Need advice for USD financial aid, i'm clueless.

Paying for College
1

I need a lot of help right now, I’m stressing out and to be honest I don’t really know what to do from here, or even if I can go to the University of San Diego.

So basically, I was offered:
Federal Pell Grant: $5,625.00
Fed Suppl Educ Opport Grant: $800.00
Cal Grant A: $9,084.00
USD Grant: $2,900.00

totals to: $18,409 worth in grants

total cost of USD attendence and room and board (I didn’t calculate books or personal needs or books to kind of keep this strictly on the school fees and what I have to worry about now):
Tuition: $44,000
Room and Board: $12,042

totals to $56,042 per year at USD (not including other personal necessities or fees)

So the total debt PER year would be: $37,633

$37,633 x 4 = $150,532 in debt when I leave school
(This seems like insane, is it just me or is this the normal amount of debt that a college student usually experiences?)

My estimated family income is $137 per year, which wont add to much

So basically, USD is a school I really want to go to, but I’m not sure that I will be able to make it, for $150,532 in debt is a lot to handle.

I called the financial counselor and asked what my options were, which were limited to applying to outside scholarships (already did and haven’t heard back from any yet) and appealing the financial aid (which will take 2-3 weeks to receive a response, and the possibility of getting a maximum of a couple grand according to the counselor). I wasn’t offered any merit scholarships because the counselor said that it was extremely competitive. I cannot negotiate with the school either, for USD doesn’t take into account other school offers or financial aid. So it seems like my choices here are very limited, and I would love some support from you guys to give your opinions or advice on what I should do. Thanks in advance.

2

No, this is NOT affordable! $150k in debt is not “normal,” or even anywhere close to normal. And it’s also much, much more than you’d be able to borrow. Federal student loans give you, at most, $7,500/year (and it’s less than that your first two years) - it adds up to $27k over all four years.

Do you have any less expensive options???

3

Your family income is $137 a year? How do you pay your living expenses on $137 a year? I’m guessing you meant your EFC is $137 a year…is that correct?

This school is not affordable for you. And I seriously doubt there is anything you could say that would make this school give you enough money to attend.

Did you apply to a CSU within commuting distance of your home? Do you have an affordable option in your acceptances…because this one is not.

My DD was accepted to USD in 2006. When we went to the financial aid office to talk to them, they were actually a bit on the rude side. The financial aid officer told us they do NOT discuss their awards, and they do not recalculate them. Then she stood up and left the room. Seriously.

We did ask to speak to the director of financial aid…and told him that we understood their policy, but found their financial aid officer to be rude and abrupt.

Our kid went elsewhere.

4

Yeah Estimated family contribution is $137/yr **** sorry not income.

And yeah, I applied to a few publics around my area, but USD was my top choice, I was hoping to receive more grants and more scholarship money, its a shame that there is nothing I can do to receive enough money to attend.

Your estimated cost of attendance is $61,561.00.
You have been awarded financial aid which totals $61,561.00

^so on my portal in financial aid for USD it told me that I was “awarded” this financial aid, which mainly consisted of loans. So even based on the loans that they give me, I am still out of reach I guess?

so besides the grants that were given to me, I was also given loans:
Federal Work Study $3000
USD Trust Loan Program $4000
Federal Perkins Loan $1000
Fed Direct Subsidized Loan $3500
Fed Direct Unsubsidized Loan $2000
Fed Direct Parent PLUS Loan $29652

So I was told that loans are not really what I’m looking for, most importantly grants since it was “free money”, but including these loans, is the school still too expensive for me?

5

First…the parent plus loan is something your parents would need to take…not you. With their income, I would strongly suggest they NOT take $29,000 plus in loans. That is just not reasonable.

This school is not affordable. Ypu only got $18,000 or so in grants. That is 1/3 of the cost of this school. Taking out 2/3 of the coats each year on loans…nope, do not do it.

Look at your other acceptances. See which ones will work for you.

6

A $30,000 Parent PLUS loan has been “awarded” as “financial aid”? Gee, thanks USD! What a crock.

7

Even if the PLUS loan weren’t part of the package, they’ve got you loaded down with $6,500 in federal loans your freshman year, plus a $4k USD loan . . . that’s way, way too much!

Can you tell us where else you were admitted? We’d like to see this story have a happy ending . . . :slight_smile:

8

Completely agree with dodgermom – this is a terrible financial aid package for you. :frowning: Tell us about your other options.

9

Sorry Kiddo, I know you must be disappointed. USD is not known for being financially generous.

The good news is that with a pell grant, cal grant, summer earnings and likely some federal student loans you could get yourself to a CSU and there are lots of nice options. I know it’s not your favorite but USD just can’t happen unfortunately. It’s a pretty school but I wouldn’t say it has anything worth that much debt to offer.

10

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$150,532 in debt is a lot to handle.


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It is waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy tooooooooo much to handle. that is about 5 times too much!

Curious…what is your major and career goal?

What are your affordable schools?

