I am a low income student and I receive the most financial aid package you can get. However I still will have to pay almost 10k per year there and I was just wondering will I go into debt with work study or are there scholarships available to help me pay it off? I have little to no support from my family, they all want me to attend to Fresno State since I don’t have to pay for anything and because i live 30 min away. I need some real advice please and help because I don’t know who to turn to.
Where would you get the 10k from? Are student loans already in your financial aid package? You can’t borrow more than the standard federal student loans without a co-signer.
If you have been awarded work-study money, you still have to find a job at the college, and you have to work enough hours to make that money.
Sit down with your family, and run the numbers here: https://www.finaid.org/calculators/awardletteradvanced.phtml What is in the Fresno State aid package that isn’t in the UCD aid package? Is the difference simply that you would need to live on campus at UCD, but can commute from home for CSF? If you would be commuting, have you factored in the cost of that commute? What about the cost of your meals at home? Sometimes families find that their grocery bills really drop when their college-age kid isn’t living at home any more.
What was your FAFSA EFC?
@happymomof1 has the right questions there. Until we know those answers, hard to say what the comparative costs are. You say you have a $10k gap at UCD, but it we don’t know if you have loans and work study in your aid package. If you do, it is a problem as to where you are going to get that $10k gap, especially if you still have to buy books, supplies, personal items, transportation, etc. So, is the $10k gap comprised of what you will need to pay UCD after they have already maxed out aid (incl Direct Loans and Work Study) or are those resources still available to pay for things not direct billed by the school?
Commuting is not without its costs. It’s easier for families to include them in their overhead and not separate out that shampoo you are using, the addition to the electric used at the house, the food you are eating. It’s not like you or your parents have to lump sum pay those expenses. A half hour commute is not cheap either unless someone is dropping you off at school enroute to where they are going anyways. If you need to get a car, it means major expenses. I know someone who is saving a veritable fortune with school on line this term because the monthly Train and subway cards add up to $350/month, not to mention the buying meals and snacks for the day. Where I was working, for kids to go to Comm College 45 minutes away often meant another car had to be purchased with attendant costs of maintenance, repair, gas.
My cousin had one commuter and one who was living at college. Both now at home due to school closure and she’s saving money on the commuter but dishing out more for the one who has moved back home. The gas and eating out money She was dishing out to the commuter has ended but she now has to feed and supply necessities with additional cost to the one who was at school and pay g for that stuff out of pocket.
It sounds like the choice has already been made. The maximum student loan you can take out for a bachelors degree is $27k. UC-Davis is out of your price range, unless you start-off at community college. If you have the ability to graduate debt free, then take the scholarship!