Hi,
I will a sophomore in the 16-17 academic year. I don’t know if I should go with on or off campus housing. Obviously on campus cost more than off campus. My problem is that will financial aid (not loans) cover off campus? I mean like if ON campus cost $10,000 and financial aid covers $5,000, so I will be paying 5,000 for On campus. But if I choose off campus, will the $5,000 cover the $7,000 off campus, meaning I will only pay for $2,000? I guess my concern is that will I need to pull a loan to cover ALL of amount for off campus housing or I can live ON campus and pay partially for on campus.
Thank you
You need to contact yoir school. Most schools have a cost of attndance for off campus students. You need to find out from YOUR college what the difference is and what living off campus will do in terms of your need based aid award.
I also depends on what financial aid is being used to ‘cover’ the on campus housing. If it is your Pell grant, loan or an outside scholarship, yes, you can use that same money for off campus housing. If it is a school scholarship, they may allow it and they may not.
My daughter has an athletic scholarship and it can only be used for things billed by and paid to the school (that’s the school’s rule). The merit scholarship can only be used for tuition (another school policy) so the financial aid office uses all the merit and athletic aid first for tuition, then all other aid is available for rent. My daughter will have a meal plan at the school because it is basically paid for.
Off campus is not always cheaper. For room, my D would pay around $8000 per year and her share of the apt is $500, but the off campus is a lease for a year, there will be other expenses like cable and internet, and transportation. In the end, I don’t think it will be cheaper. Not having to have a meal plan would be cheaper, but since it is covered by her scholarship, she’ll have that and still shop at the grocery store. No savings.
Depends on the school. For my undergrad, the COA was the same on or off campus and thus aid stayed the same.
So financial aid could cover off campus? Because I’m looking into this myself.
The thing is…usually any financial aid will FIRST go towards oaying your tuition costs. Some forms of scholarships have restrictions that they can be used for tuition only.
There is no “one size fits all” answer here.
You need to contact the college.
And remember that need based financial aid used to pay for room and board will be income for you…and you will pay income tax on that aid amount.
COA usually changes for living off campus with parents. Living off campus on your own is usually the same as living on campus for aid purposes; sometimes they have a different COA, but it only varies by like $1-2k (see UC COA’s for example).
If your aid covers all costs billed by the school (tuition + fees + any other charges), you’ll get a refund on what is left. You’ll then use that to pay your rent. However, refunds don’t kick in till a few weeks into the semester, so you’re gonna need cash of your own to pay the 1st month’s rent.
The school my son goes to will cover off campus because they can’t keep everyone on BUT they reduce the financial aid award to make it match the average rent for the area. Every school seems to have a different way of dealing with this.