Hello,
I’m a senior who was recently admitted to Michigan EA. I noticed that my financial aid award summary was on my portal and I looked at it last night. I received the Provost award, and I accordingly was given quite a bit of grant aid. However, while it says on the Michigan website that this award meets full need, there was still around 5-7k that was not covered by grants or loans. My family makes less than 15k a year, and we have an EFC of 0. Is there something that I’m not understanding about my “demonstrated need”? Or should I be getting more money from Michigan?
If you are getting a Provost’s award you must be an out-of-state student. Can you post exactly what your financial aid award is? All grants, loans, and work study. I’ll help you figure it out. OOS families with income less than $90k are supposed to get full funding.
Are they expecting you to take out a student loan ? Or is that amount that you will paid for work study ?
$7,000 gap sounds like $5,500 in stafford loans and $1,500 - $2,000 of work study.
Hi everyone, thank you for responding. For a little bit of clarification. The 5-7k that’s not covered at all is after work study, federal subsidized direct loans, and federal unsubsidized direct loans, so my total award including work study and loans is still not meeting the full cost of going to Michigan.
For some more specific numbers, I received:
$26285 in UMich grants
$17611 in Provost’s award
$6095 in Federal Pell Grant
$1500 in Federal Support Educational Opportunity (?) Grant
$3000 in Work Study
$3500 in Federal Subsidized Direct Loans
$2000 in Federal Unsubsidized Direct Loans
And that totals up to $59991, which would require me/my family to cover about 5k (and a little more for books/personal expenses I believe? I can’t remember is Michigan’s cost figure included those). This isn’t really feasible for my family, even though I am grateful that I got this much from them.
This is a conversation you need to have with the Financial Aid office directly. They are wonderful with working with students if you reach out to them.
Of note, work-study is earned as you go - and will be offered at $1500 per semester to help you offset your expenses (not $3,00 upfront towards costs). So, if you accumulate the $1500 while working the first semester, you will have it ready to apply for the Winter Semester against costs. However, many spend it as it is earned to offset living/daily expenses and there is little if any left to directly apply to tuition/housing costs the following semester.
I had the same amount my first year. The number of hours I had to work to earn the $1500 was equivalent to another full 4 credit class. Keep that in mind when building your schedule. I had a 17-credit hour semester AND this work-study. It was exhausting and stressful.
Our daughter qualified for work-study at another top institution but we advised her not to utilize it unless she felt she could make the time. Given her first-year schedule, she couldn’t. This year (her 2nd year) she opted to do work study and found a very well-paying position with a non-profit. Nice experience for the resume, as well as a way to meet her living expenses. Work study can be great that way. However, it has to do doable in the first place.
A financial aid offer is typically the first of an ongoing conversation. Ditto on the advice to go back to the Fin. Aid. office to see if they can provide a bit more. You should be invested in your education to some extent - after all, you have been invited to obtain a life-changing degree at a top institution, and the opportunities afforded will be enormous - but it has to be an amount that you and/or your family can actually pay. Let them know. When it comes to institutional need-based funds, they have their own calculations on “demonstrated need” that may not conform exactly to the FAFSA-generated EFC. The FAFSA only determines your need for federal funds and subsidized loans and it looks like you are maxing those out.
Speaking of loans: you’ll want to keep the debt to a reasonable level, especially the unsubsidized because the interest accrues to the student during the time in school and so is added to the principal balance. Subsidized is different - the fed. gov’t “pays” (ie waives) the accrued so that the principal balance at the end of your schooling isn’t larger than when you first took out the loan. The amount they give you today is, in present value terms, more than what you will be paying back, so subsidized is a favorable loan - always a great deal financially. So consider taking out 100% of what they offer in subsidized but keep the unsubsidized at some reasonable level - it’s a fair loan but not a “deal”. In future years you will be eligible for a higher value of loans in toto but capping it at some reasonable amount (for example, no more than $20,000 total with as much of that as possible in the form of subsidized) would be the way to go.
U Michigan determines need not based on FAFSA EFC, but CSS profile, in addition to FAFSA, right?
https://finaid.umich.edu/cost-of-attendance/
It says here for OOS students that lower division tuition/fees in 2018/19 is $49,350 and $11,534, so total direct costs of about $61,000. All scholarship and grants and student loans add up to about $57,000.
So about $4,000 still needed.
You can try to work parttime now and in the summer to try and earn that, and the work-study money will also help, once you get a work-study job on campus and get paid during the semester.
So can you come up with that $4,000 before fall, plus books, and travel expenses (how far is U Mich from home)?
One other important piece of information is how your costs would change in subsequent years, would your U MI grant change with income changes, would it go up if EFC stays the same, but costs go up?
Upper division tuition is several thousand more than lower division, and tuition/fees or housing costs usually increase some each year as well.
$49,350 --TUITION & FEES
$11,534 -- HOUSING & MEALS
$60,884 – Total amount directly billed to you by college
$56,991 – Total amount you will receive in FA up front (because work study money is earned as you work)
So you need another $4,000. Send the financial aid office an email showing them these calculations and reminding them that your FAFSA EFC is zero. They are supposed to meet full need for OOS students whose family income is less than $90,000. Make it a very polite email.
