Need FA advice / help understanding my FA package

Paying for College
1

Hello, today I received my financial aid package from Ohio State, which is my first choice I suppose but I’m not particularly attached to any of the colleges I applied to. I do like Ohio State, though. While I think I understand everything, I still have some questions.

To give some background I am a female, in-state student with a 29 ACT and 3.77 UW/3.87 W GPA. My major is environmentally-related. My EFC is $2497.

Ohio State says that their estimated cost of attendance is $25978. My financial aid award was:
$10,010 scholarship (renewable for each of the four years as long as I keep a 3.0 GPA. Supposed to cover the exact cost of tuition.)
$3365 Federal Pell Grant
$4500 in School Grants
$3000 in work study
$2606 in Federal Unsubsized loans
$2497 in Federal Subsidized loans

So total $17,875 in scholarship and grants, $3,000 in Work-Study, and $5103 in Federal Loans, but the total of all three is estimated COA - $25978

I am very happy with financial aid award and was honestly not expecting anything close to this. I originally had a $2850/yr merit scholarship that they replaced with a full tuition scholarship that I was genuinely shocked to receive. Are they being extra generous for any particular reason? I don’t feel as if my stats were that impressive or that my application stood out in any particular way. This is the best FA package I have received by far, since it only has me taking out about $5100 in federal loans. I’m just confused because I wasn’t expecting this nice of a Financial Aid package.

Another question I have is about work study. I have exactly $2,000 saved for College expenses which I was thinking I’d use it for books. I believe I can save up another thousand before I begin college (I have a job where I earn around $100 a week, which I get more hours in the summer for too), making it $3,000 saved for books/other things or the equivalent of my work study. I still plan to take the work study, but I wasn’t sure if I could use the money I made from work study as general money I may need while I’m in college.

Sorry that this was so long-winded, but I have one last question. My sister will be a sophomore in college next year, she goes to a branch campus of Ohio University. For her freshman year she received around $3500 in federal loans and then had to pay the rest out of pocket from savings. When we submitted her FAFSA it mentioned that she was eligible for a Pell Grant. Is she likely to get it or should she not hold her breath? Either way I believe she will be okay.

Thank you!

2

Sis will get the Pell Grant. Her EFC has dropped to qualify because you’ll be in college as well. However, once she graduates, your EFC will go up and you’ll likely lose your Pell Grant.

Do the work study, and SAVE the work study earnings (savings from work study won’t hurt you on FAFSA, remember that next year when you submit.)

Spend you current savings responsibly, but save the WS money.

3

Great package. Congratulations. Good recommendation to save your WS earnings since those funds don’t count on FAFSA.

4

Since your merit scholarship is designed to pay for tuition, did you ask if it will adjust if tuition increases in the future?

Tuition and fees for 2015-16 is currently listed at $10,037 and room and board at $11,666. Final housing cost will depend on room choice and meal plan, but it gives you an idea.

So billed costs will be about $21,703

Aid you received with scholarship and grants is $17,875

So the remaining cost is $3828

So your bill per semester will be about $1900 (what you have to pay to OSU)

You can use your savings and summer earnings to pay for some of that and save the rest for books and supplies to get you started.

You also have the option to take out some of the subsidized student loan. You might not need to.

The work study income will be earned during the semester after you find and work at an on campus federal work study position, usually about 10 hours a week. Yes, save that money and spend regular work earnings first since money earned from need based employment (federal work study) is not counted in asset calculation for FAFSA.

5

@mommdc I have not asked yet if it will cover tuition increases, but I will soon. The letter I received said that the scholarship is “equal to the value of in-state.” It also said that the scholarship “is renewable for a total of eight undergraduate semesters” so I guess I was assuming that it did cover tuition increases.

You mention that I may not have to take out the subsidized loan, but you don’t mention the unsubsidized loan. Are you saying I don’t need to take out the unsubsidized loan?

Thank you all for your advice. I’ll be sure to save money now and through summer to spend throughout the year and then save my work study income.

6

You always want to take the subsidized loans first. You don’t have to take out any loans if you can swing it without loans. You don’t have to take out the whole amount either, so is you only need $1000, only take $1000.

7

Also double check what the cost will be when your sister is not in school - aid may drop.

And congrats on getting that package, OSU doesn’t do it for many kids, at all.

8

Yes, OSU put both subsidized and unsubsidized loans in your package because the COA includes estimates for othed expenses like books, travel, personal expenses, but those will depend on what you actually need and is not going to be billed by the school, just direct billed costs (tuition, fees and room/board if living on campus).

So if the direct billed costs minus scholarships and grants leave about $3800 for you to pay for first year, half will be billed in fall and half in winter.

The subsidized loan doesn’t accrue interest while you are in school. The unsubsidized does.

You might be ok not taking out loans while your sister is in school as well because EFC is lower and you get Pell.

But if you didn’t have the extra $3300 Pell then you could take out loans, subsidized first, if you needed.

9

Thank you all for your advice. I forgot to mention that my sister is on track to finish her bachelor’s degree in five years, not four. So we would graduate in the same year. If our income stays the same, would she still receive a Pell grant in her fifth year of school?

10

^Actually the first bill might come at end of summer already, varies by school.

At my D’s school once they registered for freshman year classes and got their room assignment and picked meal plans we got our first bill.

The FAFSA used to be available to be filed every year starting on January 1. This year this will be changing.
Your first FAFSA for school year 2016-17 used 2015 tax return. You already filed that.
Then in October of this year the 2017-18 FAFSA will be available. It also uses 2015 tax return.
When you do the FAFSA ,it asks for parent and student assets like bank account balances on the day you submit FAFSA.

