<p>I hope someone can help me with this. I've heard that whenever you call the financial aid office at the colleges, you will likely get a graduate student who answered the phone. I'm asking cuz I've talked to 3 different people for 2 different scholarships that I have received and I still have more, like $10,000 more, and each time they constantly reduced the aid and grant that was promised to me and brought my EFC back to square one. My EFC is almost $5000. At one point, I had my efc reduced to $2000 in exchange for an additional $2,500 in unsub stafford loans.</p>
<p>My questions are: 1) How do I make part of this $10,000 apply towards my EFC?
2) Who do I need to speak to in order for me to get my EFC to $1000,<br>
at least. That is if they still want my parents to pay. I have
received financial aid from another public college that don't require
my family to contribute anything. My efc was zero though I do
have like $4,000++ in loan and $1,500 work study.</p>
<p>I truly appreciate any advice anyone can give me. It is extremely frustrating cuz I worked hard to get those scholarships and I was hoping that it can be applied towards my efc.</p>
<p>Many/most colleges reduce your calculated need by the amount of the outside scholarship. Some will reduce Work Study and loans first. Very few will let your scholarships reduce your EFC. Grad student or not, the school’s rules are their rules and so the person giving you the answer is likely NOT the problem. It’s the rule itself.</p>
<p>It’s good you have a more affordable choice.</p>
<p>So basically, all of the $17,000 in scholarship money that I will receive from many different organizations and businesses, which I worked my butt off applying for it, goes toward my tuition and housing fees even though I am a state need grant recipient. And on top of that, they still want my parents to give their share of almost $5000. Wow! Looking at it, the school and federal government gives me nothing this year. And I will most likely end up with almost $4,000 in student loan for my first year. I thought applying for outside scholarship helps. Apparently not. I should have just depend on the school to give me aid.</p>
<p>thanks for the info curmudgeon but I heard from my school counselor that sometimes the grad students aren’t really helpful. The problem is they can’t bend the rules.</p>
<p>You need to ask to speak directly to your Financial Aid Counselor or the Director of Financial Aid. Sometimes, the person who answers the telephone is an Administrative Assistant who is unfamiliar with all of the ins and out of financial aid. Sometimes it is a work study student. By speaking directly to your Counselor or the Director, you are more likely to get a direct answer…even if it isn’t an answer you like.</p>
<p>Thanks NikkiiL. I was thinking of making an appointment to see the Director or Counselor? Or is that not good? One last question, do they work in the summer too or is their office close? Just curious.</p>
<p>Sorry, but I know NikkiiL will share my laugh. YES, financial aid officers work in the summer. In fact, I work so hard I come home every night & fall asleep right after dinner. I’d fall asleep BEFORE dinner if I didn’t have a family. Summer is financial aid’s busy season.</p>
<p>Don’t ask to speak with the director. Ask to speak with a financial aid officer or financial aid counselor. You can probably take care of your business over the phone. I know I could easily help you understand what is happening via the phone. The school has a policy, the aid officer will explain how that policy affects your aid. If you don’t understand, ask for a clearer explanation.</p>
<p>While it may be technically possible to get your business taken care of over the phone, if your school is anything like mine (a massive line of defense between students and fin aid officers) the chances of it happening are pretty slim. Does your school have drop-in hours? You should go in in person during drop-in hours or make an appointment with a fin aid officer.</p>
<p>It’s actually rarely a graduate student…or if it is, it may be a grad student staffing the front desk who will then transfer you to the proper person. Graduate students, unless they are also employed as full-time financial aid counselors, generally aren’t qualified to make financial aid decisions The people who work in the financial aid offices and who make the decisions are full-time financial aid employees with bachelor’s degrees.</p>
<p>Although honestly, there’s not that much difference between them and the graduate students – by default all graduate students have bachelor’s degrees, too, and sometimes they have experience working in financial aid especially if they took time off in between. At many places not even the official FA counselors can “bend the rules,” especially when it comes to reducing your expected family contribution, which is rarely done.</p>
<p>In any case, this doesn’t sound fishy. It is not uncommon for a school to reduce your grant aid if you get an outside scholarship, leaving your EFC exactly the same but taking the grants they would’ve given to you to give them to someone else, concluding that you don’t “need” it since you have scholarships that have displaced them. This happened to me – I won multiple scholarships when I was in college, and my state HOPE aid was reduced to $0 because I had a scholarship that covered all of my tuition. (Irritating, because I still needed books!)</p>
