General Financial Aid questions

Paying for College
1

<p>Hello everybody! I found this forum when I was surfing the internet trying to find out more information regarding the financial aid process from people who’ve actually gone through it or deal with it on an everyday basis.</p>

<p>Some general information about myself:</p>

<p>I am a 25 year old male who was diagnosed with asperger’s syndrome when I was 16. I graduated from High School in 2004 with a GPA around the 2.5-2.7 due to not feeling really engaged or “challenged” by the teachers or the curriculum. I started college the fall quarter after HS at the local community college paid totally out of pocket by my parents, but because of some issues that came up regarding the AS and other issues, I stopped attending college. I got specialised occupational training and went into the workforce from 2006 until late last year at which time I moved back home.</p>

<p>Because it’s becoming harder to find something I can call a ‘career’, I’ve decided to go back to college starting in January at the local CC in my town. I plan on doing the transfer degree to be able to switch over to a 4 year college to complete my education in a field such as communications/journalism or art (photography, graphic design).</p>

<p>With that said, I’ve already filled out the FASFA, the financial aid paperwork required by the college as well as applied for the Federal Direct Loans. When I did the fasfa, because I had made almost 20k on my own, that my EFC is around 1740 or something - and the website spat out that I would get about 1100 in a Pell Grant for the first year.</p>

<p>Right now, because of the college courses I “dropped out of” back in 2004, I have to be reinstated for financial aid… so I’m in the middle of waiting for that (my admissions counselor says that there shouldn’t be an issue with them reinstating my eligibility for financial aid); in addition, I am additionally waiting to find out what I will get in terms of direct loans. I had selected the maximum amount available for direct loans for the first year (Winter and Spring quarters) because I know that due to the fact that I have not worked much in 2010 that my income will be significantly less than last year. </p>

<p>I’m under the assumption that because my 2010 income is going to be significantly less, will that in turn mean more need based aid? Additionally, I have friends who applied for a community college at the same time as myself last year (about a month earlier then I started the process this year) and they got a decision regarding the direct loans quicker than the 6-8 week timeframe that both the website and my school’s financial aid office has “quoted” me. Can this be charted up to the fact that it is a different school in a different state or is it because of the timeframe in which they applied as opposed to when I applied?</p>

<p>I know that I can probably find the information by googling and scrolling through websites, but in a short 30 minutes of reading the various threads on this forum I have found that you all have been extremely warm, friendly and open-armed regarding helping those who are wanting to find answers to their questions. I appologise about the length of the post, but I hope that somebody can at least give me some answers to help quell these questions that are accompanied by butterflies in my stomach.</p>

2

<p>Is the school quoting you 6-8 weeks to package your financial aid and send you an award letter, or are they saying it takes that long to process a federal direct loan? If it’s the former, that sounds like a “stock” answer and it may be done much sooner than that. If it’s the latter, that sounds very long for a direct loan…have you actually applied, taken the mandatory entrance counseling and signed the Master Promissory Note? It usually only takes a few weeks for the school to certify and credit the Stafford loans to the student’s account, but that is after the FA office has actually awarded aid.</p>

<p>Need-based aid is based on your 2009 income and your CC probably only offers federal and state aid. Did you also apply for your state’s student aid program? If your 2010 income is significantly less due to extenuating circumstances (job loss, health issues, etc.) it may be worth making a special circumstances appeal to your FA office. If your EFC is lowered through professional judgement, more need-based aid will be granted (ie. Pell, state aid).</p>

<p>Hope that helps…good luck!</p>

3

<p>The school is quoting me the 6-8 weeks to package the financial aid and send me an award letter or rather “notify me via email” that it’s been awarded. Regarding the entrance counseling and the MPN, yeah I completed those and turned it in recently. My college’s financial aid office works almost like a revolving door - they only have like 3 people in the office and use a pull-ticket and ‘now serving number’ system, so it’s hard to get them to really give you a complete answer.</p>

<p>I took a look at all the programs they have in terms of state student aid and all of the ones that Washington offers I don’t qualify for at least atm.</p>

4

<p>As sk8rmom aid, your 2010-2011 aid will be based on your 2009 income. When you apply for next year’s aid (2011-2012 school year starting in the fall) that will be based on 2010 income.</p>

<p>The financial aid package will determine exactly what aid you get. If your income was $20k then and EFC of 1740 is lower than I would have expected. The amount of Pell grant the FAFSA website mentioned is based on attendance for the full school year. It would be divided equally between the number of sessions your school has in a regular school year. It sounds like your school is on a quarter system which means the regular school year is 3 sessions. So if the Pell is 1100 then it would be 1/3 of 1100, or 366, for each session. If you do not attend the full year you do not get a full year of the Pell - it will be prorated, so if you only attend 2 out of 3 sessions you just get 2 out of 3 portions of the Pell. The amount of aid, including Pell, is also dependent on whether you are full time or not.</p>

<p>Each school processes their own financial aid package offer including pell, loans etc. Schools do vary enormously in how fast they process aid applications. I have been going to a CC and am transferring to a 4 year university in the Spring. When I applied to transfer a few weeks ago my financial aid offer at the new school was posted within 3 weeks of my applying to the (much larger) school. A friend applied late for aid at the CC just as the fall semester started (mid August) and their aid offer was made just last week.</p>

5

<p>If your income is around $19,500, then your EFC is going to probably be around $2100.</p>

<p>Since you’ll be starting college during the spring semester, you should get half of the Pell amount for that EFC. </p>

<p>I’m under the assumption that because my 2010 income is going to be significantly less, will that in turn mean more need based aid?</p>

<p>Yes, but the most you can get is about $5550 per year (that’s with a 0 EFC) - which is about $2700 per semester.</p>