Hello my top choice school, UPitt, just sent me my FA and it breaks down to the following.
Federal Pell Grant
5,920.00
Federal Subsidized Loan 01
3,500.00
Federal UnSubsidized Loan 01
2,000.00
Federal SEOG Grant
900.00
Federal Work Study
2,000.00
Panther Pride Award
7,500.00
Total Award
$21,820.00
From my understanding the school itself is only giving me $7500. This seems extremely low. Especically for a student who EFC from the FASFA is 0. I’m extremely low income my family’s income is less than $25k/yr. The COA at Pitt for OOS is around $45k/yr how am I supposed to even get close to be able to pay ~$23k/yr. Like I said I’m doing this alone. My father is extremely sick, hence the low income he can’t work, and I don’t know what exactly all this means, or if this aid amount is actually a good amount of aid. I just need help.
Are you out of state for Pitt? With a total cost of $45,000 it seems so. They do not guarantee to meet full need. Pitt may simply be unaffordable for you.
If you are a PA resident have you applied for a PHEAA grant?
Also they haven’t sent me any merit scholarship information, but seeing as it’s UPitt and you need ~33 ACT with a perfect GPA to get any merit scholarships, I probably won’t get any. My ACT is a 30 w/ a 3.7 GPA. If I do it will probably be their lower end 2k/yr so even if somehow I do get that I still have to find $21k/yr? I know that you can pay all of this off later in life or something, but I just really need someone to help me understand all of this.
“The COA at Pitt for OOS is around $45k/yr how am I supposed to even get close to be able to pay ~$23k/yr.”
Pitt is unaffordable then. What are your other options?
@TomSrOfBoston Yes I am OSS. And I was coming to that conclusion myself. It’s just like if they see that I’m 0 EFC then other offer to pay $7500 like why even give me admittance. I obviously can’t come up with the rest. This is just very unfortunate.
Sadly, but the school is not affordable. It’s an OOS public and doesn’t have funds for low income OOS students. That’s pretty common for OOS schools…they charge high OOS rates because your family doesn’t pay taxes there. Frankly, you were lucky to get the Panther Pride award.
You won’t be able to borrow the rest because you’d need a qualified co-signer and it sounds like dad wouldn’t qualify. That said, it would be a horrible idea to borrow that much anyway.
Where did you apply that is affordable?
The state related schools in PA are not generous with financial aid, even for in state students.
Unfortunately, you have been “gapped” meaning that your financial award from Pitt is not meeting 100% of your demonstrated need. Pitt does not guarantee to meet 100% of need, and is especially not likely to for OOS students.
Your FAFSA efc is used to determine what Federal Aid you qualify for (Pell grant, subsidized and unsubstantiated fed loans). FAFSA efc = 0 is not a guarantee that a college will meet 100% of your need, and in your case, Pitt did not.
Did you apply to any colleges that do meet 100 % of need, or colleges where you qualify for more merit, or affordable schools in your state? If you are not sure, post your college list and stats here to get additional advice. Pitt is simply just not affordable for your family.
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My sister told me not to worry about the costs of college even though my direct family (my dad) is very poor she is a surgeon and she cares a lot for me apparently, so I’m lucky there. I
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So is your surgeon sister going to pay? If not, then pick another school.
@CourtneyThurston I’m not sure this is my first FA award. I did apply to a few instate schools that I have gotten into, such as Ohio State ( I got deffered I honestly don’t know why maybe it’s a money issue) Miami (I just got my acceptance letter today actually!) Case Western (I was also deferred), and University of Dayton (I got admitted there no FA as of now). With UD however I did an interview for this Full ride scholarship that is actually very new, guaranteed on-campus job and study abroad scholarship while paying for literally everything. I believe I’d also get a $1k/sem stipend or something I’m not completely sure. Of course if I did get that scholarship I would attend UD. However, I still need to understand FA in general.
@mom2collegekids It’s not that my sister isn’t still an option I made this thread really to understand FA. I have sent it to my sister already, but I just had questions about FA that I couldn’t seem to find answers for in previous threads. Really I was wondering how do they expect anyone to actually be able to find $20k/yr when their EFC is zero and if someone was to do it how would they. I did just get this letter today and with my sister being a surgeon she hasn’t looked at it quite just yet. Also $20k+/yr seems a extremely high even for her. I’m not sure what number she had in mind as I did not directly ask when she first mentioned it. I’ll make sure to do that when she gets back into contact with me.
