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Useful advice:
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<p>CollegeCrisis96, It is very good that you have your career path planned. It is also great that you are interested in helping the community as a public servant as an ADA. You seem to have invested a lot of thought in your future. That’s super!</p>
<p>You probably already understand this: I just wanted to mention that the financial award letter is for the entire year. The Stafford loan is typically $5500 for incoming freshman. That would be split in half and be $2750 for the Fall Semester and $2750 for the Spring Semester. I mention it because it is not typically heard of for the Federal loans to be $11,000. Perhaps you are considering that it is $5500 for the Fall and another $5500 for the Spring (totaling $11,000) ….I could be incorrect here, but it is usually $5500 for the whole year.</p>
<p>Maybe someone wiser than I about the financial side of things would be able to shed some light on it. </p>
<p>No one is trying to upset you. We are all really here to help with some ideas or advice. The other posters above are extremely wise about Financial Aid. </p>
<p>Perhaps consider re-reading your award letter again, and maybe calling the Financial Aid office just to go over it with someone. They are usually very nice and can clarify the letter and any questions you may have.</p>
<p>I think most of the people posting here are trying to help. We all want to see you succeed and achieve your goal of becoming a lawyer to help people.</p>
<p>OP, I commend you for taking steps to go to college and for seeking out and being awarded some scholarships. However, it appears as though you are interpreting your financial aid incorrectly and perhaps your mom doesn’t understand either and is therefore not able to guide you. That is why you should really speak with a financial aid advisor at your chosen college ASAP. Your FWS award is not monthly, it’s yearly so if your award is $1800 then that is $900 a semester. Also like others have said, don’t assume you have 11k in loans available for one semester, especially since you don’t have a parent co-signer. In all likelihood, if your mom doesn’t have enough money to put food on the table, she would not get approved to co-sign on government loan at an amount that even well off people aren’t afforded. In all likelihood, you have been awarded $5500 for the entire school year.</p>
<p>Please call your school first thing on Monday and make an appointment to go over your financial aid package so that you are crystal clear on how much money you have to come up with, what your aid in the form of a pell gran is, how much merit aid the school is giving you, and how much you have been awarded for loans. I fear you are going to be in for a big surprise. I’m not trying to scare you, but you must be realistic and need to understand if you will be able to attend your dream school even for one semester which will be followed by a huge debt.</p>
<p>there isnt any loan forgiveness for any extra loans that you are seeking. Loan forgiveness is only for federal student loans, and you are seeking more than that. plus loans and outside loans do not have loan forgiveness (except Plus does if you or the parent dies.).</p>
<p>You seem to be misreading your award. You misread your work study, so you may have misread your loans.</p>
<p>this is no dream school if they expect a low income person to take out so much in loans.</p>
<p>does becoming an ada qualify for any loan forgiveness???</p>
<p>$5500x2=$11,000. I, too, suspect the award letter was misunderstood and am now concerned that the OP assumed the amounts listed for all aid were for fall semester, not the entire year. College finances can be tricky. I was just at orientation with a group of parents trying to figure out payment plans and plus loans for a year when they’re only billed a semester at a time. I’m not surprised this is confusing for a high school student/new grad. </p>
<p>Just in case you’re sneaking back to read, OP, i do not think you’re a ■■■■■, just someone who really doesn’t understand the system. As far as I know, law schools don’t reject students who started at community college. I get that you’d rather not start there, but what happens when your very low income family can’t cosign for the extra loans? You cannot continue with your education if you can’t pay the bills. You really don,t want to be 3 semesters in and then get stuck! So, if you’ve got a high school guidance counselor working this summer, why not take your award to him or her and ask to have it explained. Start researching loans to see what you can get since you need in excess of the federal maximums ($5500 for freshman and may a little extra in Perkins). You need to see if this college is really doable for you for 4-5 years.</p>
<p>There is good information to be learned here. It seems it is hard for you to swallow, but you should at least listen before discarding information from many experienced people. Information is POWER, rather than sticking your head in the sand because there are things you would rather not hear.</p>
<p>You need a 4 year plan, not a 1 year plan. (Or maybe a 3 year as you said.) There are schools that will likely pay your way for you so you can graduate with low or no debt, but you didn’t pick one, or maybe know to apply to a ‘meets full financial need’ school. Or an 'automatic full or half tuition scholarship school". </p>
<p>Here is the amount a student can take per year (you get 1/2 each semester) in Federal Direct Loans, one exception is if you school gives you Perkins Loans (max 5,500 per year), I’m not sure how much you qualify for if you already get max Direct loans, I’ve only ever seen 1,000 Perkins, they are not always available.:</p>