11

This is a terrible package one of the worst ever reported here, in fact. Sorry you did not win one of their big packages. That was your only chance for that college- they do not ‘meet full need’ for all applicants. An appeal is not going to give you big money. It is really shameful for them to list the Parent Loan in the financial letter.

Your parents are supposed to start paying that right away and they have no means for that. Which means it defers while interest piles up. For the school to even suggest that low income people can take out this sort of debt is sickening. They should have just given you a bill so you can see right away it isn’t affordable or possible for you.

Tell this school good riddance, they already know you aren’t coming and if you did you would have to drop out due to lack of funds and qualifying for the Parent loans. NO ONE does this except a few clueless idiots who don’t bother to self educate about this stuff.

Here is what a 150k loan payment looks like (although it would be more than that based on the numbers and the interest piling up and capitalizing on the Parent loan and the unsub loans) Have fun making a 2,000 loan payment.

Loan Balance: $150,000.00
Loan Interest Rate: 6.80%
Loan Fees: 0.00%
Loan Term: 10 years
Minimum Payment: $50.00

Monthly Loan Payment: $1,726.20
Number of Payments: 120

Cumulative Payments: $207,144.85
Total Interest Paid: $57,144.85

I think a lot less of USD than I used to.

12

Oh for heavens sake. USD is a private university that does not promise to meet full need for anyone…Nevermind everyone. This student did not get much from them, but why would this make you think less of this school @BrownParent‌ ? There are tons of colleges that do not meet full need for all where students got similar packages.

13

Schools like USD are between a rock and hard place. It’s not like they have the money to fund low income students, but are just being cheap…they don’t have the money. Should they be need-aware and simply reject kids like this and therefore no aid pkg is generated?

What are schools like this supposed to do when low income kids apply?

If USD is a FAFSA-only school, then they can only hope that the accepted student has a money-source other than what FAFSA reveals (maybe a grandparent who’ll pay, a NCP, home equity, etc).

I don’t think we should “dis” USD. They’d get more criticism if they simply rejected all the applicants with EFCs below - say - $25k.

14

I admit this is somewhat unreasonable, but I think less of any school that includes Parent PLUS loans as a substantial part of their packages to dependent undergrads.

I realize that it’s common practice and that there’s nothing wrong with ethically, but I’ve always felt that Parent PLUS loans are not really financial aid, any more than a credit card or a private student loan should be considered “aid”.

15

Cannot get emotionally invested in any college before the FA award comes in, unless you know you are a full pay student. OP, you might love USD right now, and it’s a beautiful school, but you would end up hating and resenting this college, assuming you could financially swing it at all for the next four years. The purpose of college is to educate you and prepare you for a self-supporting career. At such extreme personal cost to you and your family, USD would not be serving these purposes for you.

I do not fault USD for considering and accepting low income students who cannot pay these types of bills. Yes, it would be worse to outright reject them. However, I do fault USD for being rude to inquiring families (per the anecdote provided above).

16

Colleges don’t “award” PLUS loans, do they? Why is that phrase even used in their financial aid packages?

17

I agree, the phrasing could be better or at least the PLUS loan should be a separate line on the award letter. Some schools do a better job of representing this fund on the award letter than others. Colleges include the PLUS in the award letter as an option for the family, and some families do choose to borrow it. It technically isn’t “awarded” as the parent has to pass the credit check process.

If a family is unsure of what the PLUS loan is (or any fund on the award letter) - it isn’t very difficult to do a quick google search to determine what the award is and decide if that is something they might want to pursue.

18

I agree - this is a terrible ‘package’, but really - all of the schools we applied to did the same thing, so its not unique to USD. We got a letter from Santa Clara - your ‘financial aid award’ is ready! Log in to see your ‘award’!, etc, etc, and it was totally loans, not even a bread crumb of merit or need based (other than the fed loans, obviously). I feel like if you are going to go buy an overpriced car, they at least give you a few thousand off so you think you are getting a good deal.

If you are low income, you would probably have to get USD’s largest merit (25K) plus Cal Grant, student loans, and some outside scholarships to afford it. You can get an extra 5K if you went to a Catholic high school, but I’m assuming the lower income students wouldn’t have done that. On their stat sheet, they say that the average student loan debt over 4 years is $29,000 which might sound good, but really that just means that the average student takes out the max student loans!. Plus loans wouldn’t be in that figure.

19

If you read the letter again carefully you’ll find that it is telling you to go to college somewhere else.

20

UPDATE: USD has sent me an email saying that they revised my financial aid package, and is now offering me $30,709 in grants alone.
The cost of attendence would be $44,000+$12,000 for dorms for the first year, and from there I will probably try to commute from home for around only $44,000 a year, and I’ll probably end up leaving USD with around a $65,000 debt.

My other choice was Point Loma Nazarene University, and calculating all costs and loans, I will end up with around $45,000 in debt when I leave.

Are both good or is the debt still too much for USD? Thanks for the replies btw guys, I really appreciate it. Wouldn’t know what to do without ya!