Osmosis Mom Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Explain a bit to me what I should look for. We received our very first final financial offer (to our least coveted uni), and it includes student loan, PLUS parent loan as well as work study -and then a meager offer from the uni and the presidential scholarship she was offered. I am not that impressed. Why would you put loans together with scholarships?? What do you think? I am just learning here, waiting for some more mail to come by!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DollyM Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 You said, "why put loans together with scholarships" - what do you mean? Why did the college put it all together on one page? So you would have an idea what kind of help you can expect - you can certainly decline the loans and just accept the scholarship. Sometimes, when the scholarship is only partial the school is STILL out of financial reach - so they tell you what kinds of loans and other (work study) your student qualifies for. This is generally based on the FAFSA responses - so they sort of know what you can "afford" on your own ... This seems too obvious to me so I fear I'm not really understanding your question. :tongue_smilie: :D come back and clarify and I'll try again. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolfoasia Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Explain a bit to me what I should look for. We received our very first final financial offer (to our least coveted uni), and it includes student loan, PLUS parent loan as well as work study -and then a meager offer from the uni and the presidential scholarship she was offered. I am not that impressed. Why would you put loans together with scholarships?? What do you think? I am just learning here, waiting for some more mail to come by!! I was a financial aid counselor in the Public University/College setting. I never worked in the private university setting, but their packages always are top heavy in the loan department. You will find that ALL university financial aid packages include a combination of grants and scholarships. If you were low on grant/scholarships, it is because you probably didn't qualify for a ton based on need. So, they filled up your offer with loans. I always found it hard because if you were really diligent about saving for your child's education, you won't get as much in financial aid. Maybe you were just frugal and didn't make a big salary, but your financial need is not just based on salary but how many assets your have, even if those assets are not liquid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osmosis Mom Posted March 20, 2008 Author Share Posted March 20, 2008 Well, what I meant was sort of what you assumed. Why would they put free scholarships (if student has high enough grades) together with loans that need to be paid back when the total is still short of the full amount? I guess it boils down to the credibility of FAFSA, no? They assume you can still afford to pay # amount out of pocket -when in fact you live paycheck to paycheck!!! Oh, well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen in VA Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 I also don't quite understand your question, but I'll give you an example from one of dd's schools last year -- She received a 3/4 tuition scholarship. That still left 1/4 tuition (which was about $9K) plus room & board plus other fees that totalled about $20K. The school then put together an award for the $20K which was a combination of parent money, student money, work-study, and loans. We found one VERY depressing thing about scholarships -- say the school costs $40K. Say the parental/student EFC is $20K. Say the scholarship is $20K. The scholarship does very little good -- the family still ends up paying $20K! Without the scholarship the school would have put together grants (and some loans -- so at least the scholarship avoids the loans) to cover the $20K. We are so anxious to make flight reservations so ds can visit the prospective colleges, but we are waiting until ALL the fin aid/merit aid stuff comes in. This is a long process! I hope your mailbox is VERY full tomorrow! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osmosis Mom Posted March 21, 2008 Author Share Posted March 21, 2008 Gwen, Your post make total sense to me. I guess we are at a huge advantage, not having saved a SINGLE penny for school!!!! I am not sure at all it is an advantage to have savings for the kids' college, but in our case it's a moot point anyways since we don't have any, haha! We are also waiting to see everything we get and then reconsdier things and start visiting colleges. It should get interesting. Gwen, what's the status of your ds's college-applications? Are you flying to colleges on your own expense? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osmosis Mom Posted March 21, 2008 Author Share Posted March 21, 2008 Gwen, Your post makes total sense to me. I guess we are at a huge advantage, not having saved a SINGLE penny for school!!!! I am not sure at all it is an advantage to have savings for the kids' college, but in our case it's a moot point anyways since we don't have any, haha! We are also waiting to see everything we get and then reconsdier things and start visiting colleges. It should get interesting. Gwen, what's the status of your ds's college-applications? Are you flying to colleges on your own expense? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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