<p>freshman 5,500
sophomore 6,500
junior 7,500
senior 7,500</p>
<p>If your parent applies for PLUS and is denied, then you can get this FDL instead (not in addition):</p>
<p>freshman 9,500
sophomore 10,500
junior 11,500
senior 11,500</p>
<p>That’s it, unless you get a few thousand Perkins (not guaranteed each year.) It maybe possible that’s where your 11,000 came from, but that would be per year, not per semester. After that it is up to Parent Plus if your parent agrees and qualifies. NO ONE ELSE WILL LEND TO A STUDENT. But that would be crazy to try to go to a school that would make your family be in debt 30 to 40k per year.</p>
<p>Forget about future plans and potential grad debt right now and I don’t’ think people should give advice on that yet, when you are Jr in college you can decide on law school (although it is true if you have a lot of debt, you might find you can’t afford to go to law school.) Right now you need to get through 4(or 3) years of undergrad. The best way to do that is to get a school you can afford for 4 years. You don’t need to go through the CC route, maybe, but the best thing would be to preserve your freshman status and take a gap year and apply to schools you don’t have to take huge loans for. Schools that will give you more money than this one. You won’t get through with huge loans. You may well end up with no money to continue and a pile of loans and no way to pay them. It doesn’t just 'all work out" magically, as we see many people come here in such situation. You can get help here picking those colleges.</p>
<p>It just isn’t right that expensive schools would let low income students who have to figure everything out themselves just attend when it is clear there is no way to afford it and graduate.</p>
<p>I hope you at least keep a dialogue up here. I wasn’t trying to ask for information to get personal info. As you see it was important to know how much ‘gap’ you had between your aid and the cost of the college. In my next post will be some sample actual packages from students I worked with this year. You can see it is anonymous to reveal this information.</p>
<p>OP, all of us are just trying to help you. As I urged you to do in my earlier post, you need to reread your financial aid letter and understand exactly what your award is for the year, and then again for the term. You also need to know what the school is going to cost for this up coming term, as you will be getting the bill shortly. Most awards that are given by the school and through the federal government are distributed by the term. </p>
<p>You have given out info in your posts that sound highly unlikely and not possible unless some other situation (are you over age 24, for instance) is going on. If you have loans in the amount of $11K, for instance, that would be for the year, not for the term. </p>
<p>"After the grants and billing issues fixed, it should run me just under $20k to pay for the first semester. I was thinking about just taking out the $20k loan and put the money towards that than just doing the payment plan and have to keep applying for loans. Should I do that? Also, which loans have the lowest interest rates? I’m also on the track to graduate a year early so that should save me a good amount of money.</p>
<p>Lastly, should I just keep the FWS as pocket money? I have about another $1k in scholarship money leftover that I just received. Should I send that to the college?"</p>
<p>This is what you wrote ^^^^ . And this scares me. You are saying that it should run you just about $20K to pay for the first semester, and then you are asking about taking out a loans and asking about interest rates. YOU don’t get to go around picking and choosing the loans. They are OFFERED to you in your financial aid package. If you need to go around finding and applying, you have a very big problem. You are entitled to $5500 as a freshman on an unsubsidized basis, subsidized if you have need, but that should have been listed in your financial aid package if you have need. Again, look and see what loans are listed for you for the year, and by the semester, so you KNOW what you can take out. That’s about it for loans unless something else listed for you like Perkins, and those are rare. The rest involve your parents except in very rare cases. So rare, I doubt you have anything else.</p>
<p>You were all over the place about your workstudy award, remember? Is that $900 for the YEAR, or for the semester? As we have discussed, you don’t just GET that money. You have to go to the Financial AId or Work Study office, look at what jobs are left (the upper classmen tend to get the goodies as they know the system and the jobs) and look for any that fit your schedule and your award amount. You then have to apply for those jobs and see if you get any of them, just as you do any job and IF you get the job, work the hours and get your pay check as you put in the time, with pay periods every two weeks or so. Unti you have your schedule, you can’t even apply for the jobs. </p>
<p>So you owe $20K by when? Again, if you borrow through direct loans, you get your borrowed amount cut in half, with half going to the first semester and half to the second, so only $2750 of that maximum $5500 is available to be borrowed. for first term if you are a freshman. </p>
