<p>sorry I posted it twice my blackberry was acting stupid so…yea sorry about that :)</p>
<p>My daughter got accepted to the CARE program as well and I have spent this entire week trying to address several things that have been brought up on this thread. I feel fairly confident that the information I am about to give you is absolutely correct if you are PELL grant eligible.</p>
<p>1) Orientation and Fees for Orientation: I spoke with the Director of the CARE program yesterday. There is only one orientation required for CARE students - you will automatically be enrolled a few days after they receive your participation agreement and this will show up on your status. Despite what the person related to orientation told me and despite what my daughter’s blackboard account says she owes ($62) this DOES NOT have to be paid now. The CARE application just says the fee is deferred. So when the orientation people are telling you to pay it what they should be telling you is the fee is deferred. That fee can be paid when you get your financial aid for the summer. </p>
<p>2) Housing and Fees for Housing: For summer, if you are PELL grant eligible, (you will know this from your FAFSA form) there is no housing fee and there is a $50 fee for the fall. That’s it. Last Friday the housing office sent out a bunch of emails telling all students that Landis is not available for summer 2011. THIS IS NOT TRUE for CARE students. I called Housing directly and they are drafting an email that should be sent to all CARE students telling them that email should not have been sent to them and does not apply to them. If you want to make sure you are being recognized in the Housing Dept’s system as a CARE student you can call housing and ask them this question. They can tell you from within their system if they have you marked as a CARE student. The have also applied fees to my daughter’s Blackboard account but if you call them it is possible that they will not be able to see this from their system. They show NO housing fees for my daughter even though I can see them from her blackboard and I could even pay them directly from Blackboard if I wanted to. </p>
<p>For any questions on CARE - your final authority should be the CARE director or the CARE Financial Aid person (there is a separate CARE financial aid person - I believe his name is Mr. Nyahuma). Both of these people are extremely knowledgeable and easy to reach on the phone. They are also very friendly, will give you their direct phone numbers and will tell you outright that if any other department tells you to pay fees, housing is not available in Landis, etc. to have those other departments call them. </p>
<p>My daughter was accepted back in September 2010 so we have been around the block with most of the departments if anyone else has any questions. I think I have talked to almost every department by now. :)</p>
<p>Summer financial aid came out yesterday- today the financial aid toolkit is down for “processing”. FSU did this same thing when they assigned fall/spring financial aid and actually told me beforehand that they do this to keep from getting an influx of phone calls all at one time. For anyone reading this now or in the future let me warn you of something…</p>
<p>My daughter will be starting at FSU in June 2011 as a freshman in the CARE program. Her fall and spring financial aid packages were great! Her summer one was so ridiculously small that I felt like her college career was going up in flames ($300 PELL grant, $2500 in loans). I panicked and called financial aid and the CARE office this morning. This is what they told me.</p>
<p>If you are a CARE student and you qualify for even $1 of PELL grant assistance then FSU gives you a special grant that covers 100% of your summer costs (tuition, books, meal plan, incidentals, etc.). Mr Nyahuma, the CARE financial aid officer, has not been able to see before now who would be PELL eligible and therefore your summer financial aid package is not complete if you are in the CARE program and PELL eligible. He went so far as to say if you are offered loans and you even accept them, FSU will on your behalf decline the loans and issue you a special grant. Again this is only the case for CARE students who are PELL eligible.</p>
<p>I am only sharing this for informational purposes so that no one else is up nights worrying about how they are going to pay for their CARE Summer Bridge Program.</p>
<p>Good luck! :)</p>