What to use?

Paying for College
1

<p>Although I have yet to get my award letter, I am unsure of what I should use to cover my personal expenses at college. Here's the breakdown:</p>

<p>Room and Meals
3,967.50</p>

<p>Books
350.00</p>

<p>Loan Fee
33.00</p>

<p>Personal Miscellaneous
1,000.00</p>

<p>Transportation Allowance
653.00</p>

<p>Tuition
4,941.00</p>

<p>Term Total
10,944.50</p>

<p>Entire year(COA): 21,889</p>

<p>So far I've accumulated this much aid as shown here:</p>

<p>10,500 (500 a semester toward books, rest(4800) toward tuition)
1,000 (scholarship)
500 (scholarship)
3000 (merit scholarship)
2300 (pell grant)
1165(state grant)
1100 (school grant)
5,500 (loans 3500 sub. 2000 unsub.)
3,500 (work study)</p>

<p>= 28585</p>

<p>At this point, I know I will not need private loans/shady buis. </p>

<p>But I want to know what I should to cover my personal expenses. I plan on living on campus. I know my scholarship will cover most of my tuition, and some of my books, but what worries me is how to cover my personal(indirect) costs. Loan? Or A Work-Study? So far these numbers are estimates, but how am I looking financially, in your opinion(s)?</p>

<p>Also: are indirect expenses included in the award letter, or is my excess check just supposed to be those indirect expenses(i.e extra money toward books, supplies, laundry, e.t.c)? Does it differ per college?</p>

<p>Additional information: I will be majoring in Accounting and going for a four-year degree. I am also waiting on word for two other scholarships( one for 1,000, another for 2,000).</p>

2

<p>

Your COA is $21,889 and your aid is $28,585; so you have excess aid of $6,696.</p>

<p>I think you should use the excess aid to cover any personal expenses that are outside of COA.</p>

<p>By the way, did you report your outside scholarships to your school?</p>

3

<p>I reported all of my scholarships to the college so far. </p>

<p>I’m just so unsure of how much “personal money” I will need. I may trash the unsub. loan and take 3500 sub. loan so I can avoid my debt from growing. And, what I fear from the fed work study is that all positions will be taken. The college(well, university tech.) is 30k students strong.</p>

4

<p>You’re going to lose some of that aid. You can’t get loans (especially sub loans) when your need has already been met. </p>

<p>The school is going to first add up the scholarships and the Pell grant, then see what is still uncovered, then likely give free aid up to that COA.</p>

5

<p>The cost of attendance includes an amount for those personal expenses. </p>

<p>I would suggest you get a job of some sort. There are studies that show that students actually budget their time better, and do better when working about 10 hours a week. Your salary from those 10 hours a week should adequately cover your personal expenses.</p>

6

<p>@College</p>

<p>I doubt the college will be nice enough to cover the rest of my expenses. They’re a state school that is stingy. My Act is only 22, and my GPA is 3.66 I do have AP credits however. The average ACT for the college is 21.</p>

<p>@thumper</p>

<p>Are you talking about work-study or a part-time or both? I know I may be able to squeeze work-study, but part-time is hard to find with many of my friends. Some even have 3, 4 references and being turned down(mind you they turn in applications, resume, cover letter in person). I’m still looking for a summer job, but there’s just nothing out there. I’m up to 40 applications and most rejections, although I must admit some I am still waiting to hear word from. </p>

<p>Our state has one of the highest unemployment rates, so finding a job is extremely hard.</p>

7

<p>bump10char.</p>

8

<p>Are some of the smaller scholarships just for one year? What’s the source for the 10,500? You might be able to get the organization to defer it for a year to spread it out. Likely you will not get any loans subsidized, they may even cut your work study, but if you contact them they may give you choice. No way your award will stay that high, they might also reduce the grants to match COA. Keep the work study, there are lots of advantages to it over an outside job, and plan on using it for your personal expenses. You still have to find and apply for the job, but work hours will be adjusted to your class schedule, etc. Also, those earnings don’t count towards FAFSA next year.</p>