@mamag2855 I don’t know if any of my schools are “100% need” I’ll still post my list even though I could find out in a few quick searches.
University of Dayton
Miami University (Oxford)
Boston University (Will most likely be same situation as Pitt if I had to guess haven’t been deffered or accepted there)
Vanderbilt (I think they are 100% need not sure on that. I haven’t heard back but I’m not counting on getting in there)
And Pitt.
Have you applied to any instate publics other than Miami or OSU? They are the two most selective publics in Ohio and Miami is the most expensive. Did you apply to Miami before December 1st? That is the deadline for consideration for scholarships. What do you wish to study and do you live near a public university? The challenge you have is that any gap you end up with will be unaffordable for you. There are numerous less selective public universities in Ohio and many have areas of studies that they are strong in. You would be a top student in many of them and eligible for merit scholarships along with your financial aid. If you haven’t applied however, you must do it soon. If you have a university near you perhaps you could live at home and commute. It’s not the preferred way by many but it would allow you to afford to attend a university. Ohio really does have a well distributed university system and a number of branch campuses. You perhaps could apply to one of OSU’s branches and by doing well enough transfer to the main campus in a year. The schools you mentioned are all quite expensive and will only become options if they give you the financial aid you need. Good luck.
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Really I was wondering how do they expect anyone to actually be able to find $20k/yr when their EFC is zero and if someone was to do it how would they.
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Really, then don’t “expect” you to come up with the money. They understand that you’ll likely have to decline. They don’t accept students with the idea that they, the college, will make themselves affordable. They just accept based on stats. If the student can pay, then fine. If they can’t, then the student declines. Just like visiting an expensive car lot. Not everyone can pay.
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My sister told me not to worry about the costs of college
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your sister should NOT have told you that unless SHE was willing to pay. When affordability was brought up many months ago, it was done to make sure that you had affordable choices. Your sis should not have misled you.
@lvvcsf Those were the only two public schools that I actually liked. I’ve been admitted into Miami already and it was before the Dec 1st I did all my apps before Mid October. Hopefully I hear back better FA options from other schools, and hopefully get that UD scholarship. I hear back for the UD scholarship in two weeks.
@mom2collegekids She hasn’t told me anything about being able to pay for this. Why are you assuming so. Have you even been reading what I’ve told you.
She also told me not to worry about the costs AT THAT TIME. Because she would be willing to help. She told me to pick schools I like then take away schools based on cost. I think since you don’t have the whole back story you’re not correctly responding to what she actually said.
I don’t mean to sound harsh but if the above schools are the only ones you have applied to you stand a very good chance of not having an option that is affordable unless you sister really is willing to foot a good bit of the bill. All of the schools you mention are matches (to varying degrees academically) with Vanderbilt being a reach. A match does not mean that you have a 100% chance of being accepted nor does it mean you’ll be able to afford it.
Your financial aid package can include several things:
Scholarships (check on these some are renewable for 4 years, some are for 1 year only. The renewable ones will have renewability requirements).
University Grants (need based financial aid from the school that does not need to be paid back. There may be requirements to keep you grants)
Government financial aid ( Pell grants, work study, and finally Stafford loans either subsidized- the interest does not accrue while you are in school or unsubsidized - interest begins accruing immediately though you are not required to pay until after you graduate unfortunately the interest gets added to the principle)
The total of these is your financial aid package and the difference between this and the Cost of Attendance is your Gap - or what you need to come up with. With an EFC of 0 it will be hard for parents to borrow. If your sister is willing to help terrific.
She hasn’t mislead me at all. For one I just got this FA award letter today a couple hours ago. For two she hasn’t responded to me in any way based on whether or not she could pay THAT much for it. For three please don’t respond if you’re just going to be attacking my family memebers.
People here are trying to help. There is no need to get angry at our posts.
Unless your sister will pay for the funding gap for four years then you should forget about Pitt.