Hello there, today I received a financial aid package from SUNY Geneseo and I am not going to lie, I am really disappointed.
Here is the breakdown:
TAP: $5165
Pell Grant:$5125
Suny Tuition Credit : $1330
Federal Direct Subsidized Loan: $3500
Federal Unsubsidized Loan: $2000
Federal Perkins Loan: $1500
Federal Work Study: $1500
EFC:$645
Packaged Parent PLUS Loan: $3090
The total cost of attendance to Geneseo is $23,210 with tuition, housing, books, etc.
My family is really struggling financially as seen in my fafsa where my family of 3 makes less than $15000.
Although half of the costs is covered by grants, the loans really terrify me. Me and my family doesn’t have the ability to really keep up with $10,000 in loans so I’m not sure if this will be the same for the other SUNYs I got into: Binghamton, Stony Brook, and Albany. Is Geneseo just not a great school for financial aid or that SUNYs don’t give very good aid in general.
Is there any college that you can commute to? If you don’t have to pay for housing that will help you save a lot.
Do you have a break down for the costs at SUNY Geneseo? What I see on their website is that tuition and fees are about $4000 and housing/meal plan is about $6000, but that’s for 14/15, not for 15/16. I would take a look at the costs for Geneseo and see how much of it you actually have to pay. You don’t have to pay full price for things like books or transportation (if you don’t live that far away), and you can choose the cheapest options for housing and meal plans.
Most colleges don’t offer a lot of financial aid; it looks like you basically got the maximum amount of federal financial aid available – you would have gotten all of this (except for possibly the Perkins loan since not all schools participate in that) at any other SUNY but there’s no guarantee that you will get much more from the others.
It actually is a pretty good package. You were only gapped 3,090. If you can earn that in the summer your family would not have to take out that loan. If you can get some local scholarship for 500 or 1k that would help too.
Wait and see. The two things that may be different at one of the other schools are (1) work study and (2) SEOG grant. Both work study and SEOG are funded by the federal government, and funding is limited, especially for SEOG. At another school, they may have sufficient funds available for you to receive a larger work study award and/or a SEOG grant.
I can tell you that last year, my son was admitted to four public universities, and only one of them awarded him a SEOG grant. His work study awards varied from one school to the next also. So you just never know.
It’s a great package. You have over ten thousand paid for by tax payers, half of it covered by the state. As someone who gets no TAP award and struggles to pay my NYS state taxes on top of one child’s SUNY tuition, I find it off putting that you’d complain about having to take loans to fund your own education.
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My family is really struggling financially as seen in my fafsa where my family of 3 makes less than $15000.
Although half of the costs is covered by grants, the loans really terrify me. Me and my family doesn’t have the ability to really keep up with $10,000 in loans so I’m not sure if this will be the same for the other SUNYs I got into: Binghamton, Stony Brook, and Albany. Is Geneseo just not a great school for financial aid or that SUNYs don’t give very good aid in general.
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You probably only need to take the student loans…which you will “keep up with” after you graduate and get a “real job”.
In the meantime, you need to work/save over the summer to earn the money that the Plus Loans would cover.
If your family’s income is that low, then why isn’t your EFC O??? You may need to check that. If so, you’ll get more Pell.
Hello there, today I received a financial aid package from SUNY Geneseo and I am not going to lie, I am really disappointed.
Here is the breakdown:
TAP: $5165
Pell Grant:$5125
Suny Tuition Credit : $1330
Federal Direct Subsidized Loan: $3500
Federal Unsubsidized Loan: $2000
Federal Perkins Loan: $1500
Federal Work Study: $1500
EFC:$645
Packaged Parent PLUS Loan: $3090
The total cost of attendance to Geneseo is $23,210 with tuition, housing, books, etc.
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How much of that $23k is “personal expenses, travel and books”??? You can’t expect aid to cover every little thing…Schools often expect students to cover their toothpaste, shampoo, travel, and books.
How much are “direct school costs” (tuition, room, board)
You probably do not need a thousand dollars for travel expense and a thousand dollars for personal expenses. So your direct cost plus 1k for books is $20300. You might be able to cut corners on books and buy used to save money. You receive almost 11.5k for free! And have 1.5k in work study. If you take the 7k in loans (Stafford and Perkins), you should be able to pay for college. You can always reduce this amount with a summer job and try for local scholarships What is disappointing you?
