<h1>I got total grants of 5,700 per semester while their COA is 26k. I qualified for ~7k in loans</h1>
<p>I hope the OP comes back…</p>
<p>Is she saying that she got 11,400 in grants plus $7k in loans? If so, then she’s sitting pretty good. She can ask for some work-study and work a summer job…that should about cover basic costs.</p>
<p>^ That’s harsh. People with an EFC of $0 can’t save like you did.</p>
<p>What’s harsh about what m2ck said? It is not a terrible package even if it’s not extremely generous. All systemwide and campus fees are clearly covered if the total grant monies is $11.4k. More than covered even since they only total about $7k estimated for next year. I did not see anything offensive in what m2ck said. I didn’t see her say anything about needing to have saved, only about asking for some workstudy and having a summer job to help make up some of the gap. It’s a reasonable suggestion.</p>
<p>m2ck: I think you might be right. The break down was very confusing by the OP, I haven’t been able to tell whether $7k/semester was meant or $7k/year. Room and board is quite ridiculous, unfortunately, at many CSUs and UCs. My own is about $15k the past couple years at UCSC. This has been a discount :(. Room and board, according to the 2012-2013 estimate for SDSU is set at $13k. It’s crazy!</p>
<p>Is she saying that she got 11,400 in grants plus $7k in loans? If so, then she’s sitting pretty good. She can ask for some work-study and work a summer job…that should about cover basic costs.</p>
<p>===============</p>
<p>That’s harsh. People with an EFC 0 can’t save like you did.</p>
<p>==============</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>First of all…what do you mean by “save like you did”? Are you talking about ME? If so, why???</p>
<p>Why can’t a student with a 0 EFC work over the summer and put some of that money towards college costs?</p>
<p>The system isn’t set up where 0 EFC kids can go wherever they want (sleepaway schools) and have everything paid for. There is some expectation that there needs to be some “self-help”…and why shouldn’t there be?</p>
<p>Yes! R&B is ridiculous at UCs and CSUs. Public Univs usually have some cheaper options.</p>
<p>I am pretty sure that this person is referring to the semi-condescending post about people saving for college because they know that it is coming our whatnot. I didn’t catch the username.</p>
<p>Sent from my VS920 4G using CC</p>
<p>Thank you guys for your responses!</p>
<p>Alright, this is really all the info I can give because this is pretty much all they sent me:</p>
<p>Per YEAR:</p>
<p>Pell Grant: 5550
State University Grant: 5.9k
Cal Grant: Not stated. I also checked the calgrant website and it hasn’t said anything about SDSU yet. I have gotten my Cal Grant estimate for University of the Pacific though as well as two community colleges.
Loans: 14,900 </p>
<p>COA: Tuition: 7k
Books and Supplies: 1.7k
Food and Housing: 13k
Transportation: 1.4k<br>
Misc./Personal: 2.8k </p>
<p>Does not say anything about work study. </p>
<p>And, what is SEOG?
Yeah, I realized the missing link seems to be the Cal Grant. Is it possible they will send this information later? I am qualified for both A & B. </p>
<p>My mom said she can offer me 3k a year and my brother said he can offer me 2k a year. I guess, looking at the costs as just tuition and board, the financial aid does not seem to be too bad. But even with that said, looking at it as just tuition and board seems a bit unrealistic.</p>
<p>All that matters with CSAC’s website is it says you have qualified and been awarded Cal Grant. It does not show all colleges you submitted FAFSA to and you will need to update it with which college you will be attending once you make your final decision.</p>
<p>I would check with SDSU, though, to see how Cal Grant affects your FA package. They should already be aware you were awarded it, but it looks like it was overlooked in your letter? I’m really shocked it’s not there when CSAC says you have it.</p>
<p>Note that Cal Grant is only good at a CCC if you are receiving Cal Grant B and you only receive the living assistance amount ($1,551). There is no tuition/fee assistance at a CCC.</p>
<p>I would call SDSU to inquire about why Cal Grant wasn’t included since you have already been awarded it. They should at least be giving you the $1,551 portion for B and making up the difference of the tuition/fee assistance for systemwide fees themselves. My hope would be the $1,551 would reduce loans, not grants you already have shown in your letter, but you’ll have to talk to SDSU about that.</p>
