What is a good financial package?

[FattySlug]

A school just gave me an award of 28k in Grad PLUS and 44k in Unsubsidized Stafford. Is this bad?

The other school I got into has CoA of 84k which will amount to about 330k after graduation. I can't help but feeling either way it is a pretty rotten deal.

Please tell me your CoA so I have a better feel of where I stand. Thank you very much.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[theseeker4]

A school just gave me an award of 28k in Grad PLUS and 44k in Unsubsidized Stafford. Is this bad?

The other school I got into has CoA of 84k which will amount to about 330k after graduation. I can't help but feeling either way it is a pretty rotten deal.

Please tell me your CoA so I have a better feel of where I stand. Thank you very much.

44K or so is the cap on unsubsidized stafford loans, and the subsidized are gone. The rest up to the COA should be available in grad plus loans. Unless you get a scholarship, that seems pretty standard. It is higher than my in-state school's total COA, but whether it is bad, meh, depends on where you get in and how much each school costs.

 

[NickNaylor]

That doesn't really mean much. What are the two COAs at the two schools? That's really what matters.

I'm not sure what exactly you were expecting. Loans are the standard.

 

[scarletgirl777]

A school just gave me an award of 28k in Grad PLUS and 44k in Unsubsidized Stafford. Is this bad?

The other school I got into has CoA of 84k which will amount to about 330k after graduation. I can't help but feeling either way it is a pretty rotten deal.

Please tell me your CoA so I have a better feel of where I stand. Thank you very much.

What they have "given" is the bare minimum...essentially you have the standard all loans package that you were guaranteed to get from the start as a graduate student who is presumably not independently wealthy. I put given in quotes because these loans are not from them, they are from the government. Some schools give their own institutional loans that have better interest rates or don't accumulate interest in school. Some schools give grants, which are given on a year-to-year basis and not guaranteed but is free money that you don't have to pay back. Some schools give scholarship money as part of their standard financial aid process which is usually guaranteed year-to-year, free money that you don't have to pay back. So could you have gotten a better deal? Yeah but I don't know if it's accurate to call it a "rotten deal" like you've been cheated or something.

In terms of your indebtedness, if you are getting zero scholarship need-based or otherwise, what matters is the total cost of attendance, not how much money they "gave" you.

 

[pkwraith]

84k is a bit on the high side, yes.
Your total estimate is on the low side, because you're not adding the interest you accrue through Stafford unsubsidized loans.

If you want to see what other schools charge, you can just look there:

http://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/select.cfm?year_of_study=2012

It doesn't include cost of living (just add around 20,000), adjusted for location (NYC is 40% higher than college town). My own CoA averages out to be about 50k a year.

 

[FattySlug]

So could you have gotten a better deal? Yeah but I don't know if it's accurate to call it a "rotten deal" like you've been cheated or something.

In terms of your indebtedness, if you are getting zero scholarship need-based or otherwise, what matters is the total cost of attendance, not how much money they "gave" you.

Sorry I do not mean to say the loan package is rotten. What I meant was the 84k CoA was very high.