<p>I just received my first financial award letter and I'm kind of confuse. I always assumed that I would be getting federal grant (Pell Grant or SEOG) because I have a very very low EFC (0). I was also kinda expecting Work Study... Any way, I received grants from the school and from the state government (Cal Grant), but nothing from federal grant. So, does that mean I don't get Pell Grant? Is it because it's still early, so the school haven't receive funding from the federal government? I plan on calling the school for answer, but I would like everyone's opinion, that way I won't be clueless all weekend. Also, if you qualify for Pell Grant, does that mean you are guarantee Pell Grant? Thanks for everyone's help!</p>
<p>*Is it because it’s still early, so the school haven’t receive funding from the federal government? *</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>If you qualify for Pell, it should be in your FA package.</p>
<p>Can you tell us exactly what your aid package included…include the name of each grant and how much it’s for.</p>
<p>Also, which school is this for?</p>
<p>I would expect to see a Pell grant in your aid package as long as you are otherwise eligible (are a US Citizen or eligible permanent resident, undergrad student that does not already have a bachelors etc). Do you have any federal aid in your award? Even loans like the Stafford? If not, the first thing that pops into my mind is that the school for some reason thinks you are not an eligible citizen?</p>
<p>Take a look at the Student Aid Report you received when you filed your FAFSA. Does it say that you may be eligible for a Pell grant? If not, you probably answered a question incorrectly. The most common cause is when students answer the degree type as graduate/professional rather than 1st bachelors degree. You may plan to get a grad degree, but it is not the degree toward which you are currently working. This is a common mistake.</p>
<p>So step #1 is to check your SAR (or just log into your FAFSA account & you can pull it up). If it DOES say you are Pell eligible, contact the school. If it does NOT say you are Pell eligible, review all questions related to degree program and year in school (under student section - there is also a dependency status question related to degree that could have been answered incorrectly). If you made a mistake, correct it. Note that this type of correction may result in selection for verification if you were not already selected. If you answered the dependency status question incorrectly & were thus considered independent based solely on the answer to this question, you will be required to add parental data & parent PIN to the FAFSA.</p>
<p>The school is Dominican University of California (located in San Rafael). I received a Trustee Scholarship (merit aid, 19000), a Dominican Grant (4900) and Cal Grant (9708). On my FAFSA, it says I am eligible for Pell Grant. My EFC is 0, so I know I qualify for Pell Grant, thus, I was expecting it.</p>
<p>I am US Citizen (naturalized). There was a problem before, SSA didn’t confirm my status as a citizen but I already fixed that by sending in all required documents. I didn’t receive any federal aid (grants or loan).</p>
<p>And you a US citizen or eligible permanent resident, first undergrad degree etc, no requests outstanding from the school for further information?</p>
<p>My S received a FA from SDSU and I am sooo confused can someone help me
Disbursement of Your Funds
Your Cost of Attendance</p>
<p>Living Arrangements:
Contribution calculated from your financial aid application:
State residency for tuition purposes:Residence Halls
2439
Resident</p>
<p>Grants Fall Spring
Federal Pell Grant $1550 $1550
State University Grant $1832 $1832
Total $3382 $3382</p>
<p>Direct Loan Eligibility Fall
<em>Gross/Net Spring
*Gross/Net
Activate your SUB</em><em>Estimated Subsidized Federal Direct Student Loan $1749/$1741 $1750/$1742
Activate your UNSUB</em><em>Estimated Unsubsidized Federal Direct Student Loan $1000/$995 $1000/$995
Request Parent Loan</em>*Estimated Federal Direct Parent Loan $5637/$5497 $5638/$5498
Total $8386/$8233 $8388/$8235</p>
<ul>
<li>A loan origination fee of 1.0% for subsidized and unsubsidized loans (then adjusted by a .5% repayment rebate) must be deducted from the “gross” amount of the loan.
A loan origination fee of 4% for PLUS Loans (then adjusted by a 1.5% repayment rebate) must be deducted from the “gross” amount of the PLUS loan.
For loan origination fee and repayment incentives information, refer to the OFAS Web site and then select the Loans section.</li>
</ul>
<p>Total Award $11615.00 $11617.00
For your records, and for comparison if your award changes, always print a copy of your award information.
*</p>
<p>I am a US citizen and I have not receive any phone call or email or letters from the school.</p>
<p>In one of your previous posts you said there was a problem with the SS administration confirming your citizenship for FAFSA. Did that all get sorted out?</p>
<p>I called Dominican U and was told to send in copy of US Passport or Certificate of Naturalization to prove my status (I sent in both). I haven’t gotten any other request, so I assume it was fix. Also, if they thought I wasn’t a US citizen, why would they give me Cal Grant?</p>
<p>Thuydeebird, you do not have any federal aid in your package. You need to contact the school’s financial aid office. It is possible that they still need to update your awards — they may need to clear the citizenship flag and offer the federal aid. With a full Pell & Stafford loans added to the current package, you will still have to come up with $7-8k, it looks like. I think you need to call & find out what is going on. You also need to make sure that adding Pell won’t reduce any other grants.</p>
<p>Collegemom7, the grants are free money. The loans are guaranteed student loans. This is all the aid that is being offered to your child. Your family will have to come up with whatever the difference is between cost of attendance and the offered aid. If your child will live at home, the gap between costs and aid will be smaller. Add up actual costs. Subtract free money (grants). The rest is yours to pay … only $5500 is available in guaranteed student loans to offset these costs.</p>
<p>I looked up SDSU. Living at home, the COA is about $16000; in residence halls it’s about $23000. The offered aid totals $11600. This means if your child lives at home you will need to figure out how to pay about $4500; in residence halls it will be about $11500.</p>
<p>Thank you is the estimated federal direct parent loan telling us this would be what we would be borrowing to make up the difference? 11,500 our EFC was 2436? Is that what the Federal Direct Parent Loan of $5637 for fall and $5497 for spring means? This would mean we would need to take that loan and that would be our $11,500 because I see at the bottom it states total aid?</p>
<p>Yes the Parent Plus Loan is a loan applied for by the parents. The student cannot apply for a Parent Plus loan. The other loans are student loans. The student applies and those are in the student’s name, no cosigner involved.</p>
<p>*This would mean we would need to take that loan and that would be our $11,500 *</p>
<p>This would be “per year.” Therefore, after 4 years, that would mean that you would borrow $45,000 (that’s if you qualify each year). </p>
<p>Since your EFC is low, that suggest that your income is too low for that much debt. You may already have some debt (car, home, etc), so to add $45k more debt is probably too much.</p>
<p>If you borrowed that much, your payments would be about 550 a month for 10 LONG years. If you don’t have an extra $550 per month now, how likely is that you’ll have an extra $550 per month in the near future.</p>
<p>Do you have any other children to put thru college? If so, then taking out a Plus loan isn’t a good idea because what would you when they go to college?</p>
<p>did your son apply to any CSU’s that he can commute to? If so, that would cost a lot less.</p>