<p>My son qualifies for the presidential scholarship but we are trying to figure out how to pay for room and board. During our visit many students told us that living off campus after freshman year is much cheaper. However could scholarships or student loans be used to pay for off campus living expenses? I’m thinking that they couldn’t which would mean my son would need to live on campus all 4 years. </p>
<p>Anyone know about this?</p>
<p>Thanks,
Tam</p>
<p>Scholarships and loans can be used to pay for off-campus housing. absolutely. Awards will go to the school, and once his school costs are covered, the remaining goes to the student to use for off-campus R&B. </p>
<p>My younger son used his excess scholarship money to pay towards his rent. There is NO problem with this…at all.</p>
<p>Loans are based on COA, which exist whether the student lives on or off campus. </p>
<p>@Tam1233 </p>
<p>Do you know what your EFC will be? </p>
<p>For frosh year, your son can borrow $5500. If you or your spouse has credit issues, then apply for Plus and once rejected, your son can borrow another $4000.</p>
<p>If you have a Pell-qualified EFC, he will get a Pell Grant. </p>
<p>Your son should plan on working as much as he can over summers to put towards various costs. He should also plan on working 8-10 hrs a week during the school year…if he gets Work Study, then that will do. </p>
<p>If you qualify for Plus, and wish to go that route, you can borrow up to the cost of attendance (minus any other aid). But to minimize that, your son should try to earn as much as he can.</p>
<p>Thank you for the information! I’m sure our EFC will be much more than what I anticipate. We are one of those typical middle class families. </p>
<p>I’m not sure can do work study once he gets accepted into the athletic training program (2nd yr). They seem to expect students put in about 10-15 hrs/week working with student athletes. Dean Sharpe did mention him trying to work in the athletic tutoring program so that might be a possibility.</p>
<p>Your information is certainly helpful. Right now Bama is his pie in the sky school and he has another school which has a real possibility of a full ride. We are trying to see how close we can get the 2 schools. This is hard work! ;-)</p>
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<p>He will have to see how that works out. He may have to limit his working to summers at that point.</p>
<p>He can also look into providing tutoring for athletes…that pays well. And he could do that just a few hours a week.</p>
<p>Whatever you do with student loans…make sure you fill out fafsa so you can possibly get a federal loan and you won’t have to go with a private loan (nightmare). We thought with our first child we wouldn’t qualify for anything, thinking the fafsa was just for getting grants and filled out nothing except loan apps with SALLIE MAE (devil). I cannot say enough good things about Federal loans vs. private loans. Do your research, fill out fafsa, don’t go with the Sallie Mae route no matter what. Oh and once you co-sign on a loan app once…that’s all it takes, you are responsible in addition to your child that may or may not have the intention of paying it back. </p>
<p>StangSVT, Thank you for the information! Can we just go back to pre-K? So glad I have experienced parents will ing to share their knowledge with us.</p>
<p>@Tam1223, remember that although your son is eligible for honors housing, he can find much less expensive housing than the suite-style on campus. That will help save you a bundle. </p>
<p>Thanks but honors dorm is one of his 3 requirements that any college must have.</p>
<p>Well, then tell him that next summer he will be working as much as he can to help fund that honors dorm. lol</p>
<p>He can start now, working part-time during senior year at a place where they will likely let him work full time during the summer. </p>
<p>My younger son started working the day he turned 16. he wanted a pricier car than we were willing to buy him, so he immediately got a restaurant job so that he could pay the difference. He kept that job all thru college (working Christmas breaks and the weeks he wasn’t in a summer REU). </p>
<p>@Tam1233, sometimes you ‘luck out’ and end up with honors students in less expensive housing. There was so much honors overflow this year, my son ended up in Blount Hall, home of the very impressive Blount Initiative. He absolutely loves it there, and it’s considerably less expensive than the official honors housing, which is comprised solely of suites with single bedrooms. </p>
<p>Thanks Lucie & mom2!!! He already has a job lined up for next summer. He’ll be working at a summer camp for at least 6 weeks so he wont have much time to spend the $ he is earning. Downside for mom & dad is that he’ll be leaving home a bit sooner. </p>
<p>What is Blount Hall like, Lucie?</p>
<p>For parents with kids with full tuition scholarships to UA, how much do you guys end up paying each year?
And does your kid borrow to help pay room & board?</p>
<p>^^^ For me it’s costing $10-12K/year, it was highest freshman year when he was in the dorm, it’s on the lower end now that he’s living off campus.</p>
<p>In theory, I split that with my son’s dad, he’s good about paying rent every other month, I tend to cover everything else. </p>
<p>So, far, I’ve been able to budget enough to pay for everything without needing to borrow. We didn’t borrow anything freshman year. Sophomore year, I suggested getting a loan ‘just in case’, so we borrowed just the subsidized funds we were offered and put it in a savings account, but wound up getting through the year without needing to use it. Now he’s working a co-op, so every other semester during his work sessions he has no books, course fees, parking, etc to pay (we’re still paying his rent and food), so I’m pretty sure we won’t need to borrow any additional money.</p>
<p>@scholarme, in all honesty, if I’d been the one to choose my son’s dorm, I would have chosen Blount for him. It’s a much smaller dormitory and, as the residential home of the Blount Initiative, is a true “living learning community.” But he really had his heart set on “honors housing,” especially after touring those amazing suites! Keep in mind that, unlike most kids at Bama, my son was originally interested in attending a selective LAC, and Blount really has that vibe. Even though he’s studying engineering and the three boys he’s sharing his suite with are also honors engineers, the mix of kids in Blount has been great for him. He really likes his roomie and suite mates, and I love that there’s a healthy mix of high-achieving students of both sexes in there. (If you didn’t follow our saga, he was originally placed in the all-male Paty Hall, which would have been even cheaper. He was assigned an honors student as a roommate there too, FWIW.)</p>
<p>How you pay will depend on your individual family’s situation. My son is terrified of debt and partially chose Bama because it was well within the budget we told him his dad and I could afford without borrowing. A lot of variables, but when I compared the R&B costs to the pricey LACs we were looking at, even the very expensive honors suites and freshman meal plan didn’t make UA more expensive. The net price calculator will give you some idea. </p>
<p>We told our son we would pay X dollars for him to go to school. The full tuition scholarship helped a lot, but he was still short some from what we would pay. He has taken out a loan to help cover the difference.</p>
<p><a href=“http://cost.ua.edu/undergraduate-budget-html/”>http://cost.ua.edu/undergraduate-budget-html/</a></p>
<p>So around how much does dining and food go down after freshman year, typically? (Assuming a standard, non-suite dorm)</p>
<p>Are you asking “dining and food”…or asking “rooming and food”?</p>
<p>food can go down a lot if a student can grocery shop and make many of his own meals. As for rooming…if in a standard double, that is about $6000, right? If so, then rooming wouldn’t go down after frosh year because a shared apt would cost about that much per student.</p>
<p>LOLOLOL I meant room & board! D’oh!<br>
Thanks @mom2collegekids !</p>
<p>Does anyone know how much is reasonable to budget for monthly utilities in an off-campus apartment? I imagine air conditioning gets pretty expensive when the weather is hot.</p>