So you said you have $2000 saved, then you might earn another $1000 this summer, so you might have $3000 in the bank by August.

So you would keep maybe $1000 for books, travel and supplies and would pay $2000 towards your fall semester bill.

Then by the time you file the new FAFSA in October you only have to report what’s left in your account after paying all your expenses for first semester and your first semester bill, and not the whole $3000.

Student assets are counted towards EFC at 20%. So if you had $3000 in assets, that would be $600, but if you have only $500 left to report then that would only be $10 added to your EFC.

Then when you start your work study job you can have that pay deposited in a separate account and it will be easy to keep track of how much if it is work study money.

11

https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/grants-scholarships/pell/calculate-eligibility

I think Pell is available for 12 semesters maximum.

Your sister can check her eligibility.

12

And if she didn’t get Pell her first year she might only be using 8 total semesters of her eligibility.

She might have to watch her student loan limit possibly, I think limit is $31,000

But maybe now that she is getting Pell she won’t need to take out a loan.

13

OP, my son graduated from Ohio State two years ago so I wanted to share a few things:

  1. Every year my son was offered a loan, but he never took it. On your financial aid page for your online Ohio State account, there should be a listing of all your aid and you have to click "Accept" or "Decline" for each one. Don't forget to do it when the time comes if they still do that (check with OSU). My son always kept his offered loan "alive" by not clicking either button. Periodically he might get an email saying "Don't forget to fill out your loan papers", but he never needed the loan so he didn't do that. I suggest you keep the option of the loan "alive" in case you run into any trouble and need it.
  2. OSU's cost of attending was always more than he actually needed. You might not need the loan if you save your summer earnings and use work study money. Especially with meal plan options, my DS could save money that way. He also found ways to make books cheaper and we used a Southwest credit card to accumulate points so we didn't have to always pay for his plane ticket home.
  3. OSU has a very expensive insurance plan for students (I think it cost close to $2K). You have to actively "opt-out" of it so don't forget to do that since some students miss that deadline and then get stuck with that cost. I do recommend you sign up for the "Wilce Care Supplement" if you already have existing health insurance. It now costs $225 per school year, but it entitles you to visits to the Student Health Center and no charge or a very small co-pay (like $10). My son used it all the time when he was at Ohio State and it saved us a lot of money because his regular insurance would not be charged for his visits and therefore we didn't have to meet our $500 deductible in order for him to get medical attention. Plus being away from home he did not have to find a local doctor which would have been difficult since he didn't have a car. It gave him and us a lot of piece of mind in terms of medical expenses and when you live in a dorm you have a tendency to catch more colds.
  4. It is pretty easy to get jobs on campus. My son took a class through the Student Success Center that taught him "how to do college" which was important since he needed help with time management skills.
  5. If you are definitely going to Ohio State then sign up for housing as soon as possible. Sometimes they run out of housing and being early in the process will aid you in getting the housing you desire.

My son loved Ohio State and got a great education. I hope you have the same experience.

14

Sorry, I just got off work so this might end up a little lengthy.

What exactly does travel and supplies include? Is OSU estimating travel expenses as being the amount I might spend traveling to and from the college for breaks? If so, then I don’t think I will be spending $1-2000 for it. I think I can get it much lower than that because I live about 45 minutes away from campus, so my mom or dad would drive up and pick me up for any breaks throughout the year. With supplies, are they assuming I will buy a laptop, among other things? Of course I don’t need to buy a laptop but I do have a separate savings account specifically to save up for a laptop. It has about $440 in it that I didn’t include toward the $2000. I guess technically I have almost $2500 saved up for college expenses, especially if I don’t buy a laptop.

@mommdc Yes that is correct, my sister did not receive a Pell grant her first year of college. I believe she has exactly $3500 out in federal loans. With a Pell Grant this year, I don’t think she’ll need to take out any in loans if she doesn’t want to. I looked up her estimated COA and it’s around $5,000 for tuition, and I guess another $1,000 or so for books, but I don’t think she will spend $1000 on books. Also, she commutes to campus. As long as she doesn’t raise how much she takes out in loans each year I think she will fall below the $31,000 federal loan limit.

@itsv I appreciate the advice, especially the one about opting out of the health insurance and about paying my deposit and signing up for housing as soon as possible.

Finally I also wanted to say thank you to whoever has commented, every comment has been extremely helpful in helping me understand expenses for myself (and my sister) in college.

15

Is in the insurance plan added into the COA already? I know someone mentioned that high insurance plan I should opt out of, but I wasn’t sure if that was an additional cost on top of the COA or already included in.

16

The insurance plan is usually NOT included in COA. No one here on CC understands why not. Check with the school.

17

@“Erin’s Dad” ok good to know. Thank you.

18

I thought California schools did include the insurance plan in the COA, but then for $0 EFC students, the amount of the plan was also included in the aid. So a wash. Several students who have posted their packages have shown it that way.

19

@twoinanddone I’m not sure what my COA divides out into so I’ll probably have to ask them if I want to know what what they estimated for tuition, room, boards, fees, etc. Ohio State has it set up as one lump sum on the portal - $25978. The only thing I’m sure about is my tuition - it seems to be $10,010, but I don’t know how the rest is divided out.

20

Sorry, I thought you were at a California school, and they do provide FA to specifically cover the required health insurance, so it is a wash on the bill.

The reason other schools don’t include the insurance as a fee is it is not a fee that can be included with your other Qualified Educational Expenses and because many students are covered under other policies. You are just required to have insurance, and you do not have to buy it through the school.