NC may cut funding for contract seats

[NCOD]

For those of you from NC that are in school with a contract position (now called the Optometry Scholarship Loan, OSL) you should have gotten an email last week from the NC Education Assistance Authority telling you that there may not be funding in the budget this year to support the contract positions. If this is true, you will immediately lose the funding that you have now from the program (there is no grandfathering out for this, it will affect everyone immediately). I talked to the NCEAA and they said that they are just waiting on the general assembly to pass a budget and hopefully funding will be in there but they don't know. I was just wondering if anyone from NC with a contract seat had heard anything else about this, or if there are any suggestions on who to talk to (like state representatives).

Thanks!

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[JMU07]

Ugh, I feel for you guys. Virginia stopped offering contract seats a few years ago, so we don't get any help anywhere. Get in contact with your state optometric association and see if they are doing anything to help!

 

[NCOD]

Yeah I understand that, I just stinks that I went in thinking I had funding for 4 years and never thought I might have to pay an extra 30 thousand a year. I almost would have rather known that from the beginning so I could have planned a little better.

 

[blazenmadison]

Ugh, I feel for you guys. Virginia stopped offering contract seats a few years ago, so we don't get any help anywhere. Get in contact with your state optometric association and see if they are doing anything to help!

I know right. Join the club!

 

[blysssful]

Yeah, I would definitely feel bad... IF it weren't the same for many other states.

Maybe I'm just bitter being from an un-contracted state...

 

[JMU07]

Yeah I understand that, I just stinks that I went in thinking I had funding for 4 years and never thought I might have to pay an extra 30 thousand a year. I almost would have rather known that from the beginning so I could have planned a little better.

$30,000 A YEAR? Which school are you looking at? I'm fairly sure NC does not give out that much money, maybe you meant $30,000 total?

 

[SarahNC]

It was 13100 last year and 13900 this year. We already had 1/3 of it deposited in our accounts at PCO for the summer session, so I hope it was included in the budget, we haven't heard anything about it.

 

[SarahNC]

So, from the email I got yesterday "It doesn't look good", but they are waiting on the details of the budget and won't know for a few weeks. At this point, I'm not even sure what to do. There isn't any extra money for me to borrow, and even if I am able to scrounge up some private loans, its hard to believe I'm going to come out 50 grand more in debt than I anticipated, doesn't seem worth it.

 

[blysssful]

That is absolutely ridiculous that you aren't grandfathered in.

 

[SarahNC]

Well, I'm just hoping its going to come back good news, although it doesn't seem promising. Also, we were never told this was something that wasn't guaranteed. Our MPN says nothing about being dependent on the state budget, it only states that we have to maintain good progress, etc, nothing about them. Even on the NCSEAA website, it doesn't say it. If you look at the other loan, the Health Science and Math one, it does say it, but not the OSL. So I kind of feel like we were "bait and switched..." I am already 1 semester down in my second year, 60k in debt if I decide to leave, not to mention all the time that would have been wasted. They know we don't have a choice and will just have to borrow the extra money. Also, where did they go from $13100 last school year, increasing it to $13900 for this school year if they don't have any money!?

 

[Ryan_eyeball]

Well, I'm just hoping its going to come back good news, although it doesn't seem promising. Also, we were never told this was something that wasn't guaranteed. Our MPN says nothing about being dependent on the state budget, it only states that we have to maintain good progress, etc, nothing about them. Even on the NCSEAA website, it doesn't say it. If you look at the other loan, the Health Science and Math one, it does say it, but not the OSL. So I kind of feel like we were "bait and switched..." I am already 1 semester down in my second year, 60k in debt if I decide to leave, not to mention all the time that would have been wasted. They know we don't have a choice and will just have to borrow the extra money. Also, where did they go from $13100 last school year, increasing it to $13900 for this school year if they don't have any money!?

I do feel bad for you because I received a Kansas seat when I went through UMSL basically it covered all my out-of-state tuition. It came out to about a $65,000 scholarship over the 4 years. The schools don't care about you, because they know you will be trapped. You can not walk away two or three years into the program, and get a 100k job right away. You probably do not have any legal ground to stand on, unless it was put in any type of writing with a guarantee that it would be promised to you over all four years.

 

[JMU07]

I work in financial aid, and was told Georgia lost their money, too.

 

[SarahNC]

Semi-sort of good news: We get to keep our money, for this year anyway. Next year again, depends on the budget, but they are phasing out the program and if you didn't receive money in 08-09, it doesn't look like you are getting any :/ looks like us from NC is class of 12 got in just in time! Feel bad for the rest of them though. We'll see next year, really hoping they let us have it until we graduate!

 

[NCOD]

$30,000 A YEAR? Which school are you looking at? I'm fairly sure NC does not give out that much money, maybe you meant $30,000 total?

$30,000 per year is right. Tuition for UAB is dropped to the in-state rate. For UAB, the in state tuition per year is about $14,000. Out of state tuition is $43,000. So it would have been $30,000 extra per year or $90,000 extra dollars for me to finish out my last three years. That is double what I had anticipated taking out in loans. Luckily SarahNC is right and we squeezed in just in time. Thank God!

 

[JMU07]

$30,000 per year is right. Tuition for UAB is dropped to the in-state rate. For UAB, the in state tuition per year is about $14,000. Out of state tuition is $43,000. So it would have been $30,000 extra per year or $90,000 extra dollars for me to finish out my last three years. That is double what I had anticipated taking out in loans. Luckily SarahNC is right and we squeezed in just in time. Thank God!

Oh shoot, yeah UAB is ridiculously expensive. I always thought they just gave a certain amount, not that they dropped everyone to the in-state rate. Thanks for the info!