<p>Even talking to a financial aid counselor in person is unlikely to change this, although they may be able to replace some of that work-study and/or loans with grants if you ask nicely.</p>
<p>I’m confused by the bouncing EFC - are you talking about your actual FAFSA EFC, listed on your SAR? Or using the term as the amount your family will need to come up with? Afaik, scholarship awards wouldn’t affect your FAFSA EFC, at least until the following aid year. Does this make sense Nikki and kelsmom?</p>
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<p>Sounds like you are losing grant aid because you’re replacing it with scholarships. Most schools will award financial aid up to the amount of need (COA - actual EFC) and that aid does include outside scholarships. Once you’ve replaced your entire need with these scholarships, any addt’l scholarship money can go toward your EFC, up to the full COA.</p>
<p>It sounds like they reduced grant aid and kept self-help aid in the mix (work study and loans). Not cool, but this may be their policy. I would ask them to replace the WS and loans with your scholarships and restore the grants if possible. You could then take loans or a job to actually help you meet your EFC.</p>
<p>The other thing to consider is that some items in the COA are not billable. Things like transportation, personal expenses, books are included in your EFC but are variable expenses that are completely under your control. Try to figure out what your first semester bill will look like this summer and how much you’ll actually have to write out a check for.</p>
<p>The bouncing EFC concerns me too…the EFC shouldn’t be changing because of outside scholarships. I think the OP might be confusing EFC with actual need.</p>
<p>Depending on how the FA Office operates (number of staff, division of labor, etc), kelsmom is right, this should be something that can discussed and resolved over the telephone. Very rarely does an issue have to be resolved in person.</p>
<p>And yes (laughing as I say this) the FA Office will be open all summer long, though they may have special summer hours. Unfortunately, my primary job function is with our year-round adult program, so I am extremly busy 360 days a year. There is no such thing as a summer vacation for the Financial Aid Office, ever.</p>
<p>I’m sorry. I didn’t know that the financial aid office is open all thru summer. That is sad. Cuz I think it is better for us students to enjoy our summer thinking that we score so much money that we are rich, for a little while anyways. </p>
<p>But yes, my EFC was lowered at one point before I reported my 2nd scholarship award. After I reported my first award, my subsidized stafford loan was reduced but my EFC remains the same. I talked to the FA officer (2nd call) and told her about my parents inability to come up with that amount of money. The EFC was reduced to $2500 and in exchange I had to take out an unsubsidized stafford loan. So then my overall loan was about $5000, I think.</p>
<p>And after I reported my 2nd scholarship award of $5000 (3rd call), my loan is gone (I know that that is good) and they also took away a smidgen of my state need grant and also a third of their own aid. Alas to my surprise and pleasure, I also found out that my efc is back to the $4855 (the one that’s determined by the fafsa). So yes. I was so not happy with it. I still have about $10,000 of award to report and I want an idea of how to approach and maybe, maybe, be a little bit financially savvy when I talk to the financial aid officer. I want to report all the amount but I also want some sort of guidance. Not report to them then they’ll email me the outcome. I thought that that is not cool. That’s what happened to the 2 scholarships. So yeah. </p>
<p>Also, the zero efc was from another public college. I received tons of scholarships from that college and also loans and work study thus no EFC. My parents was happy but I turned down that school cuz I didn’t like the program that they have. </p>
<p>Anyways, thank you for the advice. I am going to see someone at the end of the month. Hopefully the person that I talk to won’t be so scary. I find that sometimes the female financial aid officer is friendlier than the guys so I don’t know.</p>
<p>Your EFC should not be changing. BUT your NEED is very likely being reduced by the outside scholarships. If you get outside scholarships, you have that much less NEED for the college to meet. That sounds like what is happening to you. </p>
<p>In most cases, the college will NOT let you apply scholarships to reduce need. </p>
<p>However, there are some schools which allow “stacking” of scholarships up to the cost of attendance…not very many do this but some do. </p>
<p>My brother’s aid was lowered due to outside scholarships.
He called the financial aid office and said that since the school was not paying 100% of tuition costs, it would be impossible for our parents to pay the amount required of them without the outside scholarships.
