What are my options when it comes to paying for housing?

Paying for College
1

Hi everyone, I’m having a bit of trouble figuring out my finances. I’m a spring admit transfer student to USC, but I really can’t afford the housing. USC has been generous enough to pretty much cover all of my tuition for the time being and is basically leaving me responsible to figure out the housing part of things. They’ve offered me about 3K in loans with me having to contribute about 5K (it says housing for one semester runs about 7.8K). Is housing considered a luxury though and even if I tried to appeal, would they reject it? I had assumed that I could borrow up to 5K in the Stafford loan thing, but I am not sure if that wasn’t offered because perhaps I am not eligible?

My mom gets about 14K a year through SSI (she got it a few years early because my father passed away) and I don’t have a job at the moment. I do have a SNAP/EBT card to help with the groceries, but I didn’t know if I should have mentioned that. I also was without insurance this past year and had some heart problems and that really killed my credit. My mother isn’t doing that well either in the credit department. Her score was just under 500, so I don’t think she would qualify for a Direct PLUS loan that USC recommended.

What options are there for me? Thank you for any help. And if anything, I suppose I could commute. I just would really like to live on campus.

2

Housing isn’t considered a luxury, it isn’t about that. It is about how much USC will cover of your expenses and how much you have to pony up. I can’t really say for sure without you copying/paste your package here. Can you do that so we can see what Plus loan is mentioned?

edit as I just saw you are a transfer: Usually you will take your student loan plus have some student contribution expected from summer (say 3k) and school time earnings (say 2k). So you will be expected to have something to put in. I think they only put partial loan in because you were only one semester. I do believe that you are allowed to take full year loan even though you are only attending spring–unless you took a loan in fall for your prior school. You just need to tell the aid office that is what you want to do.

It is usually pretty easy to qualify for parent Plus loan. I don’t think it goes by score, I think it goes by checking if you have a recent bankruptcy and are not 90 in arrears on any bills. You are a student so no one is going to lend you anything regardless of score. Another thing to reduce cost is to look for nearby shared housing for next year. Edit==oh, if your parent applies and is turned down for loan, you can take 4 or 5k more on your federal student loan, depending on what year you are.

3

What year are you? You can borrow $6.5K for the year as a sophomore, $7.5K for the year as a junior or senior. If it comes down to it you’ll have to commute, particularly since you have that option.

4

Did you take a Direct Loan for the fall term elsewhere?

Are you a freshman, sophomore? Which one?

If you are a sophomore, you get $6500 in Direct loan money for the year. If you already took $3250, you on,y have $3250 left for this spring term. If you didn’t take any loans in the fall term, you can actually take the whole $6500 for the spring term.

5

Alrighty, so here’s some more information. I’m going to be a junior transfer. I didn’t attend any colleges during the fall semester as I actually have a ton of units to a point where my main CC said that I would have to appeal for any additional aid such as class waivers. Anyway, I didn’t do anything the fall.

Here’s basically what I have on my page:

Estimated COA: $33,954

Gift Aid $26,079

Federal Pell Grant: $2,887
Cal Grant B: $4,542
Cal Grant B Subsistence Award: $828
Federal SEOG: $250
University Grant: $17,572

Estimated Net Cost: $7,875

Loans: $3,250
Federal Direct Subsidized Stafford Loan: $2,250
Federal Perkins Loan: $1,000

It doesn’t mention anything about the PLUS loan, but when I tried an online appeal for more of the Stafford loan, it stated that any additional loan offers would have to be through the PLUS loan or some type of private loan. After reading the posts and looking at it again, it does seem as though everything is halved. I probably can’t afford university housing for very long, so I would be open to exploring other housing options or just commuting.

6

can you breakdown the COA?

7

Tuition & Fees:

Tuition $24,732
Mandatory Fees $724

Estimated Other Costs:

Housing $4,176
Dining $2,750
Books/Supplies $750
Transportation $288
Personal & Misc $500
Other Educational Costs $34

That’s how it’s broken down on my summary page.

8

Doesn’t USC promise to “meet need” for transfers as well? (Is this USC in Calif?)

If this is USC, and it’s supposed to “meet need,” then you need for them to re-evaluate your FA. If they tell you that your aid is worse because you’re transferring in the spring, ask if you can delay until Fall and get a better pkg.

9

Yes, it’s the USC in California. I had also been accepted to UCLA for transfer and their aid package was fairly similar. All of the costs aside from housing would be covered. For them though, it allowed me to take out a 5K loan and more in unsubsidized loans if I needed them. I suppose I would have gotten a 5K offer if I had gone to USC in the fall, but I was just wondering if there was any way I could appeal to USC to give me the option for those offers that I would have gotten had I attended in the fall. I do plan to ask my mom to try for the direct plus loan, but I am almost certain that she will not qualify (especially after BrownParents mention of the 90 day thing).

