Not enough financial aid? Considering transferring

Paying for College
1

I just finished my freshman year of college and my sister graduated this year from college, too.
My financial package before becoming a student was just enough for my mom to get by and pay for, while my sister was also in school.

I just found my financial aid information online for this (sophomore) year and it turns out I’d have to pay a bit more than double of what I did last year! I can’t afford it at all.
I will be calling my school’s financial aid office (again…they didn’t pick up) tomorrow. I’m also looking into scholarships.

I fear that I still won’t have enough aid, and am considering rushing to do a transfer even though my bill is due in a month.

Any advice would be appreciated!

2

How much of your aid was cut? If you can tell us how much the school cost and what the breakdown of the aid is.

3

It’s almost $22,000 - last year I received about $18,000 in financial aid (taking out all of the loans offered)

This was my first year’s financial aid:
2,500 - honors scholarship
5,480 - federal pell grant
600 - massgrant
1,500 - student fee grant
970 - financial aid waiver
1,800 - mass no interest loan
3,500 - federal direct stafford loan y
2,000 - federal direct unsub stafford loan
(plus outside scholarship of $500)
= $18, 850

This year I was given $14,000 in financial aid including loans, leaving 8,000 to finance out of pocket:
2,500 - honors scholarship
5,225 - federal pell grant
500 - massgrant
4,500 - federal direct stafford loan y
2,000 - federal direct unsub stafford loan
=$14,725

4

So it looks like you lost the financial aid waiver, student fee grant and the mass no interest loan (is this for freshman only or a special grant for filing early at all?)

5

Did you sign up for work study? Are you working this summer? Can your parent borrow the difference? Could you commute to your school?

Where would you transfer to and how much would you save by doing so?

Did the school’s FA office tell you that your aid would be less once your sister graduates?

6

Who was paying for your sister’s school? I think colleges believe that when parents finish paying for an one child’s school, they’ll have more funds to help pay the costs for other children.

7

It seems the mass no interest loan is for filing early, but I can’t find information about the other two so it must be that they have a similar limitation. Makes sense since I wasn’t able to fill out fafsa until I’d obtain my mom’s tax return (I live on campus), so that just leaves me with what’s the best thing to do, now and are there more options.

8

To answer:
Yes, I did sign up for work study.

I have not been able to find a job this summer, but am still on the job-hunt. Unfortunately, most places here don’t ask for seasonal workers.

I will be checking with my mom, I thought I’d try calling financial aid first.

I don’t have auto insurance, nor my own car :(. Commuting by rail/buses/etc would take about 2 hours.

I would transfer to a school that is in the same city that I live in (there’s a public university and community college). I’d (hopefully) save by commuting (maybe even a better chance at finding a job).

My parents are divorced and we live with our mom, so she paid for my sister’s schooling. She went to a school with pretty generous financial aid…

9

So you lost out by simply not filing the FAFSA using estimated numbers (and then updating later when you got the tax return from your mom), so now you need to transfer?

How much did your mom pay for your sister?

Does the tax return show the American Opportunity Tax Credit?

10

Doing my research today I just found out that it’s okay to not have exact numbers at first! I had no idea, good to know for the future :confused: Transferring is just an option otherwise working more than part-time might work out…

She paid around 2,000 each entire year.

A Form 8863 is attached to the tax return, so it seems an American Opportunity Tax Credit was claimed?

11

Yes you need to file FAFSA asap after January, using estimated numbers like Madison said and updating later when you have the actual tax return numbers.

A community college won’t help you, you could only go for another year and then have to transfer again to a university.

Call FA and see if that interest free loan is still available.

12

So have you talked to your mom? Last year she paid $4,000 for you and $2,000 for your sister? If she can pay the same and use whatever AOTC she got towards it and you get a work study job and work a lot in the summers (no places hire college students for the summer?) it might be feasible. Maybe she should do a payment plan so it’s not all due at once.

13

Alright I’ll have to keep that in mind for next year, thanks!

I’ll have to try again tomorrow

14

What amount of credit is on Form 8863?

15

How much did your mom pay TOTAL for you and your sister last year? $4k? $5k?

Didn’t you realize that once your sister graduated the school would expect that your mom could now pay more for “just you”?

I don’t see how transferring will help. Sounds like you can’t commute to a local CC for your soph year unless you somehow get a car.

You and your mom need to “do the math” and see if it’s cheaper for you to get an inexpensive car and commute to a CC this year.

16

Madison85 Not quite sure where to look but if im looking at it right about 2,000

mom2collegekids Yes I did realize this. I would say no more than $5k in total with my sister and I. As of right now I’m left with with almost $8k to pay out of pocket. I am considering a car and car insurance…possibly a room rental (but not something I want to jump into without knowing what I’m getting into).

17

I actually think that its a good idea to transfer into your local community college. It’ll save you a TON of money that you can put towards your junior year when you transfer back to whatever school you want to go to. Despite what mom2collegekids said, you can commute to a CC using a bus, you don’t actually need a car, this is assuming of course that your town has a decent transit system that goes to the CC. You will be able to find a part time job in your hometown that you can attend while at CC, and the money your mom would have given you can go into a savings account, to be used towards next year. This can actually help cut down on a huge amount of loans too since you will most likely be able to get away with not taking out any loans at your CC since most likely the pell grant will cover most if not all of your tuition there.

However, if you would rather stay on campus, you can look into a private loan. Honestly though, if you’re struggling to pay now, I doubt much will change in a year to where you’ll be in a better situation next year. Taking out so many loans just to stay at the university doesn’t make sense in my eyes. It seems that based on your financial aid you keep a pretty high GPA. If you make sure to keep that GPA up, transferring to whatever university you want shouldn’t be a problem if you decide to head back home. I’m not sure how you feel about the university near your home, honestly I think that if you go back home, you should just take classes at the community college anyway instead of the university just for that extra punch of savings, and then if you decide to stay home, just transfer into the university after your sophomore year at the local CC.

Good luck!