Will Rutgers Financial Aid give me more help?

<pre><code> I'll be attending Rutgers NB in the fall, and had a question about the Rutgers Financial Aid office. I received $22,770 in financial aid from federal grants, federal loans, and a Rutgers grant. While tuition and room/board is about $25,500 Rutgers suggest I finance $7,430 "tuition, fees, room and board, books, supplies, travel and miscellaneous costs". I'm gonna receive my term bill in the next few weeks and will most likely begin a payment plan for 8 months.
However by the time school starts I'm only gonna have about $4,000 saved for school. I already applied for an NJClass Loan, and a Sallie Mae loan and was denied by both with my parents as cosigners. I wasn't even pre-approved for the Sallie Mae loan.
My question is if I call Rutgers Financial or visit the office are they going to be able to help me. Will they by any chance give me more grants or scholarship (I received a $4,000 scholarship but it was from Rutgers Camden). If not will they help me find and apply for other loans. I'm gonna call them tomorrow anyway but I just wanted to know if is going to be a waste of my time. Thanks for any input guys!
</code></pre>

<p>Are you close enough to commute from home if necessary?</p>

<p>Did you parents apply for a Parent PLUS loan?</p>

<p>^It may be too late for the school to award you more grants or loans; but call the financial aid office anyway.</p>

<p>Not close enough to commute to NB, could have commuted to Camden but wanted to go away. And no my parents didn’t apply for the plus loan, they said I have to get the loans. And I am definitely going to call tomorrow.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>It sounds that you will need 2730 in order to have your direct cost; tuition fees, room and board covered.</p>

<p>this will leave you $1270 for books transportation and supplies.</p>

<p>take every thing one semester at a time.</p>

<p>Do you have your stuff for your dorm room?
You may have to look at cheaper options for books. Does you school allow you to rent vs. purchasing books. can you order your books at from someplace other than the university book store?</p>

<p>You will need an on campus job and to live very frugally. Is there work study in your financial aid package? You should try to get a job once school starts in addition to a work study job; food services, the book stores or one of the retailers that is walking distance to campus. You can do it, but you must stick to the bare basics.</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice. I already have two jobs now, and hope to find a job when I move to campus. I turned down the work study program cause I figured I could just make more money with my own job. I know I could probably make it work with what I have now but I just don’t want to struggle to pay, and have to work so many hours while attending school. Do you think Rutgers will help me any more?</p>

<p>A benefit of a work study job, however, is that the wages earned don’t count as student income for the FAFSA.</p>

<p>I would never turn down WS. You do not have to use it if you find a better paying job. </p>

<p>How much did your school offer in work study?</p>

<p>If work study was part of your financial aid package and you turned it down, Rutgers or any other school is not going to replace that with grant aid (free money). I agree with what others have said about work study. In addition, work study jobs provide more flexibility around your school schedule</p>

<p>Im not positive but I believe the Work Study was for $2,000 for the whole year. I turned it down because I know I could very easily make $2,000 in 10 months with my own job and most likely even more. I didn’t plan on having the work study money replaced with grant money, I know it doesn’t work that way and it wasn’t my intention. The reason I got rid of it was because I plan on having my own job which pays more.</p>

<p>So does anyone here actually know if Rutgers is going to be able to help. I appreciate the all the input but all I really want to know is if they are going to be able to help me in any way whether it be finding me loans, scholarships, or grants. Thanks. </p>

<p>^So you’re asking your school to give you loans or grants instead of work study? I still think it’s too late to ask for more; but never hurt to ask.</p>

<p>I am really confused. You say they total costs all inclusive are 25.5k and you got 22.8k Where does the 7k shortage come from?</p>

<p>side issue - I don’t understand the thing with turning down the W/S. How do you know what the jobs available pay yet? And what is your own job? You have something lined up? Accepting the W/S does not obligate you to take something, it just lets you get first in line over kids who don’t have a w/s award. If you don’t like the pay or hours then you don’t take it. </p>

<p>If your parents apply for a PLUS loan and are turned down, you will be able to get an additional $4000 in loans. Your parents are as much on the hook if they co-sign a loan for you as they are for a PLUS loan, so I don’t understand their willingness to apply for one and not the other.</p>

<p>Let me clear some of this up. First I am not trying to replace the work study with loans or grants, the money I would get from the work study I will get from my own job working up there. I know this because the work study was only $2,000 for the year, and with the jobs I have now I make $1,200 a month ( even though I have to leave those jobs in the fall I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to find a new job).Therefore I am replacing the work study with my own job, not financial assistance. Second, yes there is only a $2,730 difference between tuition cost and my financial awards. This is where the 7k comes from, this is directly from my award letter from Rutgers…</p>

<p>“Your financial package is based on full-time enrollment. Any changes in Registration can and will adjust your aid.
Based on your estimated cost of attendance, $30,200 (includes tuition, fees, room and board, books, supplies, travel and miscellaneous costs), and the financial aid offered above, you should plan to finance an estimated balance of $7,430 for the 2014 - 2015 academic year. Your estimated cost FOR EACH SEMESTER is $3,715.”</p>

<p>Third, my parents applied for the Parent Plus Loan in November for my brother who is attending a trade school and they were denied. I don’t know why but they thought I would be able to get a loan with them cosigning however that didn’t work either. Also the difference is I’m on the hook for a loan I take in my name so I’m obligated to pay, whereas if they take a loan without my name I have no incentive to pay for it, and their stuck with it. They are cheap.</p>

