I don't know anything about financial aid?

Paying for College
1

<p>I'm going to be a high school senior and I'm clueless!</p>

<p>Anyways, I want to go to GVSU and I found this: Scholarships</a> - Grand Valley State University and I'm out of state. Here's another one: Scholarships</a> - Grand Valley State University It's very nice, but I plan on redshirting in XC/track so I will spend 5 years at college. Also, I don't plan on getting money by running XC/track. Any comments? (PS, I'm slow so I can't be recruited)</p>

<p>And what is FAFSA? Is it free money or loans? If it's free money, than that's awesome because that's what I need for college. If it's loans, then that's dumb because you have to pay them back (duh you aren't gaining anything!)</p>

<p>Also what's this Pell Grant? I think it's a loan, but what use does it have?</p>

<p>Also is it OK to be in debt after college? I want to be a Spanish teacher and I know teachers are suffering, but if I'm like $10,000 in debt, is that bad? I know $60,000 will be terrible, but I don't know anything about money/debt/loans/etc, so that's why I'm asking here.</p>

2

<p>First of all, you need to find out if you’d qualify for the small federal grants that are awarded. Pell grants are not loans, but they are for lowish income students.</p>

<p>You need to find out what your likely EFC is. If your parents make a good income, then likely you will NOT qualify for free federal grants. [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Expected Family Contribution (EFC) Calculator - Finaid)</p>

<p>Going to an OOS public is often not a good idea UNLESS your family will pay OR you will get a LARGE merit scholarship (based on stats) and the remaining costs are affordable.</p>

<p>How much will your parents pay each year? If you don’t know, ask them.</p>

<p>What state are you in?</p>

<p>What are your stats? GPA? test scores??</p>

<p>Why do you want to go to this OOS school?</p>

<p>Teachers don’t make much as newish teachers, so you will want to avoid debt.</p>

3

<p>My dad told me the money he and my mom makes combined is about $90,000 per year, and they still have to pay taxes and we aren’t rich, my mom says we’re kinda poor and they don’t ever seem to have leftover money. For example, it was a nightmare when they had to pay $400 for my brother to join marching band.</p>

<p>I live in Ohio and I have a 27 ACT and my weighted GPA is 3.6336, I don’t know my unweighted because my report card doesn’t say that, but it should be around 3.3. I got a C in AP Chemistry, but I don’t plan on majoring in any science at all. I always get A’s in Spanish because that’s what I want to teach. Next year I will be taking AP Spanish and AP Psychology. I have a study hall all year round (classes in our school are about 72 minutes, so I get over an hour to do homework, study, etc, but IDK if I can use that time to do anything related to financial aid.)</p>

<p>I want to go to Grand Valley (about $12,000 per year) because it fits me perfectly both academically and athletically, and I love how they have a good education program, and in the later years (years 2-5) I could maybe get money for being an athlete. But I’m too attracted to this school so it’s natural for me to defend it.</p>

<p>My parents say that they don’t know how much they will contribute, but I would estimate a good guess to be $2000. Also, I heard that colleges have teacher fairs where they will go to the college and recruit teachers on the spot. Is that something to rely on?</p>

4

<p>OOS cost for GV</p>

<p>Out-of-state tuition and fees:… $13,402
Room and board: … $7,478<br>
Books and supplies:… $1,000</p>

<h2>Estimated personal expenses:… $2,330</h2>

<p>COA…about…$25,000 per year</p>

<p>Are you looking at this scholarship?</p>

<p>Awards for Excellence (Non-Michigan Resident)</p>

<p>Award Amount: **$5800 **approx. </p>

<p>Recipients must have a 3.5 grade point average and a 26 ACT
composite score or an 1190 SAT combined score on the critical
reading and math combined.</p>

<ul>
<li>Must maintain a 3.25 grade point average at Grand Valley. </li>
</ul>

<p>do you have qualifying stats? (note that you have to maintain a GPA). </p>

<p>If you qualify, that means that you’re remaining costs would be about $19k per year.</p>