<p>It’s all good and well to think ahead, but your most pressing matter right now is how you are going to pay that Bursars bill that will be due in Aug-Sept. You won’t make it through your first year of school if you cannot and do not pay that bill. Out you will go and your official transcript held until you cough up the money owed. And this happens a lot. Too many times. So the most pressing college thing right now is how much do you owe for that first semester and how are you going to pay for it. THe spending of the scholarship money is going to be the least of your problems if your school costs way more than you and your family can pay. Again, look at what loans are offered to YOU, and which ones for your PARENTs. What you want, what your parents want have nothing to do with what the awards and offers might be. Any loans offered to YOU are probably auto approved but are limited in amount. Parent loans have to be applied for,so your parents need to get involved to get that money, if they could and should. </p>
<p>The student mentioned that the school is mu college. what school is that?</p>
<p>“I think the part that bothers me the most is that I have to take out over $20k in loans and I haven’t completely responsibly used the money for college”</p>
<p>That bothers me too. Where are you supposed to get that $20K? Is it for the year or for the term? Please look at exactly what the financial aid letter is giving you and break it down by term. Also break down what the school is going to cost you on a direct bill basis (tuition, fees, room, board) by term. You may not have the exact bill for the first semester yet, but look and see what those items cost per semester as that is what you will be billed next month. How are you planning to pay that amount? </p>
<p>You got about $5K of scholarship money from outside sources. IF your amount you owe for the year was $20K, not the semester but the year, then that amount could have been reduced to $15K. You can borrow up to $5500 if that isn’t already computed in that $20K as a bottom line–again you need to look and see if has or not… If that $20K is just for the semester, and the school has already computed loans and other aid towards it, then you really cannot afford that school. They are not going to offer YOU up another $20K for the year, much less the semester. Please look into this ASAP.</p>
<p>Mizzou College in Missouri is referred to as “MU” on their website. From their COA page:</p>
<p>COA/year: Fall & Spring Semesters<br>
Missouri res – Non-Missouri res
Tuition* $9,430 – $22,822
Room/board $9,116 – $9,292
Books/supplies $946 – $946
Pers exp/transp $3,296 – $3,296
Total $22,788 – $36,180</p>
<p>If the student has $5500 sub/unsub loans & $5k grant, that would leave a $20k balance/year if s/he is out of state. </p>
<p>These are actual aid packages per year for low income students. They will graduate having paid, 12,000 to 40,700 total for 4 years, not all will be loans because some was work/study so paid as they go. I don’t know if you have explored if you could get this or some of the automatic full tuition scholarship. It seems likely that you would qualify for money from a more generous college since you were able to earn a good scholarship. That is what makes a dream college. Your college doesn’t give good enough aid for you to attend. A college cannot be a dream if it leaves you a nightmare of debt. You don’t need a college to show off. Like you don’t need fancy rims when you can’t pay rent.</p>
<p>College 1
Tuition 47,050.00
Housing 8,112.00
Board/Dining 5,566.00
Personal/Miscellaneous 1,770.00
Transportation 1,130.00
Books and Supplies 870.00
Student Activities Fees 236.00
Total Budget 64,734.00</p>
<p>Financial Aid
Total Cost of Attendance 64,734.00<br>
Minus Total Family Contribution 2,650.00
Parents Contribution 0.00
Total Financial Need 62,084.00<br>
Total Aid Offered 62,084.00
Total Unmet Financial Need 0.00</p>
<p>College 2
Tuition 47,702
Fee 270
Residential comprehensive 13,226
Fee 30
Book/misc 2,665
Total 63,893</p>
<p>Financial Aid
University Scholarship 42,250
University matriculation grant 300
Federal Pell Grant 5,730
Federal SEOG 3,000
Federal Work Study 2,750
Family Contribution 10,163
Total 63,893</p>
<p>College 3</p>
<p>Provost’s scholarship: 7,500
University scholarship: 42,800
Federal Pell Grant: 5,730
Federal SEOG Grant: 1,800
Campus employment: 2,700
Loans 0
Total assistance: 60,530
Cost 60,530</p>
<p>College 4 instate Calif public - not all states are this generous</p>
<p>$7,986.00
Estimated Cal Grant A<br>
$12,192.00
Federal Pell Grant $5,730.00
Federal SEOG Grant $400.00
Total Gift Aid $26,308.00 </p>
<p>Work Study $2,950.00
Federal Perkins Loan $1,500.00<br>
Federal Subsidized Direct Loan $3,500.00 </p>
<p>Grand Total $34,258.00</p>
<p>Costs
Books and Supplies $1,230.00
Tuition and Fees $12,872.00
Health Insurance* $2,190.00
Living Expenses $17,966.00</p>
<p>Costs $34,258.00
My Gift Aid $26,308.00
My Net Cost $7,950.00 (covered by the loans and work study)</p>
<p>We can guess all day as to what the college is and what the costs and aid packages are. The OP knows what college it is–he needs to know what the direct bill items are going to be come August. That bill will pretty much repeat itself in Dec/January for the spring term,but here isn’t going to be any second semester if the OP does not pay up the first term costs. </p>
<p>So what are the tuition, fees, room and board costs for your school for the year, AND for that all important first term? How much aid has the college given you in grants, loans, workstudy for the year AND then for the first term? Lot of confusion here on part of the OP as to what he has gotten for the year and for that first term. What is bottom line what he will have to pay the school for the first semester? Are any loans listed in the financial aid package? YOU, the OP, are not likely to get any loans other than those the school has offered up which are likely those Direct loans and maybe Perkins. Have to involve parents for any more borrowing. Work study, you get an amount which is the maximum you can earn from a WS job if you can find one and get hired for it and work the hours. </p>
<p>
I wonder how much money the family is actually going to send her. I’m guessing not really enough to make a difference.
