FAFSA/student aid questions

[alonepear]

Ok so I've never been through the financial aid process before (thank you in-state undergrad tuition & scholarships), but now I'm being run over by it trying to pay for vet school!

I filled my FAFSA out back in March because one of my prospective vet schools (NCSU) wanted it submitted by then. I also had it sent to my other 2 prospective schools (Mississippi & Illinois).

I ended up choosing to attend Mississippi. I declined a spot at Illinois, but my request for financial aid was still processed by them, and I was offered enough to cover tuition, fees and some living expenses.

Now I've just received my offer from the school I'm actually attending, Mississippi, and my financial aid offer is about $20,000 less per year than what I would have gotten via Illinois. The two school's estimated tuition, fees and other costs only vary by a thousand or two. (I am now not even being awarded enough to cover tuition alone).

Is it normal for your amount awarded to be dependent on the school, even if cost of attending is the same? I am a non-resident for both schools.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[ri23]

It is my understanding that your loan amount should total your schools tuition + reasonable cost of living expenses. Are you counted as an independent? If you are just coming out of undergrad your EFC should be zero and they should give you enough loans to cover everything. For example OSU estimates 21,000 for instate tuition, but they give everyone enough federal loans to cover 38,500 and a detailed breakdown of how those living expenses were calculated.

 

[QTkitty]

The amount of aid you receive will be dependent on the school you attend but it should at least cover the estimated cost of attendance (including tuition, living, etc.). I am taking out perkins, grad plus, subsidized, unsubsidized and a small scholarship to cover the cost. You should contact your school's financial aid office and ask why they aren't giving you enough to cover your cost of attendance.

 

[alonepear]

Ok, phew, just found out that for some reason MSU first processes our applications as graduate students, so I received a graduate student amount. Now they go back and fix the DVM students so that it will cover everything... panic attack over =)

Thanks for the input guys!

 

[CookieBear]

Yeah, Pear, initially, KSU sent me an award letter that was thousands less than the actual Stafford award I am actually receiving now.

It was dumb luck that I just waited, and then suddenly another award letter arrived (and maybe I was able to look online, since they have a website status page).

I pretty much darn near max'd out my Grad Plus, because I don't want to be caught with my pants down... err, rather, don't want to run outta money.

A kid in the KSU finaid office swore to me that when he didn't use all of his GradPlus loan, that, at the end of the school year, he was able to either reject/deny/give back or otherwise NOT borrow the full amount he had been awarded, since he didn't need it. Alternatively, I'm guessing folks can just keep the money we're borrowing, if we don't use it, and save it for a rainy day/emergencies, etc.

Especially since... I wonder what being unemployed is going to do to my credit score - which the GradPlus acceptance is based on.. But that's probably a topic for another thread in the Money forum anyway (which no one reads, btw).

 

[kate_g]

A kid in the KSU finaid office swore to me that when he didn't use all of his GradPlus loan, that, at the end of the school year, he was able to either reject/deny/give back or otherwise NOT borrow the full amount he had been awarded, since he didn't need it.

I'm pretty sure this is true for Staffords, probably Grad PLUS too. If you give back the money before a certain deadline (which I think is at least a couple months after the end of the year for which you took the loan) then they credit you back any interest that was charged on that portion of the loan, so it's like you never took that money. I don't remember all the details, but if you do it pretty soon after the end of the year then you just tell the finaid office and they process it for you.

 

[quakk]

for what it's worth...

i've decided to try my luck with a company called graduate leverage (www.graduateleverage.com) for my loans starting this semester. they use the leverage of large numbers of students to negotiate the rates on the loans, and offered me a loan at 5.8%, as opposed to the 6.8% i was getting from other lenders.

just a thought...

 

[tapir]

for what it's worth...

i've decided to try my luck with a company called graduate leverage (www.graduateleverage.com) for my loans starting this semester. they use the leverage of large numbers of students to negotiate the rates on the loans, and offered me a loan at 5.8%, as opposed to the 6.8% i was getting from other lenders.

just a thought...

Shopping around for the best loan terms is good advice. Are you getting that 5.8% even while you're in school? The staffords I'm getting from Penn (which are slightly subsidized by the state) have a bunch of incentives like that, but they don't start to kick in until graduation.