What federal grants do you have per year that total $13,000? The Pell Max is $5775. If your school does SEOG, I seriously doubt that it’s over $7000 a year. So what are the federal grants you have annually that add up to $13,000?
8,500 university grant and 4,465 from pell grant= 12,965
@shhschughes, I misread your total COA as $39k, not $31k. Are your parents borrowing the $7k, or can they pay that? Part of the confusion is your use of the term “federal grant” for the $8500 institutional grant. The Pell is federal, the $8500 isn’t.
Where is the $60k debt coming from? YOU can only borrow $27k total.
Something isn’t right…the student thinks he can take out $15k in loans…and he thinks he got $13k in federal grants. I think it’s impossible to get $13k in federal grants. The max Pell is around $5800, and the max FSEOG grant is (I think) around $4000k. So combined would be $10k…and I think getting $4k of FSEOG is rare.
Thank you for the clarification. For the record…a university grant is NOT a federal grant. It’s a university grant.
Still…how will you borrow your remaining costs? You, the student, can only borrow $5500 for your freshman year. Your parents would need to borrow the rest.
Is the total cost to attend $31,000? Does that include room/board/books/fees/health insurance?
http://financialaid.uconn.edu/cost/
Work study pays about $900/semester
http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Students-facing-tough-competition-for-campus-jobs-3518575.php
So you can pay about $21.8k/year ($13k grants + $7k parents + $1.8k work study), leaving about $9.5k/year in loans, or about $40k over 4 years. I would say that’s a reasonable amount of loans to take out, but your parents will have to co-sign for them. Another option would be to commute to the local community college for 2 years and then transfer to UConn, which would likely require you to take out only $20k in loans.
You should not realistically plan to receive any scholarship money - plan on treating that as an extra bonus if it happens to materialize.
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8,500 university grant and 4,465 from pell grant= 12,965
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Thank you for the clarification. The Pell Grant is the federal grant.
Did your aid pkg come with any loans? If so, how much and what type are they?
Sorry, Im late to the post.
Is $60K a lot in student loans
Heck yeah it is! Especially if you don’t know how you will pay it off.
Even $40k is too much. If the maximum student loan total is about 27k, so i
t means your parents take on the extra 13k, on top of their supposed 28k contribution. If the SAR was 1400, you’re a low income family. How will they pay this extra back? What if they lose a job? Did they pay the 7k for hs or you got some of that reduced by a scholarship?
There can be ways to shave ‘some’ expenses and you can get a summer job. You an cut down cots of books, pick the cheapest dorm, etc.But right now, you’re not looking at that, you’re trying to justify large loan totals. That’s a mistake.
Yes it is, but really, it depends on what you plan to do with the degree. If you would like to work for a non-profit when you graduate, you are going to be hurting.
What do you plan to major in?
Generally, college costs increase each year. You haven’t accounted for this in your assumptions.
Do you have any younger or older siblings with college plans?
How are the parents going to pay $7,000 with an EFC of $1400?
I would commute to CC for two years and then transfer and finish last two years at UConn.
Work summers and weekends and save up money.
@mommdc If they’re already paying $7000 a year without a problem, chances are good that they can continue. The loan amount is pretty scary though, especially at that income level.
@shhschughes2 - Given the financial details you provided I think you would only need to borrow $3-4k per year. UConn’s COA is $31000 and you wrote you are receiving approximately $20000 in outside grants and parental help. That leaves you with $11k per year to make up, working part time during the school year and summers you can net $7-8k. Good luck!
Take a look at the breakdown of the school’s COA and see if you can pay less. Is the room and board built into the COA the highest cost dorm/meal plan, or the lowest, or the average? If it’s the highest or even the average, you might be able to lower your costs by choosing the least expensive option. Is there a lot built in for books, travel and personal expenses? Those are areas where you can often economize. If you can economize and reduce your COA, then between the aid you have, your parents’ contribution and a summer job (or two or three), you might be able to bring those loans down to a reasonable amount. Are your parents willing to take out Parent Plus loans or co-sign private loans? As others have said, the amount you can borrow on your own is limited.
Email your admission rep (google “UConn Admission staff”) and ask whether they might be able to reassess your financial aid package because your EFC is $1340 and the amount you have to pay is causing difficulties for your family.
(Do not mention the 7K but outline any medical expenses, any person who has special needs, etc.)
At worst they’ll say no, you won’t be worse off.
You have 11k per year to make up: here are ways to shave off some costs. Of course, you’ll have to live frugally and you will have to use the free entertainment on campus, eat on campus and not order pizza, etc. But it pretty much makes UConn affordable without extra loans:
plan to rent your textbooks or buy them used: rather than $850, expect $600 (-$250);
get the cheapest dorm: hosuing costs are counted as $7,800, but the cheapest dorm is $6,600 : -$1,200;
they count $5,650 for the meal plan bu the cheapest meal plan is $5,225, and it looks plenty sufficient (unlimited access to dining hall) = - $425.
UConn counts $1,100 for transportation: don’t go home often and drive/take the bus, that’ll quickly be cut down to $500 at most. (-$600).
Miscellaneous, ie., pizza money+ toothpaste+ new socks = $1,700-> you can cut that down if you’re frugal: -$500.
TOTAL: -$3,000
=>$8,000
You can work part time starting now and make about $1,500 between now and graduation. After graduation, you can work full time and earn $3,000. Does that sound doable?
You’re down to having $3,500 to find. Work study, working over the holidays, any savings you have or extra hours in the summer, and you’re okay.
Will it be easy? No, it won’t.
But you don’t “have to” take on extra debt.
The parents have an EFC of around $1000 and are already contributing $7000, not sure they should be consigning loans as well.
But OP needs to look at this and plan, look at the expenses as MYOS did, get activated, find a job now, etc.
Not say, “A lot of other people I know are paying a 4 year total of 80,000 and higher,” as if that makes it sane.
Thank you to everyone for all of the responses! My parents received a decent amount of money as inheritance, which they were directed to put aside for mine and my sister’s college expenses which, when combined with their EFC means they can put forth 7k.
I initially did exagerate a bit in the original post but that was only to attract more responses sorry! (but it did seem to work)
I found many of your responses helpful and only a couple highly critical.
Many of you asked for a breakdown in the loans I’m recieving:
Federal Unsubsidized = 2k
Federal Subsuduzed = 3.5k
Federal Parent Loan Eligibility = 12,815
Since my family plans on being able to 7k is it smarter to not take out an unsubsidized loan and then have my parents only take out 7,815? or is it smarter to just have my parents take out 5,815?