<p>I was recently offered my financial aid for USD. The total equals a full ride, about $59,000. However, I am unsure what the awards actually are. Could somebody clarify? Here is what I was offered:</p>
<p>USD Grant: $20,600.00
Federal Work-Study: $3,000.00
Fed Direct Subsidized Loan: $3,500.00
Fed Direct Unsubsidized Loan: $2,000.00
Fed Direct Parent PLUS Loan: $30,629.00</p>
<p>I obviously know what the USD Grant and the work study is, but I'm unsure about the others. Is the "Fed Direct Parent PLUS Loan" simply a federal loan that I need to take out? Is the school actually only giving me $20,000?</p>
<p>Parent Plus is a federal loan your parents would need to take out and pay back. Yes, USD is only giving you $20.6k.</p>
<p>I don’t think you getting a full ride from USD. See <a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/types/loans/plus”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/types/loans/plus</a> for “Fed Direct Parent PLUS Loan”. Many people don’t consider PLUS loan as financial aid!</p>
<p>The OP used the term full ride, I doubt USD did.</p>
<p>UCSD does not provide need based aid to students to fund the differential between instate and out of state costs for OOS students. If your Cost is $59,000, they are basically saying that they are NOT funding the $30,000 cost…$24,000 of that is the higher cost of attending as an OOS student. Your family can take loans to fund that.</p>
<p>UCSD does not guarantee to meet full need for all students…and they definitely do NOT do,so for OOS students.</p>
<p>It took this to be the private U of SD, not UCSD.</p>
<p>UCSD gave you $2K Everything else is federal money that you’d likely get anywhere and work study which takes up time that you could work for pocket money had the school given you aid instead., and the Parent Loan is just something your parents are being told exists and that they can apply for it at 7-8% interest if they qualify. They can also look at other loan options. Any credit worthy parent can take out that loan to pay for their kids college as long as the cost of the college less any aid/awards warrants it. Trump can take at that loan, though he wouldn’t due to the unfavorable interest rate in this climate. </p>
<p>Oops…AD is correct…it’s USD, not UCSD. </p>
<p>USD also does not guarantee to meet full need. They basically “gapped” you $30,000. You can either pay that amount…or go elsewhere. </p>
<p>Our firsthand experience with USD…they will NOT discuss changing this financial aid award at all…unless things have changed. When DD got accepted there, we made an appointment to discuss her aid package. The financial aid officer met with us long enough to say they did not change awards at all, and would not discuss it. Then she excused herself and showed us the door. Our kid chose to attend college elsewhere. We thought it was rudely handled.</p>
<p>36k in loans and 3k in campus job is not a full,ride it’s a huge debt. That’s 36 a year with tuition going up.every year are your parents willing to take on massive debt? </p>
<p>“The total equals a full ride”</p>
<p>No, that’s not a full ride.</p>
<p>They’re asking YOU to borrow $5500 a year (which will likely be about $27k total when you graduate).</p>
<p>They’re essentially ASKING YOUR PARENTS to borrow over $30,000 PER YEAR (over $120,000!!!). What are your PARENTS saying? Most parents will NOT do that because they can’t afford ridiculous debt or they won’t qualify.</p>
<p>How much will your PARENTS pay each year? Again, what are they saying? </p>
<p><<<<
Is the school actually only giving me $20,000?
<<<<<</p>
<p>Yes, that’s all they’re giving you. They’re expecting your parents and you to pay for most costs. </p>
<p>I think the OP is using “Full ride” to mean that it covers all costs. It’s just a misuse of terminology. </p>
<p>When you have all of your college acceptances and aid packages on the table, make a list of each college and what you will have to PAY to go there. Subtract out loans and work study amounts from your packages because you do have still PAY those amounts, some are not guaranteed, there is often interest involved which means you end up paying more than that. You want a bottom line, apples to apples comparison. It doesn’t matter what a school give you in the end, but how much you have to pay, and you likely have the same loan and work options at most schools. Some will list them out like SDU has which I believe is misleading as it does appear as though they are giving you something when they are not-a lot of it conditional, and entitlement. </p>
<p>Basically, what the SDU package says is that you have to pay about $39K to go there. How you get that $39K, they are saying your parents can apply for a Direct Loan, and that you are entitled to one to (basically at any school, by the way) and that you qualify for a work study job if you can find a job and work the hours. Remember, you get that Direct Loan (though if you don’t have need at a school the subsidy can be affected) for most any school, and you likely can work at any school. Your parents may or may not get the PLUS loan, and they can get towards the cost of any school if they qualify. NOthing special or specific to SDU in terms of most of those options. Just the $20K scholarship is, so you just reduce their total cost by that to get their bottom line cost.</p>
<p>"“Just the $20K scholarship”"</p>
<p>SDU has a history of throwing out these $20k offers to very good students to peel them away from UCs. </p>
<p>This thread makes me angry at the system and the college who would present a financial aid package in this way. I feel like the OP is lucky - he realized sooner rather than later that his full ride is really a bunch of loans. </p>
<p>^^ How else is the school going to present the figures? </p>
<p>I received such a breakdown for one school after doing the NPC, and the last line said ‘Your OOP is $0’. Well, looking right above it showed that they were assuming my Parent Plus loan would be $30k or more. I wasn’t confused at all. And I also wasn’t taking out $30k in parent plus loans.</p>
<p>The schools are following the rules for the NPC. They are showing possible/probably sources of awards and aid, and then showing how the rest can be covered. The school called the loans ‘loans’, and how else can they convey to a student that the majority of the award is going to be loans or other self funded money?</p>
<p>I wasn’t confused reading what the student posted, and I don’t think this student’s parents would be either. The student knew it was loans, but just posted to be sure. </p>
<p>Well, it’s sad that the student thinks he has a “full ride” when he doesn’t.</p>
<p>A school could list the real OOP, and THEN state that the PARENTS may want to take out a Plus Loan to cover some/all of that if they qualify.</p>
<p>This is the federal Shopping Sheet: <a href=“https://www.ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments/ShoppingSheetTemplateGEN1326.pdf”>https://www.ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments/ShoppingSheetTemplateGEN1326.pdf</a>. The feds would like for schools to adopt this format for their award letters. Does this make it more clear for students/parents in terms of understanding the awards?</p>
<p>I use it for my students, although I made my own template so I can use my own databases (due to lack of tech support) - but I include all the info on the template. I offer the Grad PLUS as a line time at the very bottom, with an explanation of what it is (credit based; not guaranteed; can be used to supplement all other aid, if necessary). If I had undergrads, I would want to do the same with the Parent PLUS loan. </p>
<p>PARENT loans (like the Plus) are usually not considered part of the STUDENT award.</p>
<p>Simply put…every student’s parents CAN apply for a Plus Loan up to the cost of attendance. Does that mean that EVERY student at every college is getting a full ride? NO!</p>
<p>mom2 – thanks, as always, for your good knowledge. My S accepted to USD, too, so I found interesting your comment re throw $20,000 at them to avoid them going to UC’s (perhaps foolishly my S did not apply to any UC’s) and also the other comment that USD does not negotiate (and I believe that based on their tone on various issues/events I’ve witnessed–not personally, just witnessed).</p>