Tuition waiver HELP!!

[mewtoo]

I've received a full tuition waiver and will be getting a very, very, very small stipend at a regional uni. I need loans to supplement this as I like to eat everyday, I find its a very helpful thing to do. I also don't like sleeping under a cardboard box although I'm sure the night sky view is great.

I accepted my loan amount, things were all good until my tuition waiver finally credited to my account and they changed my loan amount to where I only get 900 a semester!   

The financial aid office keeps enforcing that this is how its supposed to be, the waiver acts as a grant and thus affects your loan amount. I emailed the graduate program adviser but of course she's out until the 15th of this month. This is not correct procedure, is it? My uncle went to graduate school in the same exact state a few years ago and says that's not how it was for him!

I just really want to know if my uni is apparently full of BS and doesn't know what its doing (which, although we like to think is not possible, totally is) or if I'm just screwed and have a high chance of not even being able to attend now. I'm prepared to rip the school a new one if they are trying to screw me over and are doing it wrong, but I can't seem to get a good answer one way or the other.

Please help before I have a nuclear meltdown. I'm only partly joking.   

[lafresca]

I would first try to find someone else to talk to. Maybe you can talk to a more senior graduate student at your university, and see how they handled their financial aid? Also, talk to anyone else in your department who can help you with this issue. Don't sit down and give up, be proactive! Expending your energy trying to get the problem solved will do you much better than dwelling on the problem. 

 

Much luck to you, and I hope this is resolved efficiently and in your favor! <3

[Elli389]

Well, this may differ from school to school but it seems to be in line with the policy at my school.

The financial aid office estimates the total cost of attending the school including tuition, fees, rent, food, transportation, etc.

And then, all of your aid combined must not exceed this amount.

 

Just as an example:

If the total estimated cost to attend your school is $20,000

And the value of your fee waiver + stipend is $15,000

Then your loan eligibility is only the difference between the two, or $5,000

 

It sounds as though they originally offered you a larger loan than what they're now giving you?

If so, it is likely that the financial aid had not yet been informed about your fee waiver + stipend when they initially told you your loan eligibility.

Edited August 2, 2013 by Elli389

[Eigen]

Fee waiver is definitely considered financial aid.

No experience with it and loans, though.

[mewtoo]

I've had some people with doctorates tell me it shouldn't count against loans and it didn't for them. o_O

 

Elli, it seems like that's what my school is trying to do but others say that's not how its supposed to work? Also, mine was estimated for just purely tuition and fees, no cost of living factored in at all.

 

My adviser pulled through for me and emailed back, she didn't know but suggested people to call and she also forwarded my email to other GAs. One GA emailed back saying her waiver didn't affect her loan amount and hasn't heard that happening to other GAs. Ugh.

[Eigen]

Is it possible that the degree matters? Masters vs PhD?

 

Also, are they taking the same type of loan?

 

It's strange the school would be messing with this- most schools survive in large part through federal loan money. There's no benefit to them (and some detriment) to reduce the amount of the loan you're getting, unless they're getting pressure from somewhere outside the University. 

[mewtoo]

I would assume its the same type of loan, unsubsidized. Not sure about masters vs phd, but the other GA is also going to be a masters student. I'm going to have fun calling today if they are open. I'll update here.

 

Edit: Closed till Monday.

Edited August 2, 2013 by mewtoo

[Lisa44201]

IIRC, my tuition waiver did not affect my financial aid, but my stipend did.

[mewtoo]

IIRC, my tuition waiver did not affect my financial aid, but my stipend did.

This may sound super creepy but I may have met you irl at the Oklahoma State interview, although I was on the clinical side. Small world. o_O

 

Pretty sure at $9k for the year my stipend shouldn't affect anything (doesn't pass the threshold for finaid), but my $18k in tuition waiver (I'm out of state) sure is trying to.

[Eigen]

Just a thought, but is the other GA out of state?

 

Since you mentioned it, I'm wondering if the out-of-state vs in-state tuition difference on the waiver is creating some of the differences you're seeing. 

 

It's possible that either the difference of the two is coming from a different financial source (and hence, not effecting things the same way an in-state waiver would), or that it's just a sheer monetary difference. 

[mewtoo]

I believe she is in state because she actually asked me if I thought there was a difference between us such as out of state.

 

I thought perhaps it was how much my tuition cost versus the $20k cap on finaid, but finaid is calculated based on how much your tuition should be, so a in state person would have a smaller cap on finaid, say like $15k instead. If that was the case they should be having the same problems as me. In the email she said the loan was "the biggest I've ever been offered," leading me to think that must not be the case. FWIW, my uncle who went to school in the same state was also an out of state resident and didn't have it mess with his loan amounts. I'm really starting to lean toward what I've heard others say that its probably a clerical error. In UG I was once charged out of state tuition when I'd lived in that state my entire life and a friend of mine somehow didn't realize until her senior year that she had been charged out of state tuition the entire time when she was a state resident all along, so I know that these errors are very common.

 

I just wish my school would have been open today so I could get this taken care of, or if we were all wrong, go cry in the fetal position in the corner.

[Rogue856]

I got a tuition/fees/health insurance waiver + a stipend...the waivers were valued around $10,000 (I'm instate)...the maximum stafford loan per year is $20,500...I can get $10,500. My understanding is your loan eligibility is :

 

$20,500-the value of your waivers

 

The stipend is for work performed so it's not considered financial aid in the same way the waivers are.

 

So you would have $2,500 left over which would be about $1,250/semester...At least that's my understanding?

Edited August 2, 2013 by Rogue856