<p>I was offered the following for financial aid per semester:
Ded Direct Subsidized Loan Offered $1,750.00
Fed Direct Unsub Loan Offered $3,000.00
Federal Work Study-Entering Offered $1,139.00
Total $5,889.00</p>
<p>My GI Bill/Yellow Ribbon will cover my tuition, course fees, books, etc, and possibly my healthcare depending on whether UA requires you to opt-in or opt-out of the health plan.</p>
<p>My housing Stipend will provide roughly 4k per semester for housing, which should cover my rent, utilities, beer money and car insurance. It probably won’t cover gas or any of my food expenses.</p>
<p>I’m trying to figure out how much financial aid I should take. It will mostly be for living expenses. Food/clothing (not much, but stuff does wear out)/gas/incidentals. </p>
<p>I’m also not sure about the work study program. I’ve spent more than my fair share of time in food service cooking/serving/cleaning dishes, and I won’t do it again. There are a couple other things I’d be unwilling/unable to do. </p>
<p>I intend to get a job starting in the fall of 2014, but for my first semester (Spring of 2014) I’m trying to avoid working so I can focus on “relearning” how to learn in a classroom, and setting myself up with a solid foundation for academic success. </p>
<p>I don’t want to take too much, and end up with needless loans, but I don’t want to take too little, and leave myself high and dry.</p>
<p>If you can trim the amount of unsubsidized loan $$ you accept, I would. You will be compelled to start paying on these loans anytime you aren’t in school full-time. You can defer, but the interest will pile up, so it will just cost more later on down the road.</p>
<p>Re. work study: There’s always the possibility you won’t get stuck in food service (I know the odds will lean toward this though). I was placed in the mail room one semester, in the library one other round – I guess there is always the chance of NOT having to work the food route.</p>
<p>Since loans are distributed by semester, you could take what’s offered the first semester, see how you do, then if needed, adjust the second semester.</p>
<p>Oh wait, are you the student who is a Spring admit? </p>
<p>I’m not sure if w/s jobs are in food service. I’ve never noticed students working in the dining halls. I’ve seen students mostly working in offices. </p>
<p>To get the best choice of W/S jobs, find out the earliest date you can select. If you’re a spring admit, that may be an issue. And, find out if there actually are jobs available for spring admits.</p>
<p>That’s an odd amount in loans - freshman should be automatically eligible for $5500, upperclassmen more not sure why you have $4,750…</p>
<p>but anyhow, I’d send an email to the financial aid office because I can’t confirm how things work at Bama, but for the colleges I’ve been enrolled in, if you’ve been approved for loans but opt not to take them at the beginning of the semester and find that you need the money later, you can go into the financial aid office and they’ll process the remaining loan and since the approvals are already in place you generally get the money within a couple days</p>
<p>so if you opted to begin with just the subsidized loan of $1750 and declined the unsubsized loan and then started down there and got a better idea of what your expenses would be, then if you find that you need more money you should be able to go into the financial aid office and request the unsubsidized amount later, but confirm that with the financial aid office</p>
<p>I would take all of the loans and just repay what you don’t need at the end of the semester. Remember the VA is sometimes behind on housing pay so you are better off not relying on that check monthly.</p>
<p>That’s an odd amount in loans - freshman should be automatically eligible for $5500, upperclassmen more not sure why you have $4,750…</p>
<p>He’s older, so independent, I think that’s for a half year amount.</p>
<p>Food service at UA is contracted out, so I don’t think they are allowed to hire Federal Work Study employees. There are plenty of students who work in food service, but they are normal employees. The vast majority of work study jobs are in offices or the Housing department. One thing to remember about Federal Work Study is that those earnings are not subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes and will not increase your EFC in future years.</p>
<p>The Federal Work Study award is the lower amount given to freshmen, which provides funding for 10-11 hours of work per week.</p>
<p>I’ve been told that my loans won’t be disbursed to me until the VA pays up, so these loans still won’t solve that particular problem for me. Fortunately, family can help me in the interim. </p>
<p>And yes, those are my awards for just the spring semester.</p>
<p>I think the school gets there money much faster than students get their BAH. A co worker of D’s, had not gotten any money sense fall semester break in March when we had lunch with her.</p>
<p>I had been told that once the VA knew you were a 100% eligible that they would defer tuition and fees and any excess would be dispersed. I will have to follow up with the UA VA office.</p>