even they seem to get their grants renewed as long as the need stays about the same. There can be issues, however, when need goes down rather than up because schools can have their own systems in defining needs, and if you are right a threshhold level for $X and a little extra money the next year puts you over, it can make a drastic difference in aid. You can’t even prepare for it because colleges do not give out this information and even when you ask, it’s like pulling teeth to get any kind of answer from them that says anything.</p>
<p>When your students get their acceptances and packages, it’s important to ask financial aid about how return students’ aid is at that school, and more also to look at message boards specific to the college to find out how the students living this feel about upperclassmen aid. YOu’ll always see complaints and horror stories; as that is the nature of those boards, for a large part, but some schools may have more of an issue than others. Looking at the actual stats about return aid is also a good idea.</p>
<p>As a rule, however, I have noticed it is not a huge problem overall. It’s getting the aid to begin with that can be an issue, but much of that is because many families have no idea how this works.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info, and cptofthehouse, I think I see what you’re saying about the threshold, like say if a family made 99k a year, and got a good package, maybe the package will be significantly dropped if next year they made, say 101k if the threshold was 100k? I am not sure, I hope that is not the case since before I came here I asked if it should be the same each year, and the rep said yes if our financial circumstances have not changed dramatically, but I guess we will have to see.</p>
<p>One thing to remember about these very generous schools is that most DO expect an increase in the student contribution each year.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, yes, sometimes the way aid is calculated at some schools, this happens. A parent playing with the NPC with one of the schools noticed the categories on one school. But…that doesn’t mean that the school itself actually operates that way. It could have just calibrated the NPC that way. </p>
<p>With most awards, the amounts are slowly phased out so that a couple dollar increase over the threshhold only means a few dollars difference in aid amounts.</p>
<p>There are some schools that define merit within need that way, in that a student with $1 of need qualifes for merit awards that are only given to those kids with demonstrated financial need. Some of that aid is not given dollar to dollar towards need, but given to to those kids who make it into this “need” pool that the school most wants. So somoene could get an award greater than need by just qualifying for a bit of aid.</p>
<p>To SinkorSwim #11
Indeed, we resubmitted FAFSA this school year. While I believe that my income was higher just a bit ( I am self-employed) and my ex contributes very little, the EFC was likely more this school year.<br>
I have read elsewhere on this forum that the financial aid “gods” are not too concerned about obstreperous parents who don’t contribute a reasonable share. I will report back on this thread in a week or two after I speak to financial aid people at the university…</p>
<p>Good luck, I wish the best to you</p>