Financial Aid and budgeting for Non-trads

[geni]

I guess I'm "lucky" to be broke... my EFC is 0.  If it wasn't, there's no way I could ever afford law school. 

[LaneSwerver]

Laura Leathers at OSU

Oooh, I saw her movie! "Laura Does OSU." She's hot!

[Highway]

My EFC is like $24k, which is 2-1/2 times what the school will cost each year. The school I'm looking at has in-state tuition at around $10k a year. Also, my company has 100% tuition reimbursement (which is the only reason I'm even considering going back to school - part time, of course).

I plan to get a 0% credit card and pay the $5k first semester tuition on it, then pay it off when I get the reimbursement the following February from my company. Of course, I'll have had to pay Spring tuition by then, so I'll always carry a balance and have to make a monthly payment on it, but by the time I graduate I should be pretty well paid off.

I would do the loan thing, but I already have $185k outstanding in student loans from medical school, and I don't want to run those up any further (if they would even let me).

[gusrip98]

Some good info here.....I am not sweating it at all.  Worst case, I end up taking more in loans than I need and pay it back right away (lol.....discipline).

As to part of the OP's question....moving budget.  I did my budget for the farthest school and the one I am most likely to attend(Stetson from PA).  I need around $3,000 in spare cash to move door to door.  That's for the rental truck, rent deposit, utilities, miscellaneous junk, etc.  I put away an extra $1,000 on top of that because I am $hitty at math and something else always pops up, but I have moved many times and this was about the cheapest I could do it.

[linquest]

Some good info here.....I am not sweating it at all. Worst case, I end up taking more in loans than I need and pay it back right away (lol.....discipline).

As to part of the OP's question....moving budget. I did my budget for the farthest school and the one I am most likely to attend(Stetson from PA). I need around $3,000 in spare cash to move door to door. That's for the rental truck, rent deposit, utilities, miscellaneous junk, etc. I put away an extra $1,000 on top of that because I am $hitty at math and something else always pops up, but I have moved many times and this was about the cheapest I could do it.

How did you figure out the cost for the rental truck?  Darn sentimental furniture....

[alkiremays]

Glad to see you're back, alki. I haven't seen any updates on your LSN site... have you heard anything back from OSU?

The FinAid office at OSU said that everyone who submits a FAFSA gets the $18,500 loan. The school then compares your EFC to their student budget to see if you have additional need. I believe that they start with additional loans before getting into other need based aid, but I'm not sure. But some schools have the extra form, like OSU's Level 2 application.

Laura Leathers at OSU was very friendly and helpful. I'd think that you could call her and ask questions.

My EFC is over their student budget, sigh..., so there's no reason for me to file a Level 2.

-cscherr (aka YellowSpringer)

Too funny - I haven't been called alki since high school (18 years ago).   Alkire is my maiden name.  My brother and I both got alki a lot.
Yes - I'm back.  Little narcotics-induced vacation in the hospital for a week.  That was fun.  Did you know that 75% of adults get viral meningitis from their kids colds?  So they told me anyway.

Not a DA*NED word from OSU.  Starting to tick me off too.  So do I need to fill out a level 2 or is that just if I show need?  There's no way I'm going to show need.

[YellowSpringer]

I believe just if your EFC is less than the student budget. I was advised not to bother.

[gusrip98]

How did you figure out the cost for the rental truck?  Darn sentimental furniture....

U-haul's website will let you get a quote to where you are going and they have some rough estimates for the size of truck you might need.  For me, 2-3 BR, at least one trip with a 14' truck.  Budget, Penske, et al. had similar things.  www.pods.com is pretty neat if you don't mind shelling out a little extra $$.

[limonjello]

Don't give up - my EFC was 36k and my school's budget around 45k. Just found out yesterday that I still received a $3,000 Perkins loan from the school, $8,500 in subsidized Stafford and $10,000 in unsubsidized Stafford.

And yes, the EFC is ridiculous; I do not have that kind of money just sitting around. The reality is that my spouse and I make a decent income, but our mortgage is very expensive as well... w/ bills from undergrad already, no way we have a lot of savings, unfortunately.

Good luck!

So you were actually able to borrow above and beyond the school's official budget, correct?  I am really confused as to whether this is possible, not even with Federal loans, but just private loans would be fine.  I just don't understand how I am supposed to deal with items such as family healthcare, dependent expenses, etc. that school's refuse to put in their "budge."

So it sounds like perhaps only the school is bound by the budge limit, and not the Federal gov't?  I'm just horribly confused on this one.

[katesq]

I have loans from undergrad. Will this interfere with my getting a full 18.5K for law school?