<p>What an incredibly sweet brother you have to offer that :). And yes, we’re all agreed: room and board is so mind boggling crazy in California. But if that’s the least of your worries, it’s not too terribly hard to figure out with some planning. Like m2ck said, a summer job and savings will help a lot. Ask SDSU about workstudy monies (but I will say that finding a job depends on the campus). If you tighten your belt a bit, it seems doable to me between everything and if you can pitch in something from summer earnings. I see a lot of fluff in that COA (even with crazy gas prices, transportation is pretty high) that can be reduced pretty easily.</p>
<p>Let’s just look at it as tuition/fees and room and board since the rest is something you will have to figure out exactly how much you will need to spend:
tuition/fees: $7k
room and board: $13k</p>
<p>Total Grant (free) money: $11,450</p>
<p>After tuition/fees, there is $4,450 left over. This will leave $8,550 left to cover for housing after apply that $4,450. With the $5k total your mom and brother are offering, that will leave $3,550 left to cover.</p>
<p>Here, there’s some choice. Either you can use summer earnings to cover that remaining $3.5k or you could probably get away with just taking out minimal student loans (Perkins if offered and subsidized stafford) as well to give some money up front (or to cover the remaining room and board and summer earnings are for day to day things). A workstudy job could also be used to cover day to day expenses.</p>
<p>Seem a little less crazy now? Even removing the other aspects of COA and reducing it just down to tuition/fees and room and board, you can see how it can work.</p>
<p>The other posters are much better at breaking down things like the above than I am, though :). There’s a ton of ways to make this play out and to make this work and they will likely give much better insight to that than I can. I mostly just understand California aid and was able to make it work for me. They’ll be better at explaining SEOG too ;).</p>
<p>I know it’s scary and that the room and board is insane, but you’re really in a good position right now. It’s not as impossible as it seems if you put in some work :).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>About SEOG and Funding</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It could be that OP did not receive SEOG because the school had no funds to give when they got to her application.</p>
<p>Question to those familiar with Cal Grants. Does the Cal Grant award vary depending on the college? The OP says she/he got a Cal Grant estimate for some other schools. Would it be the same…or close for the schools that are “missing”?</p>
<p>??? the loans… 14,900 in loans??? I don’t think that’s right.</p>
<p>Are you sure you have that right? I think your loans would be half of that amount. I think you’ve been given Direct loans (5500) and some Perkins (about 2000) and those are “per year”…not per semester.</p>
<p>Please state what KIND of loans they are and how much each is. I think you’ve accidentally doubled the amounts.</p>
<p>Do call the FA office and ask to speak to someone about work-study. You need to get some work-study…that would help.</p>
<p>Your brother is very sweet, but if he’s a college student himself, he may find it difficult to do that every year. I wouldn’t count on that.</p>
<p>5550 pell</p>
<h2>5900 school grant</h2>
<p>11,450 in grants</p>
<p>I would suspect that if you get any Cal Grant money, then the school would reduce its school grant by the same amount. I’ve seen Calif schools do that.</p>
<p>So…if you have 11,450 in grants, and about 7,500 in loans, that should cover basic costs. You can use the earnings from a summer job to pay for misc costs.</p>
<p>From what I can see, the financial aid package is do-able. The true cost is $20,000 (tuition, room, board) and books will be around $1000 (buy used). So let’s be conservative & say the student will need about $23,000 for the year. Grants=$11,450. With the $5000 from family, that brings “free” money to $16,450. Even if there is no Cal Grant (which there hopefully WILL be), adding in $5500 Stafford loans brings the total money available to $21,950. That is pretty darn close … even without a Cal Grant, working (dining hall always a good option for jobs) should close the gap.</p>
<p>Thumper: Cal Grant varies based on the type of school. For UCs and CSUs, systemwide fees are covered. The systemwide fees are different between UCs and CSUs (higher for the former), so the amounts received from Cal Grant are different.</p>
<p>I believe this year the systemwide fees were just shy of $12k for UCs (I forget the break down at the moment)? They are just under $6k for CSUs.</p>