Can his family get at least $1000 back with the AOTC?.
It’s probably difficult for a college kid NOT to spend $1000 a year on personal expenses, simply because of all that entails. That is only $25 a week for 10 months. Not hardly much at all.
However, the travel costs are probably high.
You can rent books or buy used text books to cut those costs.
You need to NOW find a job…start part time, work hard, so that you can work full time over summer.
Then find a job during the school year. Your work study amount is low, so find some part-time job that is maybe one weekend day each week.
He has gotten a great package. He has the maximum Tap and Maximum Pell (based on his EFC). Unless he is admitted to the Honors College or EOP, he will receive similar packages from Albany, Binghamton, Stony Brook.
Unless OP was accepted via EOP (and it seems that he was not), he will not be getting SEOG or any additional monies.
OP’s package covers the direct cost of attending Geneseo (tuition room and board).
What OP must plan for is health insurance and additional misc.
Op will need start up monies because he cannot count on work study until s/he actually gets a job and starts working.
Op will need to set up a room (even with the minimum items)
I agree with others, that if op wants to go away to school, s/he needs to get a job (maybe 2 jobs), pound the salt so that s/he will have the money to fill the gap in the financial aid package. WHile OP’s parent can apply for a PLUS loan, if parent are denied a PLUS loan, Op will be able to borrow an addition $4,000 as an unsubsidized loan.
I understand the disappointment of not being able to afford a certain college but the reality is that this is an amazing financial package. College isn’t free. And it’s not a right. If you can’t afford this college, then you may need to try a commuter college for two years…or take on a job where you make up the gap. Sorry to sound so harsh but my kid is going to have to turn down several colleges that she would dearly love to attend (and has worked hard to get into) because we literally can’t afford the tuition.
He got the PELL award the aligns with his EFC The max Pell is aligned with having a 0 EFC. Once your EFC hits $100, the amount of PELL that you are eligible for goes down .
Even if you have a 0 EFC, unless you are accepted EOP or into one of the honors programs which cover tuition room, board fees and books), you can get a maximum package for NYS and it will not cover the full cost of SUNY. A full TAP/Pell combination will cover SUNY & SUNY if you live at home, but not if you plan on not living at home.
Actually, that’s a great package. Essentially, you’ve got everything covered :tuition, fees, room and board - (you’d eat at your house, right, whereas they even cover your food! And this in turn will help your parents.)
The only things you have to pay for are the books, paper supplies (notebooks, pens…), transportation to college (and back for the break), and your own personal expenses (toothpaste, etc.)
You’ve got $7,000 in loans, but most of it is subsidized so very low interest. You’d be within the amount of debt that a college graduate can be expected to pay back after graduating.
Packaged Parent PLUS Loan: $3090 <- this is not a loan to take, it’s just an indication of how you can find the $3,000 for your books, etc. If you start working now and set money aside, plus work all summer, you should have this much, if not more, by the time school starts.
If you’re a family of 3 who makes less than $15,000, it’s strange your EFC isn’t zero, so check into it, but the only difference it’d make is in the $645 contribution your parents are expected to make (it should be zero) and in getting maximum Pell.
However, at worst, you can probably earn the $645 in addition to the $3,090 if you start working now and save everything your family doesn’t need.
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I understand the disappointment of not being able to afford a certain college but the reality is that this is an amazing financial package. College isn’t free. And it’s not a right. If you can’t afford this college, then you may need to try a commuter college for two years…or take on a job where you make up the gap. Sorry to sound so harsh but my kid is going to have to turn down several colleges that she would dearly love to attend (and has worked hard to get into) because we literally can’t afford the tuition.
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Exactly. Some seem to think that taxpayers, schools, etc, are supposed to provide for every little thing. NO. The student, and parents, are first in line to pay for college. There are sources of help, but they’re not going to pay for every aspect of your life. You’re old enough to work and pay for some things yourself. That’s life.
However, we don’t know the family’s financial situation, only what op has written here. We don’t know if family is self employed, we don’t know if there are other family members working or contributing to the household. Perhaps family is not able to fill out a 1040A. Op has been given a package based on what is on his/her FAFSA. Once OP does the IRS data retrieval tool, turn in the IRS transcript or goes through the verification process package may be changed if warranted.