Nope…not correct. For unsubsidized loans…the interest accrues to the borrower beginning at disbursal. You CAN pay the interest annually, but you are not required to do so…as long as you continue to be a student. That interest each year, however, is then included in the total you will owe when you begin repayment.
But do you have a full FA award from UF or UCF? Will you qualify for bright futures?
One thing to consider is that you’ll have a lot more wiggle room at FIU. At Syracuse, you will always be struggling for cash, for time to work, for vacations. I did that while at school and it was worth it to me. I liked living away, didn’t mind working, didn’t mind penny pinching (too much), but it was hard when my friends went to Mexico for spring break or on a semester abroad. Look at the opportunities that are available to you at FIU for internships or study abroad or being a leader on campus. That might tip the scale for you.
But do call Syracuse and discuss all your options. Maybe there is cheaper housing, maybe there is an SEOG or other non-loan money. They want you to go there too, so they want to make it work.
I’m with @menloparkmom. Call them and get to the bottom of the Feb 15 deadline. They gave you full tuition so perhaps they confused it with the program scholarship. Or they could be trying to pressure you into accepting early. Or maybe the deadline is legit.
At any rate, if you actually have until May 1, you can wait until all offers are on the table. If you actually have until Feb 15, one option would be to put your deposit down, then kiss it goodbye if you choose a more affordable option later on. At least that would buy you some time to assess how much of a deal Syracuse really is, with a cost differential over FIU, by the sounds of it, of $50,000+.
On December 21, OP was accepted ED at Syracuse through Posse.
Unlike Questbridge, which covers everything (pretty much a full ride scholarship), Posse is a full tuition scholarship only ($43,440).
The direct cost to attend Syracuse is $60,239. This does not include misc expenses including airfare to Syracuse and Health insurance if OP does not have adequate insurance.
The rest is need based aid (you do not have to be low income to get Posse because it is a leadership scholarship where Questbridge is more geared toward economically disadvantaged students).
Syracuse (who is new to Posse, this is their 5th class) does not meet 100% demonstrated need. They have fulfilled their commitment by providing full tuition (which is all that Posse offers). So far it looks as that is all that Syracuse has covered.
If the the balance is ~22k, Op said in first post that she needs to come up with $14k after applying Pell (we don’t know if she is full Pell Eligible if she is then that is $5,920) and loan ($5,500).
Perkins loans are ending in June so that may not be an option for her. Because Syracuse also participates in HEOP for NYS residents, there is no guarantee that she will get SEOG funding (from the packages I have seen for HEOP, they don’t give a lot of SEOG money).
I don’t understand why OP is waiting until the last minute to settle all of this out when she knew about her situation since December. Has she been consistently been working with FA at Syracuse for an affordable package? Did you run the net price calculator before applying?
I think in hindsight OP would have been better served partnering with a Posse Partner that meets 100% demonstrated need.
https://www.possefoundation.org/our-university-partners/participating-schools/
@sybbie719 I did not get Posse. After not making it past the final interview I found out I was accepted to Syracuse, which is why I am not bound by ED. Although the initial financial aid package was extremely generous, it would have still ended up being a financial strain on my family. I was notified two weeks ago that I was awarded a scholarship that covered tuition and mandatory fees, I receive $2550 from the Pell Grant.
I am following the deadline stated in my admissions letter, but will ask about it as @menloparkmom recommended.
My whole dilemma is whether the significant difference in price between Syracuse and FIU is worth it. I have always wanted to go out of state and feel incredibly lucky to have been offered full tuition but am hesitating after looking at the numbers.
FIU ranks very high in International Business. If you majored in IB, then FIU.
Otherwise, Syracuse is probably the better choice. If you decide to go with Syracuse, start cranking out as many scholarship applications as you can. Ask about departmental and other scholarships. Choose the least expensive housing option and meal plan. Plan to move off campus second year. Get a part time job asap. Get a summer job or two. Suggest that your parents get part time jobs and/or look around for things they can sell.
@nw2this, OP needs 14k. Please remember that there are very few outside scholarships, that are large enough ti fill OP’s gap and will be renewable over the course of 4 years. It will be a stretch to get any departmental scholarships because most are reserved for current student.
If you had been a Posse finalist, was Syracuse the school that you were loooking to apply ED to?
Did you apply to Syracuse before or after you found out that you were not going to be a Posse Scholar?
Some how, you applied ED to Syracuse, whether you thought Posse was going to come through or on your own.
There is a strong possibility that you are under some sort of ED agreement, whether it is ED I or ED II. Syracuse’s RD decision release date is not until late March. However, none if this matters if the school is unaffordable to you and your family. If it is unaffordable, asked to be released and move on. This way you can compare RD packages.
@SyracuseRand, can you find out and clarify if OP has been accepted under any kind of ED agreement?
I didn’t read all of the above, but this is how I feel after reading your first post and a few after…
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So I was accepted to the Newhouse/Whitman double major program at Syracuse University and was awarded a full tuition scholarship. After factoring in the pell grant and work study it would end up being about $14,000/year. I would end up with about 30k in student loans and my parents would ultimately end up paying 20k. Obviously I know what an incredible opportunity this is and my dream has always been to study out of state. I would be receiving a $65k education at the fraction of the cost. But, I could go to my local university (Florida International University) for $2000/year.