<p>Eligible privates receive a set amount (about $9k-ish I think is the current amount?) of tuition/fee assistance, but this is one of the things being proposed to be changed (if it passes, the amount would be a drastic cut to about half if I recall right). The reasoning is probably trying to get the state grants used more in the state run schools rather than the privates, but I haven’t been following it terribly closely.</p>
<p>The only thing that remains the same between all of them is one part of Cal Grant B. All recipients would get the $1,551 living allowance amount regardless of school. This is also the only part of Cal Grant A or B that can be used at a CCC.</p>
<p>I’m confused myself why it was not mentioned in the SDSU FA package. It sounds to me like an oversight. All the OP has to do is indicate on CSAC that SDSU is the college of choice to have it show up on the OP’s CSAC account. Cal Grant, if awarded, is valid at any eligible college.</p>
<p>I’ve seen this before…while the Calif school is awaiting Cal Grant eligibility notification, the school will throw in a “school grant” which gets adjusted downward (or removed) once the Cal Grant is awarded. I think schools do this so that they can move ahead with FA pkgs knowing that Cal Grant info will be coming along soon.</p>
<p>I would not be surprised to hear later that the FA pkg gets adjusted to include the Cal Grant…but the total grants remains about the same. </p>
<p>That said, this student really needs to ask about work-study. And that loan info seems wrong. I also don’t think she should rely on her brother’s offer. It’s a sweet offer indeed, but he may find that he offered more than he can give.</p>
<p>If it’s Cal Grant B, though, most of the school grant will likely stay since B (on paper) is missing the frosh year tuition/fee assistance. The school usually makes that up anyways. I just wonder what the $1,551 amount would do (reduce school grant or reduce loan).</p>
<p>Just so strange when so many packages seem to include it preemptively too.</p>
<p>Agreed about workstudy :). And of course shouldn’t rely on the amount from brother, but it would make life a little bit easier if he is able to follow through on that. Something perhaps to think of as a bonus if it can happen? Loan does seem odd, but the OP needs to come break that down as well so yourself and others can better look at that.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your information, once again. I feel a little less stressed about this financial aid craziness. </p>
<p>For those of you who want to know, this is the break down for the loans (I’ll just put the Net instead of Gross):</p>
<p>Estimated Subsidized Federal Direct Student Loan: 1732/1733
Estimated Unsubsidized Federal Direct Student Loan: 990/990
Request Parent Loan: Estimated Federal Direct Parent Loan (approved credit required): 4524/ 4525 </p>
<p>The / is to separate Fall and Spring. </p>
<p>And to add, I am not entirely sure about SDSU but I will be asking about work study when I am more certain. Anyways, SDSU was the first financial aid packet given to me so I was curious if this is what all my fin aid would look like for other CSUs. Also, as an estimate, would I have to take out more loans if I were to choose a UC? Or about the same?</p>
<p>And about the Cal Grant- I am a bit confused on Cal Grant B. I know it is supposedly better than Cal Grant A, but how so? I know initially, you don’t get much. But after the first year, you get a lot more? Is that right? </p>
<p>A bit of good news though- I recently received a $1,000 scholarship so that will definitely help 
And yes, my brother IS very sweet but of course, I will try to not have to take him up on his offer. Same goes for my parents (though that may not be as realistic).</p>
<p>Cal Grant B is worth $1,551 x4 years more than Cal Grant A.</p>
<p>Cal Grant B, on paper, only is shown to give tuition/fee assistance after the frosh year. Cal Grant A is shown for all four years. However, UCs and CSUs make up this difference the frosh year that Cal Grant B has. Cal Grant B is the grant meant for low income.</p>
<p>So if I’m reading your loans right, they are per year:
Subsidized: $3,465
Unsubsidized: $1,980
PLUS: $9,049</p>
<p>I’ll leave loan advice to the others… just putting it together as a year amount to be easier to see :)</p>
<p>It was me who was somewhat condescending…I apologize for my tone because I was in a bad mood.</p>
<p>Assuming the OP was just questioning and trying to understand what her aid package really was then I was too harsh. BUT, if she is thinking that something is wrong that all her costs aren’t covered and thinks they SHOULD be, then I stand by my post that college tuition is not a surprise, and nobody should EXPECT financial aid (not counting loans-those aren’t free $) to cover every dime including room and board, unless they live many miles from higher education.</p>
