<p>I'm pursuing mechanical engineering and I narrowed my college decisions down to</p>
<p>-University of Rochester ($10,000 per year with no information about financial aid yet, but I am a New York resident, but ultimately, I will still be paying in the $30,000 range).
-Honors at City College of New York-CUNY - Full scholarship plus an iPad.
- Penn State University - with a $6000 scholarship per year plus financial aid (with work study and loans) $18,000.
-Binghamton University- with a financial aid of $18,000 (work study and loans included).</p>
<p>University of Rochester was my second choice and the only thing stopping me from going is the money, which I don't really have nor do my parents. I am just wondering, what motivates the students today to go to Rochester even though it is extremely expensive? All of these schools are pretty good for engineering, including City College. So I was just wondering, is Rochester worth the investment?</p>
<p>I have two sons at UR and they love it ( neither is in engineering). That being said, I wouldn’t let my kids go deep into debt for college as long as there was a decent option that was more affordable. Once you get your financial aid info from rochester, compare the costs (for our purposes, I always compared our bottom line out of pocket costs). Narrow your choices down to the ones you can afford without much or any debt and pick your favorite. I didn’t count loans as aid. Just cost of attendance minus merit and need based aid to find out how much it cost. I’m a big fan of UR, but my kids wouldn’t be going if they hadn’t gotten enough aid to make it affordable. Sounds like you’ve got great choices - hopefully someone will weigh in here with info about the engineering department. Good luck!</p>
<p>I agree with PinotNoir: consider the finances, learn what you can, visit if possible and make a decision with your family. UR is a very good school but everything must be weighed.</p>
<p>I’m with PinotNoir as well. My guy loves Rochester (not engineering), but he wouldn’t be going if there were equally decent more affordable places. Wait until you have your total financial aid package, then compare.</p>
<p>“University of Rochester ($10,000 per year with no information about financial aid yet, but I am a New York resident, but ultimately, I will still be paying in the $30,000 range).”</p>
<p>Confused about your comment - NY resident and University of Rochester. I haven’t seen anything regarding a break for NY State residents.</p>
<p>Yes, WayOutWestMom is right. I was mentioning the NY State TAP Grant. And I just found out today that I am basically getting a full ride to University of Rochester from financial aid so I will most likely be going :)!</p>
<p>Well, it’s not totally a full ride because a portion of the financial aid is $10,000 in loans (subsidized and unsubsidized) + work study and my parents will still have to pay about $5,000 out of their own pockets (books, supplies, food, transportation). But I did outside scholarships too so I should be hearing from those pretty soon. Do you guys think that, if I were to get offered outside scholarships, I can ask my counselor to remove the loans from my financial aid package and just give me the grants and workstudy? Will outside scholarships be able to pay for books, supplies, etc? Thanks again guys! :D</p>
<p>Food is included in your room & board contract. The cost of books is somewhat under your control. (HINT: Google is your friend. Use the ISBN to compare prices for used books/rentals. Or borrow texts from upperclass friends. Or use the reserve copy in the library.)</p>
<p>Work study funds are not disbursed all at once. You have to find a campus job and work hours each week to earn a paycheck. You will paid bi-weekly for whatever hours you work. Work-study is really intended to cover the cost of supplies and incidentals during the year. It’ll be tough to pay for books (at least first semester) with W/S funds since it will take about a month-six weeks until you receive your first paycheck. </p>
<p>$10K is a lot in loans per year, even for an engineering major. If you get sufficient additional funds from your outside scholarships, you should definitely ask if UR will reduce your loans.</p>
<p>Well, I was hoping that the workstudy can go towards the room and board since my grants + the merit scholarship basically covers the tuition. Loans and workstudy are left to pay for the room and board, which is $13k, but I only got $10k in loans + Workstudy. I think I will take your advice for the books and supplies. Hopefully, if I get outside scholarships, I can pay off the room and board without taking out that much loans.</p>
<p>ZMCIngus - you don’t HAVE to accept the loans. If your parents are able to pay more than the $5,000, you can decrease your loans. You can accept all, part, or none of the loans offered to you. </p>
<p>I’m not sure how likely it is that outside scholarships will help you. It may diminish the need based aid (grant) that UR is offering you. We’ve gotten off pretty cheap on textbooks so far (with my junior & freshman UR students), but it depends on your major and what books you need each semester. You can also make choices about housing starting sophomore year that can decrease your room and board a little.</p>
<p>Since payment for each semester’s room & board is due BEFORE the semester starts, you will not be able to use W/S to pay for your room & board. </p>
<p>(Your parents can register for a monthly payment plan. It’s thru a private company and costs $50/year. Your balance will be due in 8 equal payments. The first payment will be due in late July/early August.)</p>
<p>Also you should know the work-study earnings are NOT guaranteed. The onus is on you to find a job and work the hours before you will receive any monies. Although jobs are fairly easy to come by on campus, $5K in work study is a lot of hours. It’s ~20 hours each week during the semester. It may be difficult to manage that many hours while carrying a full academic load in tough engineering major.</p>
<p>Your W/S award is the maximum amount you can earn. You may actually earn less than the full award.</p>
<p>Also please note that state and federal income taxes will be deducted from your work-study paycheck. While you’ll be able to file tax returns and get some or all of the withheld taxes back, you should not count on getting 100% of your hourly wages in every paycheck.</p>
<p>On my way to Rochester today, I did the math. So my grants and merit covers my tuition for a year and leaves about 1k to go towards the room and board. I will have to come up with about $15k (indirect costs like books and what not included) to pay out of the pockets, with loans, or with workstudy. Right now, I think I will take the subsidized loans without interests and hold offf on the unsub loans and the workstudy. Thanks for the feedback guys! And what’s the difference between a workstudy and a part time job?</p>
<p>Work-study is federally funded program for students who have demonstrated need. </p>
<p>The federal government partially pays your hourly wage. (So whomever you work for doesn’t actually pay 100% of your wage making it easier for them to hire you) </p>
<p>The availability of work-study funding varies from year-to-year. (Federal funding for it varys according to Congressional whims.) Not all eligible students will received work-study. </p>
<p>I would be cautious about refusing work-study. Turning it down in year 1 may mean you will not be offered any in future years.</p>
<p>You can certainly accept work-study, but not work as many hours as you have been allotted. (Remember you get paid by the hour. You and your employer will mutally agree on the amount of hours you’ll work and your work schedule.)</p>
<p>Work-study jobs have 2 advantages of over regular part-time jobs:</p>
<p>1) work-study earnings are not subject to social security/medicare/entitlement withholding</p>
<p>2) work-study earnings do not count as “income” next year when you fill out your FAFSA</p>
<p>I wouldn’t turn down work study. My guy has a FWS (Federal Work Study) job he loves. His hours can be flexible if he needs them to be (usually doesn’t, but…) and it provides him with some nice spending money. We do opt for the payment plan and he has put a couple hundred towards that too.</p>
<p>Books are oodles less expensive if you locate what you need via the bookstore website and use the ISBN code to search for nice used copies online. We haven’t had to pay as much as expected. A couple still needed to come from the bookstore, but not the majority. This isn’t just UR. We’ve done the same at oldest’s school too. Once past freshman fall semester there’s also a bit of book selling/buying between students. Everyone wins that way as there are no fees associated with online selling and shipping - plus you see exactly what you are getting.</p>