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If you and your family can swing it, I think Syracuse is a wonderful opportunity for you. Your family will have to commit to paying the $5500, which will be hard since you’re a Pell family.
Also…I would work full time in the summer and earn/save as much as you can.
Wow! Full Tuition and costs. You are very very lucky to have scored that. I think it is a great opportunity that you should jump at if you and your parents can pick up the remainder.
Best of luck.
You have a full tuition award which makes your net cost ~$17k. After applying the ~$2500 Pell grant and $5500 federal student loan you have a $9k gap. Your parents can scrape together $5k, which brings the gap down to $4k. If you can work summers you can probably raise ~$3k of it. If you can choose a less expensive dorm or meal plan, it might make up the difference.
Don’t count on the Perkins loan because I think that’s ending this summer. The AOTC tax credit is $2500, so that might be useful next year. I don’t think the cost of attendance includes travel from FL to NY, though, or takes cost increases into account. You’ll have to have adequate health insurance too. I don’t know if that’s included in the cost of attendance or not.
Can you get a part-time job now? That would help cover the gap. I think it’s very tight but it might be possible. Carefully run through the numbers with your parents.
Remember Op lives in Fla. We are coming up with ways for her to meet her direct cost.
She will still need to cover her indirect costs, which includes getting back and forth to Syracuse, books, incidentals and possibly health insurance (if she does not have adequate insurance)
What she needs to know is if her parents will commit to the 5k per year (it could be a challenge for a Pell Eligible family)?
I agree that numbers have to be studied carefully, as @sybbie719 suggests. We’re NYS residents with an EFC of ~$5k. We’re paying that for our son to commute to our local SUNY.
We couldn’t afford both OOS travel costs and unexpected cost increases. Books that require online course codes can’t be bought used and those can be expensive. One class last semester came with a separate $250 fee. If you have to buy health insurance, that’s another ~$2k at a SUNY. I don’t know what Syracuse charges.
There are things my son can do because he chose to go to a less expensive school. He can afford to take an extra year and cross register at two very good private schools. He can fit in more classes at the private schools if he takes a class over winter or summer break, but since those cost ~$600 each he wouldn’t be doing that if we were paying travel and insurance costs. He can afford to do some traveling during breaks and/or take internships that might help his career. There’s a lot for OP’s family to consider.
Also, what was the 2016 income? Is it higher than 2015? Will the income in 2017, 2018 be comparable to 2015?
Because if you only get a $2,000 Pell grant now, with a higher income in the next few years, it might go away completely.
So no Perkins $2,000, future Pell? How much can your parents commit to pay every year?
Will it cover room, board, insurance, travel, books?
If you can pay for the flights and books, and your parents can pay $5, you should do it. A small amount of debt to pay for part of your living expenses while in college is not a bad thing.
Please clarify with your family about how they’ll come up with the 5500 per year. Perhaps your family has an alternate source of money for this? Or maybe being low income, assets didn’t count and they’ll have those dollars to help out with?
This is how I look at it…if the family can swing S, then do it. If they find out after the first year that they can’t continue to help pay, CAN the student then transfer to FIU and commute (the other plan)?
Will the student still have Bright Futures available at that point?
And, again, the student needs to work/save over summers to help with unknown costs.
I am fearful about family/student being able to come up with the remaining $$ at Syracuse. And good point about FIU and bright futures. Be sure to not make a decision and find you can’t finish w/o either big loan burden or even can’t finish at Syracuse. Costs rise; things come up. I believe the financial ‘safety’ - especially saving on dorm with commuting.
Key is taking advantage of all opportunities on campus and ways to enrich your educational experiences where you are planted.
I am very averse to student loans - borrowing as little as possible to get through school.
FIU is lit, just go there. It’s a great school and has great programs. Been on campus for a hackathon and was super jealous.
For me, there would be too much uncertainty in the Syracuse financial situation, plus I would not want to put my low income family in the position of having to pay $5500 a year or graduate with $30,000+ in student loans. You may have a higher tolerance for risk, though.
I know a couple kids from my area who paid OOS tuition to attend FIU and really liked it there. They were trying to get away from the kind of weather they have in Syracuse!
@KaliIsabel Congratulations on your full tuition scholarship to Syracuse. My daughter is a freshman there and was also accepted into the dual major of Newhouse and Whitman. The finest program they have at the school and wonderful opportunities for the future. She only received a $15k chancellor’s scholarship. But I read about another scholarship on the website, and we applied to that. It’s the Maxwell School of Public Policy scholarship. Any student, regardless of major can compete. After the first round, 100 finalists are brought to Syracuse for a day of competition and 25 leave with a scholarship. First prize is 5k per year, 2nd prize is 4k, 3rd is 3k and there are 22 winners who get 2k per year. she was one of the 22 who received 2K,…so over the long haul $8k less. Here is the link
https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/paf/MaxwellScholarship/index.asp
…it’s a great program!! Good luck!
@paparent106 Thank you! I will definitely look at that scholarship. How does your daughter like the program? Would love to get an opinion about it from a current student!