5

<p>I do have those stats, but there’s also the Laker Scholarship: [Scholarships</a> - Grand Valley State University](<a href=“http://www.gvsu.edu/scholarships/299-laker-scholarship.htm?tagId=126&search=&page=0]Scholarships”>http://www.gvsu.edu/scholarships/299-laker-scholarship.htm?tagId=126&search=&page=0) that will give me $1000-4000, but that’s still a lot of money.</p>

<p>I’m planning on getting a job at a running store, and since I’m a runner and they help our team and stuff, they will understand and I would be able to work flexible hours and such. I don’t know how much I would make in a year, but what if I saved $2000? Every little bit helps, right?</p>

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<p>Hmmm…If your parents will only pay about $2k per year, I don’t see how GV would be affordable.</p>

<p>You’re OOS, you can’t commute. You can’t say that the school would cost about $12k per year. The school would cost you (**minus **the scholarship) about $16k in “basic costs” . You really don’t have the means to pay for that. </p>

<p>Your family’s income is too high for free federal aid. </p>

<p>This is what your FA package would likely look like…</p>

<p>$5800 merit scholarship</p>

<h2>$5500 Stafford loans</h2>

<p>$11,300 in total aid…but you’d have over $22k in “basic costs” of tuition, fees, room, board, and books. I’m not even including personal expenses and travel costs…which would be another couple thousand. </p>

<p>And, if you’re doing a sport, you may not have much time to earn money for personal expenses.</p>

<p>Don’t think that GV is somehow the only school for you.</p>

<p>Certainly Ohio has some good schools that would work. What about those???</p>

<p>You have to be reasonable…this school will not likely be affordable.</p>

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<p>I don’t think you get BOTH scholarships. One is for students with LOWER stats…</p>

<p>You’d get the one for kids who have an ACT 26 or ABOVE.</p>

<p>The $2k that you save will be for your “pocket money”. As a college student, you’ll need pocket money for when you and your pals go out on weekends. you won’t want to be the one to stay in your dorm while everyone else is going for pizza and a movie.</p>

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<p>Well there’s Bowling Green which is also has a good education program, but my coaches want me to go to Grand Valley because they say that they are much better at XC/track and that I can get money for being an athlete for probably years 2 through 5, but I don’t know because the XC season hasn’t really started, but according to my performance right now, I have a 99% of walking onto the team, but I likely won’t get recruited.</p>

<p>They say that I wouldn’t be able to run at Bowling Green because it’s Division I and they have much much higher expectations, and I’m just too slow to run at all there, and I therefore won’t get money from them.</p>

<p>I looked it up one time and I can’t really remember, but I think the total cost of attendance of Bowling Green compared to Grand Valley was only about $2000 which is weird because GV is OOS.</p>

<p>EDIT: Here it says the cost of attendance for Bowling Green is $22,307: [Bowling</a> Green State University Tuition, Costs and Financial Aid - CollegeData College Profile](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=307]Bowling”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=307) minus the $3000 that I would get for my GPA and ACT test score, but I haven’t looked at anything else.</p>

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<p>and that I can get money for being an athlete for probably years 2 through 5,</p>

<p>??? What is the evidence that you would get athletic money from GV? How often do “walk ons” get money and how much do they typically get at GV???</p>

<p>Anyway…XC/Track scholarships are “equivalency” scholarship. Even if you finally got one, it may only be for a small amount since the school will divide each scholarship amongst a few athletes. XC/Track aren’t “full head”. </p>

<p>And…you can’t just "skip over’ the realities of the first year. How would you pay for that? </p>

<p>And, I think it’s too risky to count on getting some scholarship money later for XC. Many walk-ons never get ANY money. And, you might get some, but not enough.</p>

<p>**The NCAA allows each division I track and field / cross country program 12.6 scholarships for men and 18 for women. </p>

<p>In division II the ratio is 12.6 scholarships for men and 12.6 for women. </p>

<p>Remember these numbers are for BOTH XC and Track teams combined. ** </p>

<p>I hope that someone who knows a lot about athletic scholarships and “walk ons” will post to further explain and clarify. </p>

<p>For example, it was a nightmare when they had to pay $400 for my brother to join marching band.</p>

<p>If that is TRUE, then they really can’t be expected to much of anything for college…not even $2k.</p>