These expenses are estimates from the university. You can use your work-study money and whatever money you earn during summers. Also, can your parents give you an allowance of, say, $20 a month to help out?
$1,048 – BOOKS & SUPPLIES
$2,454 --PERSONAL & MISC.
Also note that your FA package will increase to meet the increased tuition that will be set in June. You’ll receive an updated FA notice. FA will also increase to meet the higher tuition during your junior and senior years.
Also – There is a crowd-sourced guide called “Being Not Rich at University of Michigan.” It’s gone viral. You can search it. I am not allowed to link to it here. But here’s some of the press about it.
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2018/04/being_not-rich_guide_by_univer.html
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Being-Not-Rich-/243208
https://www.npr.org/2018/04/26/606077648/navigating-campus-for-the-not-rich-students-launch-a-crowdsourced-guide
Making the extra $4,000/year is very doable. Usually work study will limit how much they will give you per year. Usually around $3,000/year.
My son decided to get a job through University of Michigan (like extremely easy to do),since he wanted something fun and not engineering. He is a ref /umpire for flag football and softball and plays both also. So he didn’t get a job through work study per se.
He makes something like $9.20 /hour but let’s just say $9.00 x 10 hours /week /6 months is $2160.00. This is just an example. He actually works more when he can and makes closer to $4,000/year at school. I think the dining hall actually pays like $11.50/hour.
The jobs whether school or work study are very lenient on decreasing hours etc around tests BTW.
Couple that with any summer job. Also keep in mind there are opportunities for stipends during the year /summer for research and other things. My son was paid a small stipend during the summer through Michigan for a organization he help start and worked on a project and was paid for it.
Pm me if you want an explanation of that.
Just reread and realized your work study was included in your amount. But also showing you, you can make more of needed. My son took 18 credits, worked and played sports and started an organization on campus. It can be done. But of course don’t let it affect your grades if you can help it.
Since you are so close talk again to financial aid. Your package is usually not finalized till a bit later and your numbers should adjust. They also make mistakes. They made one on us and quickly fixed it within a day. As stated, politely let them know your situation. They don’t want to lose you either. See what you can work out to make it happen.
Also seek other avenues for money like your church (or the like), other organizations that would make make sense to you. Talk to your principal /counselor /teachers. Someone might have an avenue for funds that you might not be thinking about.
By all means, talk to the FA office, but my guess is the gap between the FA offer and total COA reflects not only EFC, but also “expected student contribution.” EFC is the figure they expect your family to contribute, based not only on income but also assets—so if your parents own their own home or farmland, for example, that would figure into the calculation. Expected student contribution is a separate figure, based on your own expected earnings from summer employment, plus a fraction (usually 20%) of any assets you own, like money in a savings account. Most schools expect students to be able to clear $2-3K through summer employment. So EFC + ESC of around $5K would probably be fairly typical for a student from a lower-income household. If you think even that much isn’t doable, make your best case to the FA office and see if they can tweak your award.
“Part-time jobs are not the same as work-study jobs…(part-time job) income will affect your financial aid eligibility when you fill out your FAFSA.”
Also, you will not pay FICA tax on work-study income. So you will have more take-home income than regular part-time job.
https://www.campusexplorer.com/college-advice-tips/5932AC13/How-Work-Study-Affects-Your-Taxes/
Page 10, the student’s income protection allowance is at least $6,660. Possibly more based on taxes paid or if family has negative adjusted available income. Please don’t be afraid of earning money for college. Many scholarship organizations and internship/co-op employers want to see that a student has a work history.
https://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/1920EFCFormulaGuide.pdf
My D does not have FICA withheld from her university “student employment” job (non federal work-study job on campus).
https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/student-exception-to-fica-tax
But it is true that federal work-study earnings are subtracted from total student income on FAFSA.
But if income is below FAFSA student income protection allowance ($6,660 for 2019/20 FAFSA), it wouldn’t affect EFC either.
Yes, we keep both kids below the $6,600.I didn’t mention that. Plus no one is worried about anything being taken out of like $4,000/year. You are not talking much at all. Agree with above. Work history is important. Not crucial but I think important also for future jobs /internships.
@celestialkairos : Congratulation on your acceptance and scholarships. You can start tutoring science subjects and teaching flute now to earn money. Make sure to put UMichigan’s Provost’s award on the advertisement flyers to get attention. My kid earned quite a bit of money in the spring of senior year and in the summer before college. All cash. Maybe you can also start your YouTube Channel. I have heard it can be pretty profitable. UMichigan’s Provost’s award will get attention. It is paid by hit.
It’s not a merit scholarship. It’s a last-dollar need-based scholarship for high-need OOS students. In some universities an award called the Provosts’ Award might be merit-based. Not at Michigan.
“OOS families with income less than $90k are supposed to get full funding.”
Where is this published or how do you know this? I could not find anything out about the Provost.
Nope. Not “full funding.” The university will meet full need for OOS families with income less than $90k and assets less than $50k. “Meets full need” is a financial aid term that means you will get FA in the amount that meets your financial need AS DETERMINED BY THE UNIVERSITY’S FA OFFICE. It may indeed turn out to be full funding. Or it may not.