10

The federal loans are split by semester and you can’t take double the amount in the spring if you didn’t take it in the fall. You could have your mother apply for the Plus loan; if she is turned down, you could take an extra $5000 loan (half for spring semester).

You can ask USC if they have institutional loans, some other scholarships from your department, if they could increase your Perkins loan. You seem very organized. I’d take your paperwork, your budgets, and go to FA office to see what they can do for you. If you commute, your total costs will be lower and all your aid could be adjusted.

11

^I thought you could take the whole amount in spring (or summer, like one of my kids did) if you didn’t take any in fall.

12

But they are pretty much meeting need, I don’t think the student will get any more from them. They expect you to take a student loan as do most schools and contribute ,some student earnings. Net cost is 7,875 and is covered by loan of 3,250 leaving student to come up with summer and school time earnings of 4,625.

I think you can take the full year of subsidized loan of 5,500 (plus 2,000 of unsub if you need and this is in addition to the favorable Perkins loan they gave). Call them, it may be the system online is just set up by semester and you need an overside. Or just a timing issue.

Direct cost to school tuition/fee/room/board: 32,382
less aid and Sub loan + Perkins (26,079 + 5,500+ 1,000): 32,579
balance in your favor: 197

So now you have that covered. You will need money to buy your books but it may not be 750. Buy used, rent etc and if you are lucky you won’t have as many to buy as the estimate.

You need money in your pocket, look for a job a few hrs a week. You will need transportation home and around LA if you go somewhere. You have the 197 to use and any work earnings. And you should be able to take the additional sub loan portion of 2,000 if necessary.

So total loan allowance for jr and sr year each is 5,500 sub 2,000 unsub = 7,500 per year

Try not to take any Plus Loan. But like I said above if your parent is denied then you can get 5k more student loan. Try to avoid.

Under current rules, “adverse credit history” means that as of the date of the credit report, the PLUS loan applicant–

(1) Is 90 or more days delinquent on any debt; or

(2) Has been the subject of a default determination, bankruptcy discharge, foreclosure, repossession, tax lien, wage garnishment, or write-off of a debt under title IV of the Act during the five years preceding the date of the credit report.

13

For UCLA, you were likely given a Cal Grant that covers tuition and a Pell Grant. Were you given any other aid?

Is UCLA admitting you for Spring? I didn’t think they allowed that.

14

hum, sounds like she skipped school this fall instead of taking the UCLA offer, and took the USC for spring, at least that’s how it reads to me. If not then she should analyze the two offers carefully to be sure the UCLA isn’t a bit better. Also UCLA includes health insurance and she may have to pay a couple thousand extra for that at USC since she mentioned she doesn’t have any.

15

Yup, BrownParent is right. I ultimately skipped UCLA’s offer for fall admission after really researching and finding that USC was a better fit for my intended major. Actually you’re right too. UCLA did offer some extra aid to make up for the fact that I would have had to get their student insurance plan.

I will see what they say about the loan eligibility and really try to avoid the PLUS loan then. I have been looking up the books too and plan to budget. For instance, I know one text is $100 new, but only $26 to rent on Amazon, so I’ll really try to get as far away from the estimated $750 book costs as possible :stuck_out_tongue: Thanks for all the help. I was mainly concerned about the housing, but if it doesn’t go my way getting the full 5,500 for the sub loan and such, I would be fine commuting. I just really wanted to see what options I could explore :slight_smile:

16

You will have to purchase the health ins unless you have good enough insurance that they will give a waiver for it.

17

I think this is a typo. If you didn’t take any of the Direct Loan money in the fall, you CAN take the whole amount for the spring semester. It’s a yearly amount. But if you enroll in the fall, you only get half in the fall…can’t take,the whole thing for,the FALL. The assumption is you will be enrolling in the spring as well…so you get half in the fall.

But if you took no Direct Loan in the fall this year…you can take the full amount now.

However, think twice…because this will help you THIS year…but not in the future.

18

I was told DD couldn’t take the entire loan in the spring if she didn’t take it in the fall, so we took it and banked it. Of course it may be that the FA officer didn’t know the rules but I asked that specifically and was told that it was not possible.

19

^^ Sounds like the FA officer was confused…perhaps confusing the rules about Pell and WS and thinking they also applied to loans.

There have been spring admits who’ve wrongly thought that a school was affordable because they got the whole loan for spring, but then the following “full year,” only got half…and suddenly a bigger gap was a problem.

20

My son was a USC Freshman Spring admit. He received 50% of the annual amount of the Stafford loan for the Spring. He was able to waive health insurance because we have the right family coverage. In the fall he got the apartment meal plan at $650 for 40 swipes and $150 dining dollars. He needed two of those for the Fall semester (plus a weekly visit to Chipotle). We use frequent flier miles for trips home. He also buys books used or rents them. Anyway we’ve been able to shave a few thousand off the ticket price. He loves USC.