I have read that outside scholarships can reduce financial aid. But what about extra scholarships from a public school CUNY? I attend a CUNY school and receive financial aid which pays for everything but I also won two scholarships, one from CUNY and one from my CUNY home school. The award in total for these two are roughly 3,000 and I am not sure if an extra $3,000 for me will affect my financial aid since its a public scholarship from school, not an outside scholarship. I coud use the extra money for textbooks and transportation and other supplies. I want to make sure it’s fine before I accept.
You have to find out if the scholarships can be used for anything or just tuition. If for anything, the school might let you use the extra up to the COA. If just for tuition, nope, you might be able to stack until you hit full tuition but you can’t have the extra for books and transportation.
You say your CUNY scholarships “pay for everything”. Does that include EVERYTHING…tuition, fees, room, board, books, personal expenses?
If OP has a 0 EFC, it is very easy for his financial aid to pay for everything, because the overwhelming majority of students who attend CUNY live at home and commute. Metro cards for transportation are approx $122 a month
You need to find out what exactly your scholarships cover. TAP and Pell are entitlements. If you are eligible for them, you will get them.
After your tuition and fees are paid you should find out if some of your scholarship money can pay for the one time purchase of a computer. Then find out if some of it can be used for books. Spread it out over two terms.
You can also check and see if it can be a credit on your account in the event you need to attend summer school to take courses needed to get an extension/additional certification.
Junior senior year you will also be eligible for a teach grant.
You can look into the following options:
Since you are an Education major and there are a glut of common branch teachers (elementary ed), I would definitely recommend getting either Special Ed extension or a bilingual or ESL extension (if you speak a second language). This will provide you with more opportunities when it comes to looking for a job.
You can also consider a double major and getting certified for elementary ed and pre-school, if you just want to work with young kids now that NYC has 3k and PreK for All. Your common branch (Elementary Ed grades 1-6) license does not cover pre-school (Early Childhood education License- birth through 2nd grade).
You can also consider majoring in another subject and also get licensed as a 7-12 teacher in a subject area (english, math, social studies, science).