<p>My daughter is planning to go to OU (Oklahoma) in the fall. She is an average student and did not qualify for merit aid. We are in state, EFC is $2285 (single mom, $43k/yr, 2 kids). I got her aid package yesterday. </p>
<p>Pell $3395
Stafford $5500
Work Study $4000</p>
<p>Total $12895</p>
<p>COA is $23304, but taking out all the extras, it is about $18500. Their package leaves me over $10k short of their COA. I believe they advertise that they meet 90% of need most times. Are we just the exception? </p>
<p>This leaves me a sizeable amount to come up with. I really don't count work study toward the total since she won't be able to pay that full amount towards her bill and will need some of that for day to day living. She will get $4k grant from her Indian tribe, but FA does not know that yet. I thought we would qualify for more, like a Perkins, or maybe tuition waivers. When I did the schools net price calculator, it estimated my EFC pretty accurately and estimated a $2k tuition waiver. They accepted her FAFSA on Feb 3, she was not admitted until Feb 24 though. Then they requested verification. Does your place "in line" for FA not start until they have every single thing they need from you?</p>
<p>Unfortunately we live a few hours away. With the Indian grants, I am looking at taking out around $4k plus loan. I was hoping I would not need to do that, but I am responsible with my money and can make it work. I also am very lucky that my younger daughter who is a hs freshman qualifies for our state free tuition program, and has verbally committed to an athletic scholarsip so I will not have to pay anything for her college. That makes the plus loan decision much easier. </p>
<p>I just thought with such a low EFC she might qualify for a little more. I also thought maybe they gave away all of their other aid before her file was complete since we had to provide verification which seems a little unlucky if that was the case.</p>
<p>Schools that meet anything less than 100% of need just post their average award . . . so some families might get more, and others might get less.</p>
<p>That having been said, if your daughter’s award is significantly different from what was indicated using the net price calculator, call the school financial aid office and ask for an explanation. It’s always possible there was a mistake somewhere - either at your end or at theirs. So call and ask!</p>
<p>As for Perkins, those funds are limited and tend to run out quickly, so a lot of students who qualify don’t end up getting it.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, if your daughter can get a summer job, that should help with the costs.</p>
<p>Thanks dodgersmom. I willl call just to be sure there was not a mistake. If it is what it is, thats ok, we can make it work. My daughter has had a job for 2 years with the same place and basically pays for all her spending money, car, gas, etc. She has managed to save about $1k already. She will be working a lot of hours this summer so she can save, save, save for college!</p>
<p>Would it be better for her to accept the work study job, or stay with her current company? She works for Jamba Juica as a shift lead and loves the company. Their Norman location has already said they will hire her when she goes to OU. I know work study is more favorable for her FAFSA, but the longtime employment would also look good on her resume I would think. Does work study vs regular job really affect the FAFSA that much?</p>
<p>Is this a public school? Public schools dont generally meet need.
I know our local schools only offer very small awards even for national merit.</p>
<p>Work study is considered financial aid, and so is deducted from income on FAFSA when calculating need.
Off campus jobs are not.</p>
<p>However, FA could take away workstudy, once they learn of the outside grants, so she is probably better off staying with her current position.</p>
<p>She can accept the workstudy for now, and then wait and see about actually using it. Many students find that it is very difficult to pin down that on-campus job, and don’t get enough hours during the year so they aren’t able to earn the full amount that they were promised. There also is nothing wrong with holding down both a work-study and a separate off-campus job provided the student can manage their time well.</p>
<p>I know it’s very late but are there any schools which will give a tuition waiver based on her American Indian status. Where my S went to school he was friends who were AI and took advantage of the tuition waiver. I’m not sure if that was through the school or the tribe. They were Ojibwa.</p>
<p>Just looked it up. It seems to be through the state. You have to be a resident of Michigan though.</p>
<p>I’m sorry you did not do better. I don’t think you lost out on money being late. These state schools do not tend to meet need. </p>
<p>She might as well accept the work study unless the school will replace it with loans and see what OU has in terms of offerings in that area. The only think WS offers is that the amounts are not counted for financial aid and unless she earns over $6K that’s not going to happen anyways. If she is close to earning that this year, maybe using the work study will keep her under. Make sure when you fill out the FAFSA that all of her bills are paid so that she has no money in her accounts. 20% of everything she has in assets with no asset allowance is the hit on student assets. If she needs an account to keep some of the money, open one joint with her with your name and ssn first on it so that you are the primary to report those assets. </p>
<p>My SIL’s niece found a very nice work study job that pertains to her major second semester at her school purely by chance. She could not find anything at first especially for the small amount she was given, just $1500 or so, and just took employment independently. Then she found a departmental position and is now working there quite a few hours using work study and then non work study. More work study can be requested for your DD if she finds such a position because there is allowance in the EFC for that.</p>
