Student Contribution is...?

Paying for College
1

<p>I'm confused about Student contribution. It looks (as my college puts it) like basically books & transportation or misc.</p>

<p>I'll use their sample aid letter as my example:</p>

<p>
[quote]
Cost of Attendance Amount<br>
Tuition & Fees $43,990.00<br>
Room & Board 9,120.00<br>
Books & Supplies 1,000.00
Miscellaneous 500.00
Transportation 400.00
Total $55,010.00 </p>

<p>Resources Amount
Parent Contribution $16,000.00
Student Contribution 1,750.00
Total Resources $17,750.00</p>

<p>Financial Aid Eligibility (cost of attendance less family resources) = $37,260.00

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Now it says "The financial aid awarded typically does not cover books, supplies, miscellaneous expenses and transportation. It is the student’s responsibility to earn sufficient funds over the summer to pay for these expenses. Money earned while working on campus will help pay for these expenses. However, please note that the first paycheck from campus employment is not issued until the last week of September."</p>

<p>But looking at the non-fin aid awarded sample prices, e.g.: Books & Supplies ($1,000), Misc ($500) and transportation ($400) they don't equal the student contribution amount: </p>

<p>$1,900 vs $1,750. </p>

<p>(My own amount is a difference of $2,500 estimated and $1,825 in student contribution)</p>

<p>Is this "extra" (the $150 in the sample, and the $675 in my real example) rolled into the Parental contribution then? Personally they budgeted $1,000 for transportation for me, which is....rather silly. I suppose if I flew home every break, it might amount to that, but there's no way one plane ticket across the country would run so high. (It should run me 'bout $155 for a cheap flight, NOT $1,000) </p>

<p>And while books are expensive, no doubt, there's plenty of ways to cut under $1,000 for it all. So is this amount actually far more flexible than I thought it was? I think spending $1,000 on travel (even with shipping!) is rather outrageous. Am I right in figuring that student contribution could be a much lower number if I'm thrifty, or is it just better to have that amount on hand?</p>

<p>Their sample seems to very much include both the "extras" in total COA AND subtracts an almost equal amount in Family contributions. (Equal to the "extras amounts, that is.)</p>

2

<p>Personally they budgeted $1,000 for transportation for me, which is…rather silly. I suppose if I flew home every break, it might amount to that, but there’s no way one plane ticket across the country would run so high. (It should run me 'bout $155 for a cheap flight, NOT $1,000)</p>

<p>You will probably need to travel to and from home and school more than once. You’ll fly to school in the fall, you’ll fly home at Christmas and then back to school, and you’ll fly home at the end of spring term. That’s the equivalent of 2 roundtrip tickets…however, your first & last flights might be one way tickets. And, many kids fly home for spring break.</p>

<p>I don’t know where you can get a round-trip airfare for “across the country” for $155. When I fly across the country, it costs about $400 round trip (including taxes).</p>

3

<p>Ah, I was getting a one-way ticket from Arizona to CT prices off of travelocity. They said something like $155 with taxes. Not round trip. I cannot afford to fly home every break (so spring is very much out) I have family outside of CT but close by, so it remains to be seen whether or not I’ll fly home for christmas at all; I could probably take a train, which should run a little cheaper). I’ve also been really lucky, in that I ended up getting a very nearby home base with a friend of the family, so at the least, I have a “campus family” (as my mom would say) for spring, and maybe at the most, a room if I find a summer job in town. </p>

<p>My family’s always been big on thrifty transportation, and my dad has tons of frequent flier miles from work, so the idea of spending $1,000 just on schlepping myself around doesn’t appeal to me, nor does it seem financially feasible. $400 is about right…and kind of a lot to just drop down. Personally, my dad has offered to be so kind as to fly me home for christmas and back, but he has a bad track record of never actually following through on his flight plans for me (Even if it was his birthday present to me), or instead, flys himself somewhere. My mom has no means to pay for anything but the necessary flights home and back, and frankly, this may end up being my first chance to have a white christmas, so there’s that glimmer of optimism.</p>

4

<p>Yes, you could consider the extra to be rolled into the parent contribution. At my son’s college they factor books, transportation (2 r/t flights per year) and personal expenses into the overall COA, but assume they will be paid directly by the parents and/or student. How those costs are shared by the student and parents isn’t really of any concern to the college – it’s up to us.</p>

<p>In our case the books usually come in at about just their projected amount, transportation a little over it, and personal expenses somewhat under. Of course if we can find savings in any of those areas, it’s to our benefit.</p>

<p>As an example, let’s say the parents are expected to pay $10,000, the student to contribute $3000 from summer earnings and/or work during the school term. The college assumes $1000 for travel, $1000 for books, and $2000 for personal expenses.</p>