<p>You wouldn’t need as much money from Bowling Green because the overall cost is lower since you’re instate. </p>

<p>BG</p>

<p>In-state tuition and fees: $9,704
Room and board: $7,800<br>
Books and supplies: $1,216<br>
Estimated personal expenses: $2,658<br>
Transportation expense: $929</p>

<p>Anyway…you either need to find a school that will give you a large merit scholarship…or you may find yourself commuting to a local school. I don’t see where the money is going to come from.</p>

<p>Is there a state school you can commute to?</p>

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<p>There’s Miami University (Oxford) and the University of Cincinnati. UC is closer (30 minute drive), but I haven’t checked them out because I’ve never heard anything about their education programs. Miami is about an hour drive. But there isn’t really a state school I can commute to, the closest is The Ohio State University, which is maybe 2 hours away? I live in the Greater Cincinnati area.</p>

<p>Why does it cost so much money for room and board? Is there anything that I can really do about that?</p>

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<p>If UCin has an education dept, that will likely be your most affordable choice, but you might even have some trouble paying for the TUITION and BOOKS unless you get some merit there.</p>

<p>In-state tuition and fees: $10,065
Books and supplies: $1,000</p>

<p>Even with a student loan of 5500, you’re going to have to come up with another $5500 for the rest of tuition, books…and you’ll need even more money for transportation and personal expenses. </p>

<p>Do you know if you’d qualify for one of the Cincinnatus scholarships?</p>

<p>[Cincinnatus</a> Scholarship Program, University of Cincinnati](<a href=“http://financialaid.uc.edu/sfao/cincinnatus.html]Cincinnatus”>Student Financial Aid - About UC | University of Cincinnati)</p>

<p>Do you know what stats are needed for the various amounts?</p>

<p>*Why does it cost so much money for room and board? Is there anything that I can really do about that? *</p>

<p>Pitch and tent and starve? No, there’s not much you can do about this cost. You have to have a roof over your head and you have to eat.</p>

<p>Are you a boy or girl?</p>

<p>College of Education at UC
<a href=“http://www.cech.uc.edu/education/[/url]”>http://www.cech.uc.edu/education/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I am a boy, and I wouldn’t qualify for the Cincinnatus scholarship because I don’t have 30 hours of community service, but I am in the National Spanish Honor Society where we have to do 10 hours of service in the Hispanic/Latino community or something related to Spanish. But I just found out they do give out scholarships: <a href=“sociedadhonorariahispanica.org”>sociedadhonorariahispanica.org;

<p>…so I will be looking at that.</p>

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<p>Keep in mind that that scholarship (if you get one) it will only be for one year. So, while it will help for one year, you won’t get it for later years.</p>

<p>Is it possible for you to volunteer this summer at something to get that 30 hours? It doesn’t seem like much if you already have 10. </p>

<p>I’m hoping that others will chime in here with some affordable options for you. I don’t see how GV would be affordable. And without a merit scholarship, UCin may be hard to pay for as well.</p>

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<p>The only way to know for sure is to appply to GVSU.
Do find a good mix of schools that will meet your needs. Your parents income is borderline especially if you might have other siblings in college. That effects EFC, and you might qualify for some forms of aid. No one truly knows what a college will award you unless you apply.</p>

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<p>You can get those community service hours if you get moving now, can’t you? </p>

<p>You can apply to any and all schools you want, OP. And something may very well turn up. Just cover your base by finding a couple of schools that you know will take you and that you know you can afford and that provide what you want and need. That is the true challenge of the college search. Once you do that, you can go to town and apply to whatever you want. </p>

<p>Usually, the most affordable college is a local state school. You commute and with what your parents give you, work and loans, you can make it work the most easily.</p>

