I don’t think Op is ready or qualified to join the secret service =D>
BTW, the people in admissions and FA are more likely to help when you ask nicely and politely.
Read Rutgers financial aid policies. If you were accepted as an international student and enroll under that status, will they change it? If you can afford to be full pay for 4 years, it may not matter. But if finances are important, I’d consider a gap year if you can’t get your status figured out or you aren’t awarded the aid you need.
Oops! Selective service…I’ll blame it on autocorrect…but I probably typed it wrong.
Anyway…not being registered with selective service as a male financial aid applicant would also have tripped the system…long before March.
OP, are you sure you have the Pell grant and loans? I’m having trouble imagining you were able to get an FAFSA FSA ID at a time (last Nov) when your SSN could not be confirmed.
But that seems to be the only deadline you’ve met, filing the FAFSA in order to get the award before school starts. That gets you federal aid but not school or state aid. Are you sure the fAFSA was considered filed in Nov and not in March?
Make an appointment with ADMISSIONS, which is the department that awards merit aid. Straighten out your status as an instate resident. Ask if you are eligible for merit awards for 2018-19, or if you would become eligible for 2019-20 if you reapply and meet all the deadlines this fall. Ask if you could go to community college next year. Ask if they can make an exception for this coming year because the green card was out of your control.
You only need a FSA ID to electronically sign the FAFSA. If you print out the signature page and send in, you don’t need the FSA ID.
There are students who are citizens and their parents are not. The parents cannot get a FSA ID t9 electronically sign…so they mail in.
@DrPhil7268 did you mail the signature page to your FAFSA in November? If so…did you get a Student Aid Report (SAR) via email at any time between November and March. If not…it’s very very possible that your FAFSA wasn’t processed in November.
OP, are you sure you have the Pell grant and loans?<<<<<<<<<
He is being asked to pay in the realm of full pay so I don’t think he can have these, or that would reflect in his FA letter. I don’t understand why OP repeats that he does have these lined up as per the university. FAFSA needs his PR status to be complete before filing.
OP, have you contacted social security office to update your PR status? You need to make sure their info lines up and your SSN is updated to indiacted your PR status.
Do not scrape the money together for the first year in the hope that you will get better aid in future years. What will you do if there is no better aid! Take the year off. Get a job. Make some money to put toward your eventual college costs. Consider applying to other places that might give you good aid. Reapply to Rutgers. Next April choose between your affordable options.
Yes, I did all that. I was expecting some kind of scholarship, but no international or merit based scholarship was given to me. I am hoping to perhaps change that when I meet with the office next week, since I have the permanent residency card. I am 100% sure I have the pell grant and loans.
I was able to fill out the FAFSA because I had all the necessary information needed to fill it out. I was also sure the final documents would arrive in the next couple months, which didn’t worry me. The most that could happen is, as you said, the FAFSA getting flagged and simply not being processed further.
Second question, I didn’t mail anything, and I did not get any SAR email between then. However, the financial aid office did mention months back that they initially didn’t sync my FAFSA and Rutgers together,
If anything, I’ll consider paying the sum and perhaps apply for better aid next year. I won’t need to retake the SAT, the score is in its 99th percentile, I doubt I could increase that.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m probably going to ask for the person in charge and argue my case that it is the college’s fault for the delay, which might’ve cost me the scholarships.
Yeah, I updated it two months back. I gave my proof of residence and everything. I’m guessing they have had to mess something up, since, as someone mentioned previously, not once office is in charge of everything.
Yes, I have them both. I’m gonna do my best trying to ask about it, and if anything, they would have to award me next year since a year would pass and I should have met all the qualifications, then.
If I do not get better aid, I will just have to pay what I am assigned, sadly. However, I do plan to reapply to multiple colleges next year, private colleges, as well as Rutgers, and see which college offers me best aid. Then, I’ll either stay or transfer out.
I’m probably going to ask for the person in charge and argue my case that it is the college’s fault for the delay, which might’ve cost me the scholarships.<<<<
“An eligible non-citizen is considered a state resident when he/she has resided in the state of New Jersey for at least 12 consecutive months after receiving permanent U.S. residency as verified by the Alien Registration Receipt Card or other criteria that meet eligible non-citizenship status.”
12 months after your PR in 2018. You must re read this.
https://financialaid.rutgers.edu/eligibility/proof-of-residency/
It is NOT the college’s fault and if you blame someone else, I’ll bet they’ll shut you down quickly.
