<p>Hi, I could definitely use some financial aid advice.</p>
<p>OK, so I'm 17 and got accepted in to Stony Brook, UMass, UConn, Albany and Binghamton. I ended up opting for UConn because they gave me the Leadership scholarship which amount to a total of around $49k. My family comes from PR and knows nothing about the college process here in the states. The process in PR -I'm told- is rather simple and definitely not as expensive. That said, when I got the letter from UConn with the $49k amount on it, we were naive and assumed it would cover the tuition which we were told would be around $11k per year if we would move to CT and I would opt for commuting rather than getting a dorm.</p>
<p>Now it turns out that, with the scholarship and the Pell grant, I would end up owing around $6k per semester that I simply do not have and have no way of getting. My mom's credit is less than great, and we know she'll never be able to get a loan to fund the remainder of the tuition costs. I'm 17 and can't get a loan myself; having no work experience, credit, or a co-signer with good credit.</p>
<p>I know this makes whole situation probably makes me come across as a complete idiot, and I hate myself so much for letting this happen... What are my options?</p>
<p>first of all–stop hating yourself! i know it’s ‘just’ a figure of speech, but the words we use to describe ourselves are powerful! </p>
<p>you don’t mention whether you were offered loans. federal loans don’t require your parent to sign on, so call and ask someone in financial aid at your school about these. do you have to be 18 to take these out…??? when do you turn 18?</p>
<p>a 6,000/semester gap is big. are you sure you’re reading your award correctly? </p>
<p>is it too late to consider a more affordable school?</p>
<p>Thank you for your replies, everyone. I really appreciate it. :)</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids:
Yes, that’s right; the scholarship of $49k is divided among the 4 years and they told me I’d get In State rates if my family were to move to CT. I was offered a Federal Direct Subsidized Loan worth $3,500.00, but I think I have to be 18 to take it out, and I won’t be 18 until March 2012. And, no, I wasn’t offered any work-study.</p>
<p>Since you’re all basically saying the $6k seems a bit much, I checked out my UConn account right now and it looks like they have my residency as “Out of State”, which may explain why the amount I end up owing seems like a lot more than I had anticipated. I’m sure I chose “In-State” when applying, so this must be an error on their part. I’ll make a call to the Financial aid office when they open up tomorrow.</p>
<p>Yeah, if they said that you somehow qualified for in-state and they have you as an Out-of-state student, that’s where the calculation gets strange.</p>
<p>Check on the 18-year-old question as well - I do not think that is accurate. Many college freshmen are 17 and able to get either a Perkins loan or a Stafford loan.</p>
<p>OP - When I was 17 I was able to accept federal student loans in my name. I did need to do entrance counseling since it was my first loan. Have you tried accepting the loan award? If you have issues, I would call UConn’s FA office. They should be able to manually fix it if you are unable to accept the loan on your own.</p>
<p>You do not have to be 18 to get Stafford loans. Also you should be able to get 2000.from a unsubsidized stafford in addition to the 3500 you are getting. And yes do check into the parent plus loan. If your mom applies and gets denied, they will give you 4000 more with your stafford loan. Making it a total of 9500 dollars in federal loans that you do not need a cosignor for.</p>
<p>I think you need to double check the residency requirements to see if you actually will be considered in-state. I took a very brief look at the CT statute and I’m not seeing how you could qualify by merely moving to CT at the start of the school year (if that’s what you’re doing). I hope you got the advice about in-state status in writing, and not just from someone who happened to answer the phone. Write down all your questions and call the Financial Aid office as soon as possible for clarification of the residency and borrowing issues. Be sure you get he name and title of whoever you speak to, and don’t settle for a low-level office worker.</p>
<p>*I was offered a Federal Direct Subsidized Loan worth $3,500.00, but I think I have to be 18 to take it out, and I won’t be 18 until March 2012. *</p>
<p>Not true…and you also can get a 2000 unsub loan. And…if your mom applies to Plus loan and is denied, you can get $4k more.</p>
<p>I was wondering the same thing as MommaJ. Who told you you would be eligible for instate tuition? It is very unusual for it to be the case that you become eligible for instate tuition immediately on moving to a state. (and you putting instate on your application does not make you instate - the school determines that based on their, and their state’s, rules regarding residency).</p>
<p>If the school sees that your high school transcript is from anywhere other than CT, I am pretty sure they will consider you to be out of state. I thought your parents have to have a domicile, registered car, etc, in the state for at least one year before you can be considered in-state for school.</p>