<p>You’ve done a great job in providing for your children’s education. I wish the system gave you a little more.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for the comments and advice. I have learned a lot lurking on this site for the past few years. I am grateful for the aid she received and will do whatever is within my means to help her. She is a hard worker and willing to help herself as well. She will definitely accept the work study, as I believe she could still keep her job at Jamba Juice, just reduce her hours to one or two shifts a week. It’s possible her father could still help, but I’m not holding my breath, he barely pays child support now, but that’s a whole other story!</p>
<p>That’s the issue with OU it’s pretty bad unless you have OHLAP, and basing on the package, I’m assuming you unfortunately missed out on it, how many local scholarships has she applied for? That’s the good thing, every little bit you can get will help out substantially!</p>
<p>From what I’ve gathered, the only three ways to go to OU with minimum loans is to have OHLAP, be rich, or be a super ridiculous kid to qualify for their insane merit scholarships :/</p>
<p>I would advice getting on Cappex or another scholarship website and searching for any whose deadlines haven’t passed yet, that and like I said, spam any local ones she can find. I had a friend who, although she didn’t go to OU, when scholarship crazy (and only on small ones) and ended up with a sum of 12k from multiple 500, 1000, and 2000 dollar ones. Best of Luck! bum deal though :/</p>
<p>Sorry to hear that your D was badly gapped.</p>
<p>*I believe they advertise that they meet 90% of need most times. *</p>
<p>that isn’t what that stat means. And, I don’t think they are saying that. </p>
<p>The OU stat is 82% of the ENROLLED freshman class had their need met. That likely means that they have many students with high/highish EFCs so it’s easy to meet 10% of their need. </p>
<p>and that stat ONLY deals with the average of ENROLLED students. So, there can be a whole bunch of accepted students who were badly gapped, who did not enroll…so they’re not included in the stats. </p>
<p>Since you said that your D didn’t qualify for merit aid, that’s likely the issue. Those who got merit aid in their pkgs were probably more likely getting their need met.</p>
<p>Yes tipa891, we missed out on OHLAP because I was married to her father during the years she was eligible to apply and our income was too high. Fortunately my younger daughter will qualify. </p>
<p>Thanks mom2collegekids for that explanation. That makes a lot of sense. </p>
<p>I called the Financial Aid office today, but I think I was speaking to a student who was guessing on a lot of the things I asked. She said she thought that scholarships had not been decided and that state grant money had not been decided either. I think I will call back tomorrow and try to get an actual FA counselor. Also, I got a notification from FAFSA that a correction was processed today, but when I logged in, I could not tell what was corrected. It just said it was from the college and had the word “processed” with todays date. Any idea what that all means?</p>
<p>I just figured something out, I think I missed a deadline unknowingly. The financial aid office awards need based scholarships. When we submitted my daughters application for admission, it stated that this would also be her general scholarship application, so I thought that was it. However, it appears there is another application for financial aid scholarships. All this time I thought we had already applied based on her application for admission. Apparently, the admission application does not include the financial aid scholarships. I wish that had been made more clear. It says priority deadline for FA scholarships was April 1. Ugh. Since they are need based, I am surprised FAFSA is not enough of an application. I am going to have her fill out and submit tomorrow. Maybe by some miracle they will still have money left.</p>
<p>I finally got through to the FA office yesterday. I was told that they have not awarded tuition waivers yet or state grant money and the person I spoke with thought that was strictly first come first serve based on the date they received your FAFSA. So, she told me it would be a few more weeks before I know our total aid package. She did not know about the FA scholarships because those are administered throught the scholarship office. </p>
<p>It seems odd that they would give us a “partial” package, do other schools do this?</p>
<p>Madmeg, many schools have merit awards given out by admissions and financial aid by the financial aid office. What you may have gotten was a standard package that you get with certain EFC. I don’t see any OU money in there at all other than work study, and even that is through federal funding. Your DD would get the PELL and Staffords almost certainly, nearly anywhere she went to school. those are the federal entitlements and have absolutely nothing to do with OU awarding anything. </p>
<p>So you were smart to check out if this were it. Hopefully she gets more from both Fin Aid and Admissions. Need would not likely be in the picture for most Admissions scholarships though I have seen some merit within need awards. Once Admissions gives out the merit awards, the package goes to financial aid so that there is no double dipping. Also federal rules do not permit you to get federal funds above and beyond what your EFC makes you eligible to get, other than PELL. So, there is an integration of benefits that is done before the final package is given. </p>
it’s pretty bad unless you have OHLAP, and basing on the package, I’m assuming you unfortunately missed out on it, how many local scholarships has she applied for? That’s the good thing, every little bit you can get will help out substantially!</p>