Hey I just have a few quick questions, if any of you can help me out I’d really appreciate it!
Thank you!
Your aid estimate won’t go down. it will only go up.
This is from three years ago…so I’m not sure if it will apply to your situation, but I’m happy to give you the dates and increases my daughter experienced her Freshman year.
On March 6th she got her first aid estimate that put her cost to attend after gift aid…at about $17,800. She was also offered loans and work study that, if taken, would leave $10,800 outstanding.
On April 3rd she got her official Award Notice. It was identical to the estimate.
On April 18th she was given a Revised Award Notice with a $5,000 private donor departmental scholarship. This put her estimate to attend after gift aid…at about $12,800. BUT…it also reduced the amount of loans available to her. After loans and work study, if taken…it left a balance of $8,900.
On July 10th she was given her Final Revised Award Notice. Her gift aid was increased by $1000, and her loans available were decreased by $1000. So her balance to attend was still $8.900…but the revision reduced her loan debt.
Their estimated cost included $3000 for books and supplies. I think my kiddo spent about $2000 on books and supplies, buying used and looking for bargains.
So yeah…her total cost that first year…was about $8000.
She worked full time all summer and made $3000. She used $2500 from her college savings, and we chipped in $2500 on the payment plan.
Don’t mean to be offensive discussing exact costs…but I know a LOT of people desperately want this specific information when they’re starting out, and people rarely share it.
There are many families that feel overwhelmed by college costs. And students who despair about how to afford the excellent school they worked hard to get into.
Just wanted to break down how a typical middle class family did it.
For the record, at U of M, she qualified for some need based aid. At other colleges she applied to, she did not.
When you say external scholarships, are those completely independent from Michigan and all umich departments and private donors?
Also thank you for the help!
@kotana Those are from the state of Michigan and local organization that are completely independent of the school. The first one may still require attending an in-state college, the second one doesn’t.
Michigan doesn’t “front load” financial aid. If you qualify for aid, your package will remain relatively consistent unless your circumstances change. What will increase is your earnings expectation, but that is true for most universities.
Michigan’s treatment of external scholarships is also similar to that used by other universities. If you win an external scholarship, they will apply it first to your loans, then to work study, and finally to your grant. However, an external scholarship will not reduce your EFC since that is based on your “ability to pay”. This is all explained in their booklet on financial aid.
Also, if you have exceptional expenses–say you live overseas–you can appeal and they will adjust your COA. Speak to FA if you have special circumstances.
Except if the grant is the Provost’s Award. Since that’s a “last dollar” award for OOS students, an external or departmental scholarship will replace the Provost’s award first, before loans and work student.
@brantly Are you sure that is the case? That differs from the way Financial Aid explained it on the Gates Millennium Scholarship forum. GMS is also a “last dollar” award. UM said that for Gates Scholars their Gates award would replace their loan and work study obligations. They at least implied that the Provost Award wasn’t affected. It is something important to clarify. If this is UM"s policy, they are violating their agreement with the Gates Foundation.
I don’t know anything about the Gates award. Maybe it’s a different type of agreement. But I know 100% that if a student has a Provost’s award for, say, $5,000, a Michigan grant for $10,000, a Stafford loan, and work study – and then finds out that he/she got an outside scholarship for $4,000 (maybe Gates is an exception??), the Provost’s award would be reduced by the amount of the outside scholarship (to $1,000). It’s been discussed on this board before.
@exlibris97 After offsetting all loans, work study, and grant, additional scholarships will reduce the EFC.
@brantly I spoke to Michigan’s financial aid office yesterday. They confirmed that Gates Millennium Scholarships replace the loan and work-study components of financial aid awards. The EFC remains unchanged (if there is any). The Associate Director of Financial Aid said that what they do is advise the Gates Scholarship Program of how much the Scholar has been awarded in CWS and loans, and Gates sends them funds to replace them with grants. Gates also replaces any “unmet need” with a grant.
I asked if this was true of other external scholarships, and she said “generally” albeit Gates was the most generous outside scholarship in existence. Alas, last year was the final intake for them.
This is what it says regarding the Provost’s Award on UM’s website. To my knowledge, UVA is the only other public university making a similar pledge for OOS students:
“In combination with other federal and University need-based grants, the Provost’s Award covers 100 percent of tuition costs as well as most of the cost for room and board. Total aid will meet full demonstrated need for this selected set of students. (The Expected Family Contribution is determined during the U-M aid application process when income and assets are considered based on an analysis of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE.)”
While we do not have sufficient funds to meet the full demonstrated financial need of all nonresident students, need is covered for students with families that have incomes of up to about $90,000 per year. Scholarships from U-M schools and colleges or private sources may be able to cover costs for others through these combined resources
OK. As I said, I have no experience with the Gates scholarship. Still, Provost Award is a last-dollar award for OOS students. I know what it is. That’s probably why she said “generally” because there’s an exception for the Provost’s Award. Maybe the Gates is an exception to the exception for the Provost’s Award.