<p>Lastly I just got of the phone with a Rutgers Financial Aid Representative who was almost no help at all. I asked here about grants scholarships or loans and she told me I would have to go to the office, which I would be fine with. However she couldn’t even tell me if they would help me look for loans/scholarships/grants. I don’t want to drive over an hour to their office if they can’t even help me. And I know this is all a little late but my total amount of financial award went down a few thousand between my planning letter, and award letter.</p>

<p>@Chrisz1892 Like @BethsMom said, if your parents apply for the PLUS loan and are turned down, then you can get an additional loan of $4,000. If they are not turned down, they aren’t required to take the loan. That partly answers your question on ‘help me look for loans/scholarships/grants’.</p>

<p>Regarding finding one or more new jobs on campus when you arrive - do you have special skills that would result in higher than normal pay for student-type jobs? </p>

<p>Here is a link to the pay ranges for Rutgers NB student work-study jobs:</p>

<p><a href=“http://studentemployment.rutgers.edu/new/2014%20Pay%20Rate%20Schedule.pdf”>http://studentemployment.rutgers.edu/new/2014%20Pay%20Rate%20Schedule.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Student jobs website:</p>

<p><a href=“http://studentwork.rutgers.edu/”>Student Employment - Scarlet Hub;

<p>What you are failing to recognize the flexibility that some WS jobs can offer. Your WS award will mean a job of maybe 8 hours a week. However, it could mean working 2-3 hours a day for 3 days. Where else can you work for a two hour block of time between classes? WS might enable you to supplement your job and if it doesn’t work out then you just don’t do. Some of the jobs can be interesting. </p>

<p>I would call the FA office and see if you can get the WS back and then check out your options. You might find that getting a job near campus will be tougher than you think. Why not use WS as a fallback. It’s not a lot of money but it not chicken feed either.</p>

<p>Some comments</p>

<ul>
<li><p>if Rutgers won’t give you more financial aid, and it wasn’t likely, then no they do not help you find loans that is something families are supposed to do privately. They won’t help you find outside scholarships, that is on you. Why did the amount of your award go down, seems a few thousand makes all the difference here.</p></li>
<li><p>I’m not sure why you said in your first post that total cost was 25.5 and now you say it is 32.2. But I do understand the award letter. Now that is estimated cost. If you can bring down actual cost you don’t actually have to come up with all that money. If you save $400 by buying used books then that is 400 you don’t have to come up with. Do you have any saved? </p></li>
<li><p>All you actually have to come up with now is first semester tuition, fees, room, board (if on campus). That should be 25,077 / 2= 10,077. You get 1/2 your aid so 11,385 will cover those direct costs with 1,300 left over for books/personal. Can you make due on that plus a p/t job? Then same thing for 2nd semester. Don’t know if you can make any money over break. But you can make next summer. (let me know if I have these costs wrong, got from website, if you want, you can post the costs from the award letter here.) </p></li>
</ul>

<p>You don’t really understand how w/s works and I agree you should ask for it back. We can explain more but above are the important points now.</p>

<p>I see work study hawked all the time here on CC. My own experiences with it was mixed. It may no longer be valid as it’s been almost 30 years since I was in college, but here goes. </p>

<p>I qualified for work study and for sure some of the cushiest, easiest jobs on campus were work study - library aide, dorm id checker, etc. Some of those jobs even allowed you to do your schoolwork on the clock. Dining services - a mix of work study and non work study kids - often had the most flexible hours, and for me that was more highly prized than an easy paycheck. However, there were huge swatches of months at a time where the dining services bosses had used all their work study funds and could only hire kids who weren’t on work study. By junior year, I was declining work study as I could do much better on my own off campus and this way I was still allowed to pick up an occasional shift at a dining hall.</p>

<p>I have no idea what it’s like on campus these days but I just wanted to throw out an experience that was contrary to what is often touted here. </p>

<p>I see the benefits of the work study program now, however it is too late. I already denied it and it’s gone, so there is no work study, it’s off the table. I DONT EVEN WANT IT.</p>

<p>@‌BrownParent — And in my first post I said the tuition was about 25k but Rutgers suggest I finance $7,430 “tuition, fees, room and board, books, supplies, travel and miscellaneous costs”. Therefore my financial award 22,770 + 7,430 = 30,200. Understand? Also I am aware what an estimate is, an educated guess. I know I can bring the cost down myself but I don’t like cutting it close, and I don’t want to stress about this while I’m a full time student. I would like to have the money I saved to spend on myself and emergencies. </p>

<p>–I already applied for scholarships and loans on my own and came up empty. And a financial aid office is supposed to help you with financial aid, thats why they call it the financial aid office. Do you have any input on what they can do? If so please enlighten me.</p>

<p>–I know I can make due with a pt job and if it came down to it I would make it without anymore help, however I don’t want to spend every dollar I saved this past year and have to watch every penny I spend this next year. I would like to get more aid or loans so I can have some money saved to fall back on, and have some money for myself. Oh, and I’m also gonna need to pay this all again in a year, so I don’t want to have 0$ in my bank come next fall.</p>

<p>With that being said, someone mentioned if my parents have been turned down for the Parent Plus Loan I’m eligible for a $4,000 loan. Whats that all about?</p>

<p>

However the schools pay their salaries, so the financial aid officers will try to protect the school’s interests as much as possible. They will give you (the students) as little their money as possible; according to the rules. It’s to the school’s interest that you be awarded the work study instead of the school’s money.

See <a href=“http://www.direct.ed.gov/parent.html[quote]”>http://www.direct.ed.gov/parent.html

</p>