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<p>For the OP, I think it would be a good idea to apply to all schools mentioned in the article (GVSU, BGSU, UC, and maybe tOSU) and see what the cost of attendance is at each school. Obviously, visit each school to see what you like best. Cost wise, at GV you will get the OOS Award for Excellence which will give you In state tuition plus $1500. Therefore your cost of attendance will be around $17,000 or so since tuition will go up once you start at GV. You also could get other scholarships to knock down that price, but for OOS that is what we call “highway robbery.” If you were to compare that to say Michigan State University, their cost for OOS would be around $42000 without scholarships. As for cost the only school that would be cheaper than GV for you would be if you commuted to University of Cincinnati which would looks to be about $11,000 to $12,000. If you live in a dorm at any Ohio college you will probably pay more than GVSU. If you’re wondering why GVSU is so cheap for OOS, it is because it is a growing school and they are trying to get more OOS students to increase student body diversity and selectivity. Also, if you are a URM/Hispanic you will probably get more scholarships from GVSU.</p>

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<p>^I agree that GVSU’s Out of State cost is very comparable to in-state costs.</p>

<p>OP, definitely apply to see how things go. When GVSU offered my son scholarships they “compounded” them, so he was offered full tuition. So anything’s possible.</p>

<p>Be warned, however, that you are in an income category that according to the federal govt is not in “need” of fed grants, so you will not be pell eligible unless there’s some outstanding medical circumstance you didn’t mention. Your parents are not actually “poor” although they may be living to the limits of their means.</p>

<p>For grant and need based aid, for example, students from families who earn $20,000 to $50,000 are eligible (approximately) for decreasing amounts of grant (eg. at $50k virtually nothing.) So if your folks make $90k, sorry, but for a public school like GVSU, that’s not going to be considered “need.”</p>

<p>You and your parents need to have a discussion about whether they’ve saved any $ at all, or whether they intend to borrow to help you go to college, or whether they feel you’re on your own. You need to know this up front. Your parents also need to understand that there is not any federal or need-based program available that will pay your way – that is yours and their responsibility exclusively. </p>

<p>If they just can’t afford it, then maybe you should have a backup plan to attend a cc for two years and then transfer if it’s possible to “walk on” then. On the other hand, still apply, because maybe it will all work out and you’ll get the package you need from merit and other incentives. All students, irrespective of parental income level, can receive $5500 a year in fed LOANS – which is pretty standard in terms of student debt (eg. $250 to $280 a month to pay back over 10 years).</p>

<p>In addition, there are Parent Plus loans that your parents could take to provide a share. Qualifying is quite easy and repayment terms include some “in case of emergency” type of income scaling, etc. You can read up more on financial aid considerations at <a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5B/url%5D”>http://www.finaid.org</a>
Best wishes!</p>

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<p>First of all, thank you everyone for replying and for your help! I appreciate it!</p>

<p>I’m Hispanic! My mom is Mexican, so that’s what makes me Hispanic. I haven’t found anything about Grand Valley giving scholarships for being Hispanic, but they just probably aren’t on the website or something. But I looked at the Hispanic forum and didn’t find much that fits me. For example, most of the Hispanic scholarships are the generic “outstanding and community service” stuff. I’m not really outstanding and I haven’t done community service yet. (I’m in National Spanish Honor Society and we have to do 10 community service hours within the “Hispanic community.”) But do colleges like Grand Valley really give out free money to people just because they are Hispanic? And is it common to do so?</p>

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<p>When I first started at GV, they gave full tuition scholarships to all minorities including asians if they met low standards for the Bert Price Scholarship. After Proposal 2 in Michigan was passed, most colleges in Michigan including GVSU complained but GVSU had to get rid of the Bert Price Scholarship. Now they have the Early Awareness Scholarship and Urban Schools Scholarship that sort of takes the place of the Bert Price scholarship. I don’t know if you can join Upward Bound, but I know if you do join Upward Bound or Gear Up or another one of those organizations GV will give you a $3000 scholarship. I will tell you GV is mostly white, but they do have sort of a growing minority population. Plus, most URMs at GV are like a family/close knit since we’re not a huge school like other schools in Michigan.</p>

<p>Regardless, I would apply to GV and the other schools and see how each of them stacks up and what the financial situation looks like. I just graduated from GV and liked it a lot, but each person has their own tastes in a college.</p>

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<p>For the Early Awareness scholarship, it says:

</p>

<p>I don’t even know what those are. And for the Urban Schools Scholarship, I don’t go to one of those high schools listed. So my best bet is the Early Awareness Scholarship, so what would be best for me to do?</p>