<p>I think the community college system is meant to help those who can’t afford to start at a 4year college. Maybe she was just naive to think 0 EFC meant all costs would be covered. If so, her HS needs to do better about educating families about the process. Our HS has sessions about if a couple times a year.</p>
<p>Also, to the person who mistakenly called out m2ck and basically said that not everybody can work to save $. Really? A student can’t start saving babysitting $? Get a job in HS? Mom or dad can’t work a second part-time job? I’ve seen it done. No, everybody can’t do it…but I do not accept the entitlement mentality. I have a sis-in-law who really irritates me because she whines and complains about her situation…I really want to tell her to GET A SECOND JOB! (she’d not on assistance or anything…just complains and does nothing to change it)</p>
<p>NOT saying the OP has entitlement mentality, just that I hate it when people want handouts.</p>
<p>One more thing, cause I’m on a roll…I have a friend who takes plenty of vacations and stuff and saved 0 for college and has close to 0 in long-term savings (thankfully they have a 401k). Because we saved, and she didn’t, her EFC would be lower than ours. How is it fair that her kids would qualify for more grants and loans than mine. Seems like we are penalized for sacrificing…</p>
<p>By the way, I’m in a bad mood again so I might still sound mean…son was throwing up Tues and didn’t go to classes. I know he missed a test and can make it up, but don’t know if he’ll lose points. I just read a text that says he thinks he’ll need a dr appt tomorrow when I pick him up for spring break, so I guess he’s still sick. I’m afraid he’ll bomb the make-up test if he’s feeling crappy because he won’t study well. I can’t even think about the other work he might have messed up or missed. AND he has an orthopedist appt on Friday for a back issue he’s been dealing with.</p>
<p>NJMom…</p>
<p>I understand how you feel. And, yes, the CC system and even the local 4 year state school is supposed to be for those who can’t afford to go away to school. With a Pell Grant, a student loan and some earnings, most kids can afford to attend their local CC and/or local state univ. </p>
<p>Enough funding is usually provided to low income students so that they can attend a local school with the addition of some personal earnings. That’s because tax-payers aren’t likely going to fund “the whole nine yards” of COA for a student to go “away to college” without paying a dime. </p>
<p>There usually is a “self-help” contribution expected…and that shouldn’t just be loans and work-study, but should include a summer work contribution (even the elites expect that). At a minimum, meal plans, personal expenses, and travel should be paid for with “self-help”…because taxpayers shouldn’t be covering toothpaste, shampoo, airfare, or Friday night pizza with the pals. </p>
<p>It is a problem in Calif, because kids will skip over their local CSU and want the sleep-away experience at another. That’s fine, but that doesn’t mean that the tax-payer has to fund the whole experience. We don’t fund boarding K-12 so that a child can have a better “fit” or fun experience, so why would we fund sleep-away colleges?</p>
<p>There was a time when rarely would a CSU student not commute to school. There might be the odd student who lived in some rural part of the state who couldn’t commute but the majority of students lived within the county and commuted. The CSUs had very few dorms and the ones that they did have often had athletes in them. Even most of the UCs had many commuters. Few parents were willing to pay for their kids to “go away” when there was a decent CSU and UC within driving distance. And, since the CC system in Calif has always been good, many would start there first.</p>
<p>@Imagirl</p>
<p>I also applied SDSU as a safety. (I got accepted by Cal Poly as well. I am still waiting for the financial aid packet) My financial info might be helpful:</p>
<p>San Diego Resident
Estimated Costs: $26014
Total Grants (Pell + State University Grant): $5035 per semester, $10070 full year
[Pell Grant - $4090]
[State University Grant - 5970]
Qualified for Cal Grant B, missing in the financial aid status: $1,551 + tuition for 2nd years+
EFC: $1454</p>
<p>Loans/Saving/Scholarships needed: $13006 for first year
Loans/Saving/Scholarships needed: $13394 for 2nd years+</p>
<p>$13000x4=$52000
I wonder how much can I earn from work-study. The amount seems absurd to me. Under my calculation and the UCs’ net price calculators, I need to pay less in UCs than SDSU.
Hopefully I will be accepted by UCs and other privates and they will have better financial aid packets…</p>