The family is on federal assistance, and so she asssumes she’s going to continue that by having loans forgiven. That’s some kind of dreaming. He/she must think they are too good for community college, and that sleepaway college is a right. </p>
<p>So for now he/she’s planning on going out of state to the dream college. Come the start of fall semester, I’m sure he/she will have been forced to give up that dream. I doubt he/she will ever come back to this board or thread, though, because he/she will have to learn the hard way. </p>
<p>“I have already been offered $11k in loans (federal direct sub and unsub loans).”</p>
<p>You are only entitled to $5500 for the year in federal Direct loans as a dependent freshman, without your parents getting involved. Check out exactly where you are getting this $11K number. Also if you have loans in your package, where do you think you are going to borrow anything other than what is offered? That’s pretty much it, without a parent getting into the picture. If you owe $20K for this first term AFTER all of your grants, loans, work study, you are highly unlikely to be able to borrow it. Lenders do NOT come up with loans for teenagers for school. It’s not a good investment for them. </p>
<p>OP I also do not believe you are a ■■■■■ but I do think you don’t quite understand how paying for college works. This is not slam against you, many people are confused about this subject, I know people who see tuition and think that’s the total cost of attending forgetting there’s room and board (if living in dorms) and other fees. This forum is one of the best on CC, IMO. I hope you haven’t left for good and are reading/taking in the great advice being given here.</p>
<p>I agree with others that you are most likely reading your FA package wrong. The clue to me is the WS amount you’re quoting. $1800 usually is for the entire year, with the college splitting it between semesters. Also, on the subject of health insurance, be aware that this cost isn’t automatically waived at certain schools even if you do already have insurance. Last year I went round and round with a young woman who wanted to waive insurance for a college in MA. However, for Massachusetts, unless your insurance meets the standards of the state, a waiver is not possible. The young woman finally got it and realized she had to move on to a more affordable choice.</p>
<p>If people here on CC seem harsh to you at the moment, please realize it’s because payment is coming up soon. As noted above, most colleges send out first semester bills sometime in July or August. You have to be able to pay that bill or you will not be attending. And - again as noted - this is not just a one time thing, the college will bill you each year you are there. There are also hidden cost that you may not have thought of - for example is this college near your hometown? If not, what are your plans for coming home for holidays? Some colleges close their dorms during holiday periods and even for the ones that do stay open, you’re on your own in providing meals during this time. Are you going from one climate to another? Coming from a cold weather state to a warm one is a lot less expensive than vice versa. Winter weather requires coats, hats, gloves, boots. If you don’t have these items, they will have to be purchased.</p>
<p>Please take the advice the good people on these boards are giving you. If you don’t wish to give the details of your FA package, then please call the school and go over things with them. Better to find out now if this college is affordable than later after you have send a check for one semester and realize you’re already all tapped out.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>QLM</p>
<p>OP, we do want this to work out for you. Please, look at your award letter and make sure you understand how much the school is awarding you per term. Find out what you will be billed for that first semester. Subtract out what the school is giving you in financial aid for that semester, and you will see what you owe. You need to figure out how to pay that amount, or there will be no second semester and you may not even be able to transfer with your records on lock down for the first term.</p>
<p>Once you have ascertained what your first semester direct bill costs are, and how to meet them, do the same for the second. If you can pay for the school direct bill costs then you need to also have money for getting to and from the school, books, supplies, etc, but those amounts are usually less, and with a job this summer and the return of your scholarship money, you probably can make that work. BUt what the school wants as payment is serious business. They will shut you down very quickly if you cannot pay what they will be billing you for very soon.</p>
<p><<<
Also, the reason my family is willing to send me money for college is because that’s just the kind of relationship I have with them. My mom is not receiving money from them because of personal issues/she’s also too proud sometimes (if you ask me).</p>
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<p>Is this the same family that couldn’t come up with money to eat so you had to spend your scholarship money.</p>
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<p>that is obvious, and it is obvious that they dont give great aid to low income students.
this school is unaffordable.
you have a goal, law school, but you are setting yourself for a situation where you will run out of money before getting your undergrad degree.</p>
<p>
But obviously mama is not too proud to receive federal assistance…</p>
<p>^^that kind of remark is really nasty and unnecessary</p>
<p>That was a typo…not Mu college…should have been MY college!</p>