Looking for some feeback on financial aide at UIC. My daughter received her “award” letter and all she was offered was $5,500 in federal student loans. This seemed strange to me considering our EFC. When I called the office of financial aid, I was told that their office only looks for federal aid and that I would need to contact the college that admitted her for merit scholarships if there were any.
I just want to make sure I am not missing something. My son started college 3 years ago (different university) and it was run much differently…they even gave him a “university success grant” to close the gap in the cost of attendance and our EFC. It just seems strange that UIC does not do this. It is almost as if the EFC does not mean anything there.
Would love to know if anyone was able to receive aid other than student loans through the office of financial aid.
First, did you apply for financial aid before March 1. March 1 is UIC’s priority date.
UIC only has a handful of pure merit scholarships. You would probably know by know if you have received one. Most of those go to Honors College/GPPA students.
If you don’t qualify for federal/state grants, chances are all you are going to get are loans.
This is a pool of university grant money but it is very limited. It probably only has about $150k per year. It is called the Student to Student grant. It is first come, first serve and generally goes to upperclassman. http://www.uic.edu/depts/financialaid/instgrants.shtml
They are expecting a major decrease in state funding and are making plans for next year with that in mind. As an alum, I have received a number of letters and phone calls from them. They will sometimes call daily for a period of time.
Yes, we submitted the FAFSA the middle of January. She also applied to the University the first day available on August 1st. She is in the Honors College and that was the last part of the not so good news…no scholarships from them.
We are being told there will be “plenty” of scholarships that she can apply for once she is on campus. What was your experience with that?
There are scholarships for current students. Honors college does have a tuition scholarship every semester. Individual colleges and majors have their own as well. You will have to look them up. In my experience, school based scholarships at UIC are rare. There are a number of on campus jobs available.
Thank you for the information! I did look over the scholarships online and there are some. We will just have to take it one step at a time. At least she will be starting with around 30 credits so that will help with the overall cost. She does plan to look for a job as well.
We have almost exact same thing. Offered $5500 in loans, no other financial aid at UIC but a private school offered D $18,000. I get the impression you go to UIC, you pay the price listed.