Recently, I was admitted to Drexel with a financial aid package of $40K (approx.) per year.
I understand that Drexel has a quarterly billing system for tuition. But I want to know what happens to the financial aid during the quarters that I go on Co-op? Will I receive half of the financial aid that I was originally awarded per year ?
I found this on the Drexel Page… Please help me understand.
Since you will no longer be charged for tuition on quarters of Co-op, certain financial aid will only be applied to quarters you are registered for classes. These include scholarships and grants from Drexel and the PHEAA Grant. Federal financial aid and private education loans will still be applied evenly across your quarters of enrollment for the year, regardless of whether you are registered for classes or co-op.
That sounds like a pretty clear explanation. Look at the sources for each part of your financial aid package: you can still get the federal aid and loans while on co-op but you won’t get the Drexel & PHEAA money for those quarters. I’m assuming you would divide the annual offer by three to figure out how much per quarter (most people enroll in three quarters for the academic year, right?)
Basically how it works is that Drexel recently changed their system so that students don’t pay full tuition during the quarters they’re on co-op. So if there are 4 quarters in the academic year, instead of paying four even installments (one for each term), you pay nothing for the terms where you’re on co-op (except for some miscellaneous fees), and you pay the year’s tuition in two payments over the two terms you are in classes. Drexel simplifies the process for you by diverting your aid in order to fit that change. So you receive no aid in the terms where you’re paying no tuition, and double aid in the terms where you’re paying double tuition. Same money, just paid out differently; nothing to be worried about