Leigh Valley (penn state)

So I got into penn and was offered 16,620. I have low income and doubt I can go, does Leigh offer scholarships? I’m from Connecticut btw

You are an OOS student applying to Penn State? You got $16,000 in aid?

You can ask for more, but as an OOS student, it’s not likely you will,see additional aid from Penn State, in my opinion.

@thumper1 I’m not sure if it’s good or bad. Should I say yes? And do you go to Penn :)?

Two pieces of semantics and then a follow-up question. The semantics matter because otherwise it’s difficult for people to understand the question at hand.

  1. “Penn” is a different school – Penn State is always “Penn State” or “PSU.”
  2. Similarly, “Lehigh Valley.” (I’m guessing that one might be an autocorrect though.)

Question:
3. What do you mean by they offered you $16k? In what, loans?

If it was loans, that is all you are likely to get. Penn State is a state-related (kinda/sorta public) university whose first priority is PA residents. Also, paying out of state tuition for a branch campus is probably not the best idea. There are likely cheaper and better options in your own state.

The student is from CT. I. am curious what makes Penn State a better option than UConn? Both are public flagship universities located in somewhat remote areas. Both are fine schools.

CT would be instate for this student. Penn State is not.

Thanks. And I’m sorry I didn’t break this down!
So penn state said this
Federal Pell Grant: 5,920
Fed Opp Grant: 1,200
Loan:3,500
Loan:6000
Total: 16,620

You got a full Pell Grant which means your FAFSA EFC was $0.

Penn State does not guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students. It’s a costly OOS school.

You don’t have enough money to attend Penn State.

Do you have any affordable schools that you have been admitted to?

Yeah I figured… besides that school I got into Iona,Wagner, New England, mercy college, etc

So would the federal grants apply to any college? Including presumably cheaper ones in Connecticut?

Penn State does the 2+2 plan where in two years most branch students move to the main campus, which costs more than $40,000 a year out-of-state. They would only give you more loans to cover that, on top of the higher-than-average loans they already gave you.

Most of those colleges I mentioned have higher tuition than penn state, which shocked me

I received fasfa and only New England gave me the most merit scholarship money

If none of those are affordable for you, maybe you could take a gap year and apply to ones that will be? You really don’t want to have tens of thousands in dollars in loans. Any loans over the federal limit ($5500 freshman year, for a start) isn’t a very good aid package.

Yeah I might have too. I’ve also been applying to so many scholarships and haven’t gotten anything.

Your family has a $0 EFC per FAFSA, right?

You applied to OOS public universities, and private colleges…and it doesn’t sound like you got sufficient aid to attend any of them.

Did you apply to CCSU, SCSU, ECSU or WCSU? Or to any of the community colleges in CT…where your full Pell Grant and the Direct Loan would pay your costs…especially if you could commute from home?

The good news is the community colleges here have open enrolllment so you should be able to go there…which might be a good idea to get your general education courses completed at annaffordable place. Then transfer to one of the four year public universities here that would be mos affordable for the last two years.

ETA…you didn’t “receive FAFSA”. You submitted the gpfafsa form…and it was determined younwere eligible for the full Pell Grant, and a $1200 additional federal grant (SEOG?). And then you got Loans.

Is New England affordable with the aid they gave you?