9

<p>

You should wait until all scholarships and financial aid settle first before worry about other expenses.
There is very high chances of

</p>

10

<p>Check your schools financial aid policy. My D’s school reduced her scholarships to equal their cost of attendance number. She does get some overage since COA is figure with numbers for most expensive meal plan and housing and she has made other choices. COA also includes some number for personal expenses/books so depending on how much you need you may get some overage money back. But agree that there’s a good chance you won’t get to keep that much above COA.</p>

11

<p>@jtmoney</p>

<p>Source of the 10.5k scholarship is from an outside source that works with the school of business. I will definitely keep my work study if its an option: I’d love to work at the school I’m attending.</p>

<p>@4kidsdad</p>

<p>How do I “lose aid”? I’m not sure of how they can take away aid, I thought fed. aid never changed.</p>

<p>@mom12</p>

<p>I hope I can get something over to pay for my books if they cost more than the check the 10.5k scholarship will give me. Also for supplies and other things.</p>

<p>There’s a side note I want to add here. My mom wants 1k(from my aid package) for her own personal use; please reassure me that she can’t do that.</p>

12

<p>^^I would say that usually schools assume that the work study portion will give you spending money for miscellaneous stuff - how you spend that is up to you. </p>

<p>With regard to “losing aid” it simply is that schools want to give aid to as many students as possible. When you have scholarships/aid flowing through school totaling more than COA, the school will scale back on some of it to max you out at COA figure (different for each school). In our case, they cut back on state scholarship aid first. Really, if your total is at the COA you should have enough money to come out even unless you have really high travel costs. If you pick cheapest housing choice and less expensive meal plan, you may get back enough in overage to have a cushion.</p>

<p>You may need to talk with financial aid department at your school. Some of this may vary from school to school.</p>

13

<p>

Pell grant stays, student loans, work study, and financial aid from school would be reduced so that COA == (EFC + Merit Scholarships + Financial Aid)</p>

14

<p>That $4000 a term for room and board if realistic is a pretty smoking good deal. Our local state flag university is $1200-1800 per semester for food alone and residence halls alone are about $3500.</p>

15

<p>You will not receive work study money until you work and earn it. Use the money earned for your personal expenses.</p>

16

<p>@Tempe
Rates are cheap since the highest costing ones are reserved for senior/junior students. Many freshman don’t actually live in the dorms too, this year they’re trying to attract more(since it is a requirement, unless you live close with your parents) freshman with cheap rates.</p>

<p>@Thumper</p>

<p>Yeah, that kinda sums up my plan. Probably a small loan of 500 to make sure I get my books/supplies and pay it off with work study while buying stuff I need as I go. I’m pretty sure what I am going to get from the scholarship won’t be enough for books and supplies.</p>

<p>But I still want an answer for this:</p>

<p>There’s a side note I want to add here. My mom wants 1k(from my aid package) for her own personal use; please reassure me that she can’t do that.</p>

17

<p>Of course she can not do that. All the aid should be for educational expenses only.</p>

18

<p>My kids are easily able to cover their personal expenses during the year through the money they earn at their full-time jobs during the summer. That system also encourages them to be frugal with their expenses - because the discretionary money they spend (such as for restaurants) is money that they earned and they control through their own bank accounts. </p>

<p>I’ve said to them: I’ll cover the bills from the college, but if you run out of spending money before the end of the year, that is your problem, not mine.</p>

19

<p>If there is excess aid, the logical thing is to cancel the $2,000 unsubsidized federal loan (which is much more expensive over the years than the subsidized loans) and reduce the amount of work study during your first semester of your freshman year. If you can do it, it is a good idea to try to avoid too many work study hours during your first semester, when you are learning to adjust to the college work load.</p>

<p>If you need to take out unsubsidized federal loans, it is cheaper to do it your fourth year instead of your first year, because the interest accrues while you are in college.</p>

20

<p>As far as your mother, if she is paying for your travel expenses to and from school, that is a legitimate part of cost of attendance.</p>