The COA estimate on DD’s award package for spring 2017 semester is too low for her to show need for a subsidized direct loan. I’d like to justify an increase in the COA estimate as we will need a direct loan to make the cashflow work and would, of course, much prefer the subsidized one. Here’s the COA provided by the school for spring semester and my comments/questions below.
In-state tuition on her actual account statement is a little higher at $5,457 and the fees are a lot higher at $1,346. I'm assuming the school will have no issue with raising the COA to these amounts. Likely?
She will be commuting from home but I was surprised to see $0 estimated for room. Is this typical? I was expecting an amount somewhat lower than their on-campus estimate but not nothing. Is this usually a firm amount set by the school? Any chance of increasing this category?
A laptop is required for students in her major. Any chance we can increase the COA estimate the first semester by a reasonable amount, say $500? Or, maybe that would lumped in with the misc. category?
I would appreciate any thoughts or tips, especially from anyone who has successfully argued for an increase in their COA estimate.
She will be commuting from home but I was surprised to see $0 estimated for room. Is this typical? I was expecting an amount somewhat lower than their on-campus estimate but not nothing.
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She indicated that she’ll be living at home. Will you be charging her rent??
There is a “board” estimate for food…about $1900. Do you think she’ll eat $1900 worth of food if she’s living at home?
If she had indicated that she’d be living in some sort of off-campus housing, then there probably would have been an amount there.
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A laptop is required for students in her major. Any chance we can increase the COA estimate the first semest
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sometimes you can get a one-time technology allowance included.
I’d have her ask. The worst that can happen is that they say “no.”
I had a COA increase a few times by just asking. Once for a laptop, once for insurance (I think), and once for something else.
I’m checking for clarity. You want to have an allowance in your aid package for room when your kiddo will be residing at home? Are you hoping the college will help,pay your rent or mortgage?
Students who reside at HOME usually have an amount in the COA for things like food, and transportation…not room.
How I read the OP was that the COA is ~$12k, and the student will receive about $12k in aid, so there is no room to borrow the $2250 Stafford loan. The OP is trying to justify another $2250 in expenses so the student can take the student loan?
If work study is part of the FA package, the student could have that removed and borrow that amount, then get a job that isn’t work study. You can also cut down some of the other expenses like transportation or books. Food of $1800 is easy to reduce, especially if living at home (I fed my family of 3 on about $100/wk for many years). Only the tuition and fees are going to be billed, and you only need the book money up front. The other things that make up the COA won’t be paid until you need transportation in March or food in April. Cash flow shouldn’t be a problem by then as if you have a financial aid overage, you’ll have received the refund by then.
For $2500, can’t she get a job of offset (work study or part time job) some of this short fall.
Will you be able to file for the AOTC (credit)? If you get the $2500 credit as an increase in your refund, you should be able to roll back into her school expenses.
Wow. Lots of good feedback and input already. I can see that by trying to keep my questions simple, I left the specific situation unclear. We are getting $0 in need-based financial aid. Our EFC for the one semester is $7,105 and DD will get $2750 in state scholarship funding for the semester. DD is transferring to the state university after completing the transfer agreement at a community college so she will be a junior.
I’m sure we can reduce the actual costs of the indirect charges. DD packed lunch every day to the community college and expects to continue doing this, etc. However, what I’m trying to do is increase the COA estimate, if and where it can be justified and possibly approved, in order for DD to take a subsidized direct loan. This loan would be used to pay part of the direct costs, due in early January, which is why I mentioned cashflow. We can cover her day to day expenses out of current income. We will claim AOTC and will apply that to the Fall semester but that won’t help for the bill due in a couple weeks.
Sounds like $0 in the COA for room for a student living with parents is typical. Thanks for clarifying that. We don’t charge her rent.
Can she take an unsubsidized loan? If it’s just for one term…that should work. You can pay the interest yourselves at the end of this school year…thus “subsidizing” that loan yourselves. It won’t be a lot of money.
You can ask about an adjustment - there is probably something on the school’s website that outlines what budget adjustment requests will be entertained. I used to work at a large public U, and the tuition/fee estimates were based on 12 credits. We did not allow adjustments for those who chose to take more credits (although we did do adjustments for certain programs that had set requirements every semester - e.g., nursing).
thumper 1 - Yes, an unsubsidized loan is our backup plan. If all goes well, it will just be for one semester.
mommdc - The EFC I gave is the one on DD’s FAFSA SAR. For some reason, her school is showing a higher EFC of over $8K a semester. She’ll be asking about that as well.
It looks like the COA for one semester is about $12,000…right?
The EFC is $7100, and the grant is $2500 or so…so about $10,000 in covered costs.
That leaves about $2000 left…the student should b able to take a direct loan out in that amount. I believe the school will determine if it is subsidized…or not.
The school “EFC” is NOT a EFC like on the fafsa. It’s what the school is expecting YOU to pay each semester. It sounds like the school does NOT meet full need…so,your family contribution is higher than your FAFSA EFC.
You need to work with the FA office to figure out what will be subsidized and what won’t be. Remember $1000 of the loan (if you take the full Stafford) per semester is ALWAYS unsubsidized.
COA $12000
aid $ 2750
EFC $7100
need $2150
You should be able to take that much as subsidized. From the junior level, only $2750/sem can be subsidized, $1000 unsubsidized, so you are only talking $600 of additional unsubsidized if the school will not agree to increase the COA. I think they will, at least by the amount of the tuition/fees increase and all you can do is ask with the justifications listed in the original post. If you can show she needs more money because of the computer or extra commuting costs, ask. Also ask how they calculate the subsidized portion of the loan.
If you are just needing the money for cash flow, maybe a payment plan would be better and save you the interest? The interest on the difference between borrowing the $600 subsidized or unsubsidized will not be that much, but maybe the $30-50 fee for setting up a payment plan would be cheaper. Or, if you really just need it for the Jan bill but will have the cash in a month or so, you can get the loan and then cancel it when you get the cash (they will rebate the origination fee and any interest that has accrued).
Based on what you have posted about spring aid, spring EFC, and spring COA: Eligibility for need-based aid: 11,837 - 7,105 EFC - 2,750 scholarship = $1,982. She is eligible for a subsidized loan of $1,982. Overall, her loan eligibility for spring is 11,837 COA - 2,750 scholarship = $9,087 … but she is really only eligible to borrow what is remaining for her junior-level annual loan amount. If she didn’t borrow any in fall, she is eligible to borrow $7,500 in loans for spring semester. $1,982 is subsidized, and $5,518 is unsubsidized. If you don’t need to borrow the full amount, borrow $1,982 sub & the rest unsub.
Even if the student is not paying it, rent or mortgage plus utilities still have to be paid. When parents pay tuition rather than students, it still counts as an expense in the cost of attendance.
Perhaps the parents could have downsized to a dwelling with fewer bedrooms or moved to a lower cost of living area further from campus if they weren’t housing the student.
According to what I’ve read, the costs borne by living at home are the most badly underestimated expenses in financial aid formulas. They basically assume it’s “free rent” (as in this example), but money going towards the family’s rent or heat or maintaining a larger home is not available to pay tuition when family’s actual budgets are examined for why they are having trouble funding their kid’s college.
I will definitely look into the school payment plan. That is a good idea and may end up being the better way to go if they stretch the payments far enough. The school has cautioned that, especially with a mid-year transfer, that the state scholarship money will likely be delayed. So, we’ll end up having to pay the full bill first and be refunded the scholarship money later in the semester.
kelsmom - Thank you for the clarification on the loan amounts available for the second semester. DD has not taken any loans to date since the community college was affordable to us.