<p>Okay, so I am going to be a freshman in college this coming year. The tuition for my first year is $10,032. I received a $5,000 scholarship, as well as a $4,000 grant. I'm not sure if that means that I will have to pay $1,032 out of pocket for my first year, or if I will still receive money from the federal government through the FAFSA, because my mom said I will (but she never went to college and doesn't seem to know much about it, so I'm wary of listening to her). So basically, I want to know if I will still receive money for the FAFSA, and if so, what happens if I receive over $1,032? Will I have to forfeit one of my scholarships/grants? Thank you!</p>
<p>We’re the grants and scholarships awarded through the school for merit? Did you already pit in your FASfA? You mentioned tuition but what about room &board??</p>
<p>You should call the financial aid office of your college and discuss it with them. </p>
<p>The FAFSA is just an application form for federal grants and loan programs. It doesn’t “give” money. If you are eligible for a Pell grant based on your family’s income, you should receive it regardless of other aid (i.e. institutional, not federal) that you might be getting. However, many colleges restrict all sources of aid (federal, institutional, and outside) to a figure not more than COA (cost of attendance). You need to talk to the school about this.</p>
<p>Any ‘FAFSA money’ will be included in your financial aid award letter from the school.</p>
<p>We can give better answers if you will post the exact numbers and wording from your college’s financial aid offer. All aid, including federal aid, will come through your college.</p>
<p>You should have filled out the FAFSA on January 1 with estimated numbers and updated it with actual numbers as soon as your parents (and you, if applicable) filed taxes. You do this every year. By now, your should have access to your FAFSA results, which should answer your questions.</p>
<p>Did you complete the FAFSA yet, and submit it to your college? If not…get moving. It is possible that you are eligible for aid based on your FAFSA EFC. Your college needs to SEE that FAFSA to award your aid. </p>
<p>In any event, the school cannot award you aid that exceeds the cost of attendance in most cases. If you are eligible for a Pell Grant, you might see a reduction in your school award…if this would make it over the cost of attendance. </p>
<p>In any event…please answer…has your 2013-2014 FAFSA been submitted to your school?</p>
<p>I did file the FAFSA a while ago, well before it was due. I’m not living on campus, and I’m not going to buy a meal plan, so room and board doesn’t apply to me. The $5000 scholarship is a merit scholarship, and the $4000 grant is based off of my ethnicity, and due to the fact that I’m the first person on my mom’s side of the family to go to college. It was given to me by the office of diversity at my school. The financial aid statement from my school only includes the scholarship and the grant, so does that mean that’s the only money I’ll be getting from them? Thanks again!</p>
<p>What was your EFC from your FAFSA? Any Federal aid would be based on that. I would have expected that the school would have informed you about your aid by now (it is the school that processes and offers federal aid).</p>
<p>You don’t necessarily have to board to receive aid for room and board. Aid is based on the total cost of attendance for the school and off campus living expenses may be included in the COA depending on the school.</p>
<p>Maybe you were selected for verification and your school will not package your aid until your verification is complete. The scholarships would be awarded separately from the federal aid, so that is why they would be there but not federal aid. I would expect to at least see unsub loans if the federal aid was packaged. </p>
<p>Sometimes something happens to the FAFSA even though all seems to be well. The school may have missed pulling in a batch of files. The social security numbers may not match. You may have used the wrong school code (for example, a different campus or the law or med school rather than main school). There are lots of reasons a student’s aid might not get packaged. You need to call and find out!!! I handled lots of issues like this at the large public university where I used to work. Make sure you talk to someone who can give you an answer … I know that I worked with students who got incorrect info from others in my office, so I encourage students to politely push until you get an answer that makes sense. In your case, you should at least have unsub loans … so find out why no need based aid is on your account.</p>