I don’t know how you filed the FAFSA in Nov as your SSN did not show you eligible for federal aid at that time. If the school received the report at that time, there wasn’t anything they could do. They couldn’t award you federal aid until you proved to them that you were eligible. If they haven’t physically seen your permanent residency card, they can’t release the Pell grant and loan to you.
I’d take another approach. I’d show all the documents, say you understand that you missed the Dec 1 deadline for state aid but there wasn’t anything ANYONE could do about that because you just didn’t have the green card yet, but could they help you attend school this fall? Show them that you are a NJ resident, graduated from a NJ high school, have lived in NJ since XXX. Asking for help sometimes works while shouting and blaming rarely does.
I’m going to guess that there are other students in NJ, planning to attend public universities, who are in the same boat as this poster.
I can’t imagine that the state of NJ is going to make an exception for one kid who was waiting for a green card when there are likely lots more in the queue like him.
But I totally totally agree with you about the FAFSA. I’m not sure what this OP thinks he “had” that was sufficient to file a FAFSA and have it processed in November before he had permanent resident status. Fact is…he was not eligible to submit a FAFSA because he was not a permanent resident in November.
He claims he electronically signed the form, but I’m not sure how he would have gotten a FSA ID to do so before he was a permanent resident.
This story…Does. Not. Make. Sense.
Merit scholarships mostly go to freshmen. If you transfer or hope to get more aid next year if you start this year, it might not materialize.
You would have a better chance if you simply reapply with all NJ resident requirements for Rutgers already met.
If you do your FAFSA early, you might get Pell and NJ grant, FSEOG and federal work study. With the loan that should cover your tuition, commuting costs and books.
OOS tuition and fees is $31,000. How can you pay the remaining costs after Pell and loan, on $35,000 a year income?
This means that your FAFSA was not processed, so you were not going to get a financial aid package. When you called the financial aid office, did you explain your situation; you are currently an international student who is waiting to receive his green card.
This year, you are going to be charged OOS tuition because you have not met the requirement for in-state tuition (you will be eligible for in-state tuition in March 2019). Rutgers is definitely not going to give you scholarship money or aid to bring your cost down to in-state. The best you can do is bite the bullet, defer for a year (then you will be eligible for in-state tuition), work to make up the difference between what you will receive in fed/stat aid and loans to make up the balance.
Why are you so hell-bent on starting college this year? Waiting a year has a lot more up-sides than down-sides. For starters, you would have in-state tuition and fees for all four years.
Where did you come up with this amount?
<the net cost I would have to pay to attend Rutgers is around $27,000 a year.
If you are commuting your costs should be about half of this - in-state tuition and fees is $14,600 - so add gas, parking, books, that still doesn’t come to 27K.
I’m from NJ and have two kids in college (Rowan). Rutgers gives very little merit aid compared to Rowan. Unless things have changed in the past three years, that is.
I wish you the best of luck in resolving this.
This student is likely dealing with out of state tuition costs. He didn’t get his permanent resident status until March 2019. He needs to clarify with Rutgers when the clock starts ticking for him to have instate status. Until he got his green card in March…he was considered an international student…right?
Now that he has his green card, he is eligible to get the Pell and Direct Loan…but that doesn’t mean he has instate residence for Rutgers.
If he DOES end up getting instate status for fall 2018, you are absolutely correct. His costs would be about $15000…subtract the Pell and Direct Loan…and he would have about $3000 to cover…with summer earnings perhaps.
But totally agree…this student should apply to Rowan if he takes that gap year. I believe the merit aid there would be better than at Rutgers.
With a $0 EFC you should also be eligible for a NJ state grant.
HESAA also requires you to live in NJ for 12 months after getting permanent resident status to qualify.
“NewJersey Residency – New Jersey grants and scholarships are limited to New Jersey residents. A New Jersey resident must
have resided in the State for at least 12 consecutive months immediately prior to receiving the award. NOTE: Eligible non-
citizens must reside in New Jersey for 12 consecutive months after receiving permanent resident status from USCIS to meet
the State residency requirement.”
So you are really willing to give up several thousand dollars in NJ grant?
So am I correct…if this poster waits until fall 2019…assuming family finances are the same for 2017 as 2016…he would get a $6000 Pell Grant, and $5500 Direct Loan…Plus a few thousand in NJ state grants? Wouldn’t that just about fully cover the cost for a commuting student instate resident?
Yes, if he gets Pell, NJ grant, maybe FSEOG and work study, maybe even a small merit scholarship (if he applies as a permanent resident early, instead of international student without ISFA), he might even have all cost for a commuting student covered without the student loan.