Hello,
Sorry if this has been asked before but I need some help understanding my financial aid package.
My EFC is 0$ as I am in a low income family. My understanding was that my tuition would be paid for me…?
The estimated cost of attendance is $53,754 and I got grants and scholarships equaling $20,775 and the rest are loans…
It doesnt say anything about any tuition paid or anything… What does this mean?
If it helps this package is from NYIT ( New York Institute of Technology) and Im in California so its out-of-state…
Sorry if this seems ignorant but Im a little bit taken a back by this…
What school? If the school does not guarantee to meet full need for all students, then there is no guarantee that your full cost of attendance will be paid.
NYIT is private, and the amount you were given is less than tuition by around 10K.
And if you mean “the rest are loans” as over 30K per year of loans? I didn’t think that was possible through the school, you’d have to get private loans. Which your family or you couldn’t easily with an EFC of 0.
I’d think there must be some better choices out there for you - did you apply to any public colleges?
I am a California resident but i did not apply to Cal unis because I would have been 5 units short of the 60 needed to be able to transfer as a junior transfer. I am cal grant eligible…
I thought that this kind of thing would follow me throughout the US as my income wouldnt change… Is this not the case?
Yes, the loans total 32,979 a year. They all say “Federal (Un)subsidized loan” and then a “Parent plus loan” … I applied to NYU, NYIT, FORDHAM, and CUNY…
If you can get a Calgrant and Pell grant and a $7,500 loan, California schools should be much more affordable
for you. If you need 5 more units, why not take them this summer?
Did you run some net price calculators on the college websites? What are they saying how much aid they will give and how much they expect you and your parents to contribute?
Out-of-state public colleges will cost you more than CA colleges because your parents aren’t paying taxes in those other states. If my child left NY to attend a public college in your state, we’d be paying much higher costs than you would because we’re not residents of your state. Private colleges may give merit awards that make up some of the difference, but the best ones generally go to freshmen.
An EFC of 0 just means that you qualify for the federal Pell grant (about $5k/year). As a junior, you could also take the $7500 federal student loan, so you have roughly $12k to work with, + the Cal Grant, + whatever work earnings you have. Is there any place in CA that you can attend for that?
NYU is notorious for not meeting need. CUNYs are NY public colleges that cost OOS residents ~$37k/year. NYS taxpayers aren’t going to foot the bill for OOS residents to attend our schools, so I wouldn’t expect a lot of aid there.
These schools are not affordable for you. How will you get $30,000 or more in loans? If your EFC is $0, it’s unlikely that your income will sustain loans in that amount.
Would you be able to work this coming year…take those five credits, and apply next year? I’m not sure what that does to your Calgrant eligibility.
Did you apply to any affordable colleges? Any? So far, the list you have provided here does not sound promising.
NYU and CUNY do not guarantee to meet full need for all students…and they don’t.
OP: if you take thumper’s advice and finish up your five credits next school year and then looking at applying/transferring to a CSU/UC, I would recommend putting your Cal-grant on a hold through your webgrants account. You are only eligible to receive the Cal grant for 4 years, and it would be a waste to use it for the small amount of credits you have remaining. You will want to preserve your last 2 years of eligibility to use at a 4-year California school if you can.
In your first post you say you thought your tuition would be paid–so why is that? Certainly the school didn’t tell you this. That is not how it works at most colleges, especially public colleges. Also privates that do not promise to cover your need like NU and NYIT. Sometimes a freshman will get lucky and they will decide you are desirable and give you a rare full package, but that is just not going to happen for a transfer student. You were gapped and that’s what it means–your need was not met, there is a gap between your aid and the cost of the college.
The California UC are extremely generous to transfers from CCC and meet full need with just a student loan and work study. This is very rare. Finish your units this summer and apply in the fall. For CSU you would just get funds for commute from home, though.
@asn0205 - To answer your original question, there are three main types of need-based financial assistance for college students:
(1) Federal aid - Pell Grants, SEOG grants, and various types of subsidized and unsubsidized loans. At the most, these wouldn’t cover more than about $10k - $15k per year, and the cap is usually closer to $10k.
(2) State aid - varies from state to state, but never covers students who aren’t from that state.
(3) Institutional aid - this is aid from the college itself. As noted above, some schools guarantee to meet a student’s full need, but the overwhelming majority do not. And those few that do meet full need are among the most competitive private colleges in the country!
So you can’t assume that just because you have no money, your expenses will be covered. There’s only one place where that will happen (outside those few very competitive schools), and that’s in California - your home state. You’ll need to get a summer job, and possibly commute from home (room and board won’t necessarily be covered - just tuition), but you should be able to get an affordable education at a good state college or university.
I’d strongly suggest that you follow @kgos16’s advice: look into putting your Cal Grant on hold for a year, get a job, complete the 5 credits you need (but pay for them yourself - don’t waste your state or federal aid on 5 credit hours!); and apply to the CSU’s and UC’s next November. Make sure to include at least one school that’s within commuting distance of your home.
Thanks to everyone for your help. I really appreciate it.
After reading all your replies, I now realize that I was ignorant and overly ambitious. I’ve had 2 siblings that went to Unis in CA and they always had all tuition and all costs paid for them. I just figured that was because of our situation as a family, being low income. I never thought that it would be different if I went to another state for school, just because I don’t live there, although it makes perfect sense.
Anyways, I should’ve researched more extensively before putting all my faith into the Unis I applied to in NY. I guess now the best thing for me to do is follow @kgos16 's advice. I will continue at my Community College here in San Diego and finish my units and probably complete my IGETC (which I had kind of forgotten about since I was so sure I was going to school out of state) and then apply to UCs and CSUs for Spring or Fall 2016.
I’m so sorry things don’t look like they’re going to work out the way you’d hoped. But your plan is a good one - just make sure you do absolutely everything required to put your Cal Grant on hold.
And you’ll get to New York one day - just perhaps not as soon as you’d hoped. Best of luck to you!
@austinmshauri Thanks a lot for your help. Everything makes perfect sense
I was always told oos would be very expensive for me but I didn’t think it applied to me… I was being very stupid. Thanks a lot for doing the calculator at CUNY. I cant believe it would be that expensive at a public uni that was my bottom choice. I guess I will just take the rest of my units and apply to cal unis for 2016.
Best of luck to you!