So I’m transferring to a 4 year institution this fall and my estimated cost of attendance is $24k/year. I have around $8k - $9k in scholarships and grants. My tuition is $6,470 but IIRC, the Excelsior scholarship should aid me in that. What I’m worried about is paying for room and board. It’s estimated to be 13k/yr.
I don’t know if I need to take a loan out for this if I can use my TAP and Pell Grant towards Room and board. In the case that I do need a loan, how much should I take out? I’ve been offered $3,500 for Direct Subsidized, $2,000 for Unsubsidized and $10,700 for Parent Plus. I’ve been told to avoid Unsubsidized as you accumulate interest the moment you start classes. I don’t want to take out more than I need so if anyone could assist me, that would be great
It would be great to avoid unsubsidized loans, but do you have another way of paying? Parent PLUS and Private loans also start accumulating interest the moment you start class and these have worse terms than the Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan.
Parent PLUS loans are actually loans to your parents, that your parents are legally responsible for repaying. Are they willing to sign for those? In addition, private loans require a parent to cosign. The parent (or other cosigner) is responsible for payments you can’t or don’t make. You can be turned down for private loans based on the credit history of your cosigner.
You need to sit down with financial aid and figure out exactly what you will owe. What money do you have in grants and scholarships, what will those be applied to, and what is the balance due. It sounds like you are short at least the 10,700 Parent PLUS loan (that is typically what is given to fill a gap when a school does not meet your financial need).
Once you know exactly what you owe, you need to figure out if you can truly afford to pay that or whether you need to find a different school with a lower price tag. It sounds like this school stuffed a lot of loans into your package and yet you are still short of money. This is not a good sign.
You can learn more about private loans at privatestudentloans.guru
My parents can pay little amounts, like around $1,000 per semester. I don’t know if they’re willing to pay for loans though since they’re struggling with other things such as getting health insurance .I’ve already registered for classes at this institution so changing schools is not an option.If Excelsior covers tuition, can’t I use TAP and Pell Grant to cover some of my room an board? This is all stressful to me
EDIT: The Parent Plus is a federal loan according to my award history.
Yes, Parent PLUS is a federal program, it is still a loan that a parent has to sign for and pay back.
Going to a school you can’t afford is not an option either. If you need to withdraw, the sooner you do so the less you will owe. Your enrollment deposit is likely nonefundable.
Your specific questions about Excelsior, TAP, etc need to be directed to the school financial aid office.
@sybbie719 can explain how the Excelsior grant works. My understanding is that it supplements TAP and Pell up to the cost of tuition. TAP can ONLY be used for tuition. If your ~$8k in grants includes TAP and Pell, those will be applied to your tuition. If they aren’t enough to cover the ~$6400 tuition the Excelsior grant will kick in to make up the difference. If it’s all TAP and Pell money, $6500 will be applied to tuition and $1,000 or so to fees. If those numbers are accurate, your net cost is ~$13k/year. You can borrow $6500 as a soph and $7500/year as a jr and senior, so I don’t know why you’re only being offered $5500 as a transfer. How many semesters have you been in school? What grants were you awarded & how much is each one? Grants awarded by the college are different than federal & state grants. Is this a SUNY school?
Your TAP and Pell Grant will kick in first to cover your tuition. Your Excelsior scholarship will only cover any remaining balance of your tuition. So, if you are receiving $3,235 in TAP and $3,235 in Pell Grant, for a total of $6,470, there will be no Excelsior Scholarship amount forthcoming. This is my understanding of how the Excelsior Scholarship Programs works (I could be wrong). FYI, TAP only covers tuition, not R&B! Any Pell Grant above the tuition amount ( [ TAP + Pell ] - Tuition ) can be applied to your R&B cost.
Ok, so it’s a federal program. But someone else said it’s a private loan. Can federal programs have private loans? That doesn’t make sense.
That’s a shame, NYS really hyped up Excelsior for nothing. I was under the assumption that it would cover the whole tuition, not just whatever TAP and Pell doesn’t cover.
I’ve already completed 4 semesters at a community college so when I go to SUNY Poly I’ll be a junior. These are the grants I’ve been awarded:
I have no clue since I’m not too familiar with the area. I was awarded $1,785 (for both fall & spring semesters, totaling $3,500) for Pell Grant and $1,175.50 (both fall & spring, totaling $2,351) for TAP. I also plan on working 5 days. Around 31 hours a week.
Okay, so you have ~$5800 between Pell & TAP. The Excelsior grant should cover the balance of the $6400 tuition. That means your net cost is ~$18.5k/year ($24k-$6400). You can take the $7500/year federal student loan. That leaves $11k/year to pay. If you work summers you could earn ~$3k, which leaves ~$8k/year plus travel, books, & health insurance. Can your parents pay that? If not, is there a 4-year SUNY within commuting distance?
Private loans are not federal loans, but like PLUS they require a parent to agree to make the payments if you are unable to do so. If your parents have good credit, they may possibly get a better deal on the private market than PLUS.
Where did you get the $7500/year federal student loan from? I’ve been awarded a $3500 direct subsidized loan ($1750 fall and spring), the unsubsidized loan which I don’t plan on taking out and the Federal Parent Plus which is $10,700 ($5350x2}. Also, my parents might be able to chip in $8k/year. And I have to repeat there is no point of my going to a closer SUNY school as they do not offer the classes I’m majoring in.
Ah ok, my dad has pretty good credit so hopefully he can help me out. Also the estimated total cost of attendance is ~25k/year. I will be going to this school for 2 years to get my Bachelors.
Since you said the link was blocked, here’s what I’ve been awarded:
Transfer Achievement Scholarship $2k/year, total $4k
TAP - $2,351 total
SUNY Tuition credit - $680.36 total
PELL- $3,570 total
Direct Sub Loan - $3,500 total
Direct Unsub - $2,000 total
Federal Parent Plus - $10,700 total
Have you talked to your dad? How much is he paying towards your expenses and is he willing to take a loan to pay the rest or consign a loan that would be in your name?
Why aren’t you taking the unsubsidized loan? You seem way short on funds here. ALL loans except the subsidized one will have interest accruing right away. You will only have worse choices if you reject the unsubsidized loan.
Yes, you should take out all of the subsidized and unsubsidized loans you can before asking parents to take out Parent Plus, because interest rates and origination fees of Parent loans are much higher.
Looks like you have tuition and fees covered with TAP, Pell, tuition credit and scholarship.
Now you have to figure out how to pay for housing and food away from home. Depending on your class standing you should be able to borrow $6,500 to $7,500 a year. Maybe earn $3,000.
The $5,500 loan limit is for freshmen.
If you don’t have close to 60 credits yet, then finishing in 2 years seems to be unlikely.
Then you should have junior standing and be offered $5,500 sub and $2,000 unsub. Wiith summer earnings, you would have around $10,000, that should be enough for a shared apt and utilities/food maybe?
Sometimes schools just give the lowest Direct loan ($3500 subbed, $2000 unsubbed) and then adjust it to sophomore/jr levels once the official transcripts come it. Usually all it takes is a call to the financial aid office.