The financial aid officer filed an appeal and his need-based aid was returned to its original level.</p>
<p>You probably need extenuating circumstances like he had, but try asking for an appeal.</p>
<p>djdopeslap, I am guessing what you mean is that your brother’s COA budget did not include his real tuition costs - at many schools, tuition is charged by credit hour & the COA budget uses average tuition costs. Students who take more than the average credit load incur greater costs. Your brother’s aid officer probably increased his budget to actual tuition, thereby increasing his need & keeping his scholarships from reducing his other aid.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for the advice. I spent like 30 minutes talking to a financial aid officer and ta-da, here is my result.</p>
<p>He offered me $4855 in unsubsidized stafford loan. So now my EFC is $0. I guess that is fine but I feel like I am starting college with a huge debt in my name. </p>
<p>Also, I received a check in the mail for a scholarship pay to the order of:- my name and the college name and I was wondering what do I do with it? I thought all scholarship checks are mail to the college. So now I am confuse with this one check? Do I cash it, then pay it in cash to the school or do I have to give it to the school? How will my school treat this check? I am confuzzled.</p>
<p>Lastly, I am getting a stipend of $2000 this summer for my involvement with an undergraduate research program at the college. How will that effect my fa? If anyone can shed some light to it, I am so truly and deeply appreciative of any response.</p>
<p>Many schools have a form and a written procedure for reporting outside scholarship…didn’t they mention that? The check came to you but cannot be cashed until endorsed by both you and the school. So, you need to call again and find out what the procedure is for reporting (and submitting) ALL of your outside aid and then send in that check and any others you receive similarly so they can be credited to your account.</p>
<p>Btw, at my D’s school, local “awards” (the kind you get at senior awards night) that are payable only to the student are not considered outside scholarships and do not need to be reported. The checks are made out to the student alone. So, if you have these type, it’s worth asking whether they consider these or not.</p>
<p>The summer stipend may affect your FAFSA EFC next year if it’s not paid with work study funds (which are not reportable for FAFSA, but are taxable) and if it causes you to go over your FAFSA income allowance. For dependent students that’s $3,750 for 09-10 after SSI and state tax allowances. Over that amount, 50% of your income is generally added to your EFC. You can see how the whole EFC calculation works for student income/assets on page 10 here:</p>
<p>Sleepycat, when you say “now my EFC is 0” I think what you may mean is that you no longer have any out-of-pocket costs to pay the school. Unless you have a Pell grant of $5350, your EFC is not 0. You may not understand the distinction, but it’s an important one when you discuss your aid.</p>
<p>I do hope you told the aid officer about the scholarship check. Remember, you will not be allowed to receive aid in excess of your Cost of Attendance. Any loans will be reduced if your scholarships & grants in combination with the loans already awarded exceed your COA.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input into the ever so confusing topic especially for a newbie like me sk8rmom and kelsmom. </p>
<p>kelsmom, oops I meant to say out of pocket cost but I think the word EFC will always bug me. And I did inform the aid officer via e-mail regarding all the outside scholarships that I am receiving. It’s just that I didn’t realize that one of the checks will come to me instead of the college. I guess I have to send it in. bummer. I was hoping to use it to buy books.</p>
<p>sk8rmom, my summer stipend is not part of a work study. The flat rate of $2000 is what I was offered when I applied for the position. </p>
<p>Also, I have been working part time for the past 3 years and this year just last week my gross wages has exceeded over $3500 cuz I thought I wouldn’t be working while in college so I got greedy and work lots of hours. Plus, I have received a refund from the irs for the past 2 years cuz my income did not go over a certain amount as a dependent.</p>
<p>I read the guide that you attached and thank you for that. Now my question is:- does that mean my total income for this year will be over $5500 and therefore half of that will be part of my EFC for next year?</p>
<p>And which box does the $2000 stipend falls under? I know that I do have to pay tax for the stipend, so does that mean that I have 2 employers? </p>
<p>If what you said about 50% of my income is added to my EFC, than I might have to think differently next year. Just when I thought that I will try and alleviate my parents burden, I am in actuality making it worst. Arghhh… I wished I know all the secrets there is to know about the whole process. This is worst than going thru a relationship or even gasp… college applications.</p>
<p>The $2000 stipend will not affect anything this year. It will be income for the 2010-11 school year … that year’s FAFSA will use income earned in 2009. Because the $2000 is taxed, it will appear on your 1040, so you don’t report it any special way … it is part of the income from work & agi that will be reported on the FAFSA, taken directly from your 1040.</p>