Financial Aid. BEWARE. - Page 6

tocollege · 06-30-2009, 02:51 PM

Someone asked earlier whether the Cal Grant shows up on your financial aid page - Yes, it shows up as "Estimated Cal Grant." If it didn't show up on last year's page, then you very likely didn't get a Cal Grant last year. Your family would have to be under the income/asset ceilings to qualify: http://www.csac.ca.gov/facts/2009-10IncomeCeilings.pdf

binks09 · 06-30-2009, 09:52 PM

^^^ Yes, USC does provide alot of money, but I feel they are throwing it away. Okay, I'm fine with the Presidential and other merit scholarships, but it seems like they just give grants away like candy to the poor. Honestly, I know people who live below the poverty line and attend USC because they are so poor that they only have to take 8k in loans a year.

It seems like the only way to fiscally attend USC is to either be stinking rich or dirt poor.
Just an observation.

mdcissp · 06-30-2009, 10:15 PM

Private university education is very expensive for the middle class unless you can get enough merit scholarships.

trojanchick99 · 06-30-2009, 10:45 PM

Wow. I wouldn't call University grants to poor students, "Throwing money away". These are the people who need a college education to pull their families up from poverty. So should college only be for the wealthy?

anotherasian1234 · 06-30-2009, 10:56 PM

"Honestly, I know people who live below the poverty line and attend USC because they are so poor that they only have to take 8k in loans a year."

okay. 8k a year when you're below the poverty line is a LOT of money to borrow, in the first place. i mean, wow. lets see:

8k x 4 years = 32k (at LEAST, since colleges expect you to borrow more each year).

i'd say that's still a big sacrifice for a family earning ~20k a year. dont think that they have it easier, just because their grant packages are larger. sure, it's probably tough for middle class families, but it's part of the investment that is higher education.

grey_syntactics · 06-30-2009, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Honestly, I know people who live below the poverty line and attend USC because they are so poor that they only have to take 8k in loans a year.

Sorry for pursuing a college education. I feel so ashamed for attending USC only because I'm poor! My apologies!

tocollege · 06-30-2009, 11:23 PM

binks09 - it doesn't matter a bit to me if you think USC is throwing their money away on me 'cause USC seems to think I am worth it. Thanks for your valuable input.

a.parent · 07-01-2009, 11:52 AM

Wow, Binks, kind of a cynical observation. Even though the FA situation for my son is devastating, I certainly would not wish for him to get more aid by denying students with lower incomes. That's not the answer. Hopefully a college education will help you to see the broader issues with the system used to determine how we fund education in this country.

furyshade · 07-09-2009, 07:14 PM

just for an update, we looked and my brother did receive Cal Grant last year so it isn't an income thing, since i'm pretty sure my parents filed both of our fafsa reports at the same time we have no idea what happened

menloparkmom · 07-09-2009, 07:58 PM

it had been in the news many times recently that Calgrants may be cut because of the Calif budget crisis.

furyshade · 07-09-2009, 09:07 PM

but this is from LAST year, not this year. i didn't receive the cal grant i believe i was supposed to receive last year.

Rosieoney · 07-11-2009, 05:40 PM

I can't believe you are only now discovering this about your Cal Grant. You best follow up with the school and Cal Grant immediately. You must have a lot of money lying around to "not notice" the lack of almost $10,000 ;-)

furyshade · 07-11-2009, 08:17 PM

that is pretty snide, my parents and i assumed we'd get a check reimbursing us later, we weren't sure if we were supposed to get it through the school or independently and since this was my first year we didn't know whether or not it was supposed to show up on my financial aid report.

GroovyGeek · 07-12-2009, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Okay, I'm fine with the Presidential and other merit scholarships, but it seems like they just give grants away like candy to the poor. Honestly, I know people who live below the poverty line and attend USC because they are so poor that they only have to take 8k in loans a year.

I am NOT defending Binks, but people who responded that $8k of loans is a large burden for a poor family are missing the point. The loans are for the attendee, not the family. With a college education that loan amount is tolerable and should be repayable within 5 years of graduation without too much trouble.

Compare that to the situation of a solidly middle-class family earning $80-$100k. Zero finaid puts them in the hole for $250k, and often middle-class kids will graduate with significant loan burden ($50k+) because of a misguided desire to attend a specific university. The end result is that (a) the family has emptied out all bank accounts to fund the education of the child (b) the child graduates with a loan burden that will drive them under if anything unexpected happens.

Both graduates are independent adults past the age of majority, their family's financial situation has little relevance to their loan burden, unless the implicit expectation is that the family continues to carry the loan burden. This seems to be what many universities are assuming.

The plight of the poor is significant and they deserve the help they get. However, the statement that in order to attend a private university you either have to be poor (<$50k annual income) or rich (>$200k annual income) is a correct one. Everyone in the middle simply gets squeezed out.

uyulove · 07-13-2009, 01:38 PM

It did go down. :/
My parents' income went down by around 10K, my brother is attending a private university trying to get his masters so my parents are trying to cover that as well...(my brother himself is around 65K in loans -_-) My parents don't make that much money in the first place and now its in a worse situation :/(below median income) USC lowered my aid by around 6-8K from last year... and tuition is higher. :/ sigh. It was good til last year, so I'm wondering why it went down o_O!

I did ask for an appeal but lets see what happens. My father just also quit his job although his contract goes til January. hahaha good times we have no back up plans its going to be friggin awesome HAAHAHA. I think they'll cover him for one more year though since his contract has 6 years of work + 1 rest year or something. I can't work my workstudy job as much either because I have a senior thesis project that'll eat up all my time + 2 majors + 1 minors + internship T_T sigh. I guess I should just apply for more outside scholarships.
I should've worked this summer but KJlkjsldf I was just dumb and had 2 health issues due to stress/mental/health problems so I was told to rest. And I was just tired since I had 10-9 schedule last year with work and everything.
I should go get a job now :/