This amount could easily cover my tuition for this year. My dad applied for a parent plus loan to help cover the housing costs and he was awarded around 12 grand. Overall I had around 24 grand in financial aid. Cost of attendance is around 29 grand.
This morning I checked my award in my self service and it said I was granted 22 grand. This was not the originally amount so I grabbed my original award letter to compare and I see that my tuition grant is no longer being applied to my financial aid award.
Has anyone experienced this? Is this a mistake of the college?
Is it possible they took away my grant because I received a parent plus loan? That would be very frustrating because I would obviously much rather receive less loan than have my grant taken away.
Your tuition grant would not have been reduced because of the Parent Plus Loan. Did you have any new scholarship money that came in that was not originally reported? Did your FAFSA change at all after you first submitted? (Maybe you used estimates initially?) These could definitely change need based aid.
You need to contact your school’s financial aid office. There is no way for any of us to know for certain what exactly happened. Have you called your school yet?
keep trying to contact them. I know its frustrating but you need to find out what changed their calculartion.
sometimes grants will be replaced by loans. The college looks at your overall “need” and if some of the $$ to meet that need is coming from outside sources, such as loans, they may reduce the total grants allowed.
Is the school affordable for you? What is your major? How will your dad pay off Parent Plus loans if your parents’ income is so low that you are getting Pell grant?
I don’t really know how to assess if it is affordable to me. I spent two years at a community college to save money and plan to leave this university with 40-50 grand debt. I believe compared to my peers I will be in a better situation upon graduation.
My major is management information systems
I live with my mother so she was the one that filled financial aid and this year made an income of 0.
My father lives in another state and is on disability/ss and while he plans to help as much as he can I have full intentions on paying off the parent plus loan.
I do not think that $40-$50k in debt is outrageous for an MIS degree (albeit not ideal) assuming that includes the Parent Plus loans that are being taken – and from what you described, it sounds like you are including them in the total debt.
The taking away of the grant is inexplicable under these facts. You need to reach the FA office for an explanation.
Thank you I appreciate that. Yes I am including the parent plus loan, and I was on hold for 2 and a half hours today and I received a message twice after 1hour and 15mins saying there was an error in their system and to try again later.
They are very busy because tuition is due today. I have already confirmed registration so I’m not nervous about paying my classes but I am nervous that because I’ve already accepted the award package they will tell me there is nothing they can do. I wish I understood or was notified about this.
I guess I will be calling them all day tomorrow too.
If anyone has anymore replies or insight please continue to post responses
But - the award package you accepted included the tuition grant, correct? THEY changed the package, not you. In any event, I am hoping they will straighten this out for you!
I didn’t have to go through any steps to accept the tuition or federal pell grant.
I did check all my emails and received nothing about any issues. The only email I have received is from yesterday and says the following:
We have concluded our review of your application for financial aid for Award Year 2015-2016 . Your award package is available for your review and acceptance via our student self-service portal.
This was after I had already gone through all the requested steps to receive my award. The last step left was for them to review everything I was requested to do in order to receive the award.
According to a new roommate I spoke with this is happening to a lot of people? Might just be her trying to ease my nerves but maybe it’s an issue with the college?
Did you submit any tax paperwork to be reviewed (tax transcripts, use the data retrieval tool on the FAFSA, W-2s, etc)? Was the tuition grant need based aid? If your school did in fact do a review of your income, it could have been you were no longer eligible for the grant.
Actually, you were awarded $5k in financial aid (grants) and offered $24k worth of loans. That’s an awful package made worse by a $2k reduction of your grants.
I was a low income student, so I understand how difficult it is to pay for school. I wouldn’t borrow ~$25k/year for school. It’s really unaffordable and risky. If your parents are denied a PLUS loan next year, you’ll be stuck with loan payments and no degree.
I suggest taking the Pell, federal student loan ($7500/year as a freshman and senior), plus whatever you can earn from working and see what that will buy you. Pell and the loan give you $10k to work with. If you have a summer job, you should be able to add about $3k more. Is there a school you can commute to for that? If absolutely necessary, a small ($5k/year) PLUS loan would keep you within the recommended $27k max loan limit and give you ~$18k/year to work with.
What state are you in? Is $29k/year the cost of your state school? Your best option will probably be to take a gap year, work, and look for a more affordable option.