<p>The parents/student contribution toward the total COA would be (combined) $13000
They would reserve $4000 of it to cover travel, books, and personal expenses.
They would remit the remaining $9000 to the college.</p>

<p>Those are fictional numbers, but that’s the way it works for us with my son’s college. Others may operate differently.</p>

5

<p>Do you (your student) buy your books used or new, when you hit the projected amount? Just curious- because I’ve been browsing the used and bargin textbook sites and wondering if I can come in under the books & supplies amount given to me. ($1,000 for both- I already have a laptop, and my school supplies have never cost more than $200 before, if we’re talking notebooks, paper, pencils, etc.)</p>

6

<p>Billable expenses are what matters here.</p>

<p>Tuition + room and board = $53,110
Institutional aid (I’m assuming this is grants?) = $37,260
Difference = $15,850</p>

<p>You are going to owe the school $15,850.</p>

<p>I’m assuming that because your EFC exceeds the necessary billable cost of attendance, your student contribution (and apparently, a small portion of your parent contribution) is meant for nonbillable expenses; i.e., books, transportation, etc.</p>

<p>No one is going to write you a check for the amount of non-billable expenses money allotted to you via the cost of attendance. In that sense, it doesn’t matter what you spend on books. It could be $200 or it could be $1000. The school will never know and you are not going to receive the money; that amount is listed in the cost of attendance for estimate purposes.</p>

7

<p>The transportation figure is always a little odd. I applied to an instate college that was fairly close to my parents’ house and they still insisted that I would need $1000+ for “transportation”. I checked, and it turns out they budget for car insurance, car payments, parking fees, and other automotive fees, even if you don’t drive (even if the college doesn’t allow freshmen to bring cars on campus!) The transportation figure is just a possible suggestion and not something that you should take seriously if it doesn’t match your real expenses. The actual fees charged by the college are the most pressing at this stage.</p>

8

<p>Yurtle, buying used books could certainly cut costs. So can economizing on travel, if possible (in our case we can’t get those costs any lower than they are), and how much you need for personal expenses is also very much in your control.</p>

<p>Using my fictional numbers above, if the $4000 reserved from the parent/student contribution is in excess of your actual expenses for books, travel and personal expenses, then your actual family contribution ends up being that much smaller. It’s not as though if they expect you to need $1000 for books, but you only spend $800, that you have to send them that extra $200.</p>

<p>I agree with Gardna that travel can be an odd item. In our case the travel is very close to our actual costs (just somewhat below them). We live across the country and the travel costs built into the COA correspond pretty closely to two RT plane tickets per year. It runs a bit higher when you add in shuttle costs to and from the airport. We have not, and do not plan to, appeal to the college to increase the expected travel amount. It all seems to balance out pretty well considering the various expenses.</p>

9

<p>

No. :stuck_out_tongue: “John Jones” owes that money. <a href=“http://www.conncoll.edu/FinancialAidDocs/SampleAwardLetter.pdf[/url]”>http://www.conncoll.edu/FinancialAidDocs/SampleAwardLetter.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>x3 I know no one will write me a check for that amount, but it appears to bleed over into the Parent contribution number. If that’s not part of the billable cost (It doesn’t seem to be) that’s $675 I don’t have to fight over. </p>

<p>Thanks Gardna. That’s what my mom suggested, haha. I can’t drive, so…not a problem! </p>

<p>I’m just working it all out now- billable expenses are frankly more straight forwards. But it’s the non-billable ones that I need to severely budget. Like I said, I can’t afford to fly home on whimsy; any extra money needs to go to adding to my non-existent winter wardrobe! The great thing about figuring out that it rolls into the parent contribution, is that many of these expenses already exist for me anyways (School supplies) so it’s not necessarily an added on expense to what I already do. I actually feel that the school over-estimated some amounts, so I wouldn’t appeal these guesstimates, also. :)</p>

10

<p>I don’t want to hijack your thread, Yurtle, especially because I think it’s been a really good and informative discussion. I just had a quick question for those who’ve had a similar situation: My school puts WS and Student Contribution into the package, of course, but says that outside scholarships will replace WS and possibly Student Contribution before they affect your package. So, if I’m lucky enough to receive outside scholarships to cover this, then does the school pay for books, travel, personal expenses, etc? How would that work?</p>

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<p>No problem. I think I worked it out some, and I also think I owe $5,000 less than I thought I did. </p>

<p>That seems weird 10scholar. Normally I wouldn’t think they’d reduce workstudy. </p>

<p>I know my college is not yours, but mine states:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Now it doesn’t say what the federal regulations are so that could be why the schools have different policies. I’m wondering why specifically federal Work-study is the first to go for you, and not for me. </p>

<p>It sounds like they apply the scholarships towards the money you need for books/supplies/etc FIRST and then if that’s covered, apply it to other things.</p>

12

<p>Yeah, Yurtle, I guess they just do them differently, especially since there isn’t a federal rule.
I find it amazing, though, that yours reduces your Family contribution first. I knew student contribution could be reduced, but I’ve never seen parental contributions reduced, but maybe I haven’t looked around enough. That’s a great thing, though.</p>

<p>For my school, first off they don’t give loans so they aren’t part of my package. They do give a laptop loan and half of health insurance if those need to be purchased, and it appears they allow you to eliminate those loans with outside scholarships. Here’s what it said with my award letter:</p>

<p>“Outside Scholarships: Apply for any outside scholarships for which you may be eligible. Outside scholarships you receive can be used to replace the employment component of your award, and in some cases may also be used to reduce your family contribution.”</p>

<p>Which brings me back to my question - if I eliminate WS and Student Contribution (Big if), then how are the travel, personal expenses, books, etc. handled?</p>

13

<p>You mean you were not eligible for federal loans? Hmm.</p>

<p>Yeah, they reduce my parents contribution to my schooling first, then my federal loans, then everything else. I think my personal expenses “books, etc” are still up to me, though. </p>

<p>For you, I’m guessing they just mean that you don’t get WS because you’ve got the money from the scholarships. That’s why WS is eliminated. I’m guessing.</p>

14

<p>No, I assume I’m eligible for federal loans, but they meet all need with grants.</p>

<p>Well, regardless, that works out well for you that you can reduce your EFC directly with those scholarships.</p>

<p>Yea, that’s what I think too, but don’t they usually use WS for personal expenses, books, etc.? So if the scholarship company sends the check to the school and it’s used to replace WS, then how does the school disburse that money for those things?</p>

15

<p>:s Oh man, I’m stumped. Maybe someone else knows or can answer. I would assume you just get the amount you need. WS income freshman semester won’t come soon enough to buy books with, though.</p>

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<p>10scholar, as you say it will vary from school to school. I can only tell you how it works at my son’s school, which also does not include loans in its FA awards. This is their policy:

So, scholarship money would first reduce workstudy, then the student’s summer earnings contribution. Beyond that it will reduce grant aid the school itself is providing. Presumably the non-billable expenses would then all be paid from contribution expected from the student’s parents.</p>

<p>This is just one school’s way of doing it, but possibly similar to what you could expect.</p>

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<p>Thanks, 'rentof2, and yea, because of the variance, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.</p>

18

<p>Hmmm…am I supposed to subtract the workstudy number from the “aid” package? Since it can go towards the personal expenses and not tuition, that’s not really part of my aid paying for tuition/room/board, is it?</p>

19

<p>Yurtle, it all depends on how you want to look at it. It is typical for colleges to assume personal expenses will be met with workstudy. Some will “award” enough in workstudy to cover personal expenses and also books and/or travel. That ends being a lot to earn in workstudy, though, and it may not practical or possible to work as many hours as you’d need to earn the full amount awarded.</p>

<p>But I’d say, yeah, typically workstudy will at least cover the personal expenses item in the COA breakdown.</p>

<p>You can subtract that from billable costs if you want to, but you’ll still need personal expenses money from somewhere and it’ll still be part of your overall COA. Personally, I wouldn’t think of it in terms of subtracting it from the aid award, but I also would not subtract personal expenses from the overall COA since it is a sum of money that must come from somewhere.</p>

<p>If the financial aid award, though, is easier for you to quantify without that piece I guess you could pull it out. It kind of depends on how much workstudy they awarded you. For both my kids at their colleges the amount they were awarded in workstudy is equal to the amount the college projected for personal expenses (but not books and travel). That’s how we treat it. We don’t send them any allowance money, but what they earn with their workstudy jobs is theirs to spend or save as they see fit. We buy their books and pay travel costs.</p>

<p>However, if the work study amount was meant to also cover the cost of textbooks, then you’d have to take that into consideration in your mental calculations. “Personal expenses” is more elastic in terms of how much you actually need than textbooks. Even buying used, they are a big chunk of money.</p>

20

<p>Yurtle, from what I understand (obviously I’m no expert) it’s in the aid package because they “give” you the opportunity, usually with wages subsidized in part by the government, even though it’s earned money. Usually, it appears, WS money is used for stuff that the school doesn’t actually bill you for, so it’s just an estimate you could be over/under on. They include it because they want you to truly grasp how much overall expenses will be.</p>

<p>EDIT: Cross-posted with 'rentof2</p>