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Hi All,

Here's my situation: I received 14.5k need based aid, plus 5k scholly from a local T1. I will be living at home during law school, so living expenses will be minimal. However, since I declined the (atrocious) GRAD Plus loans I was offered, my school has put a hold on my need-based aid. I'm wondering how I explain my situation to the school?

To be clear, I will be paying (minimal) rent to live in my parents house, so I am not receiving housing assistance. However, as my parents and I have discussed, rent will be forgiven if I cook dinner one night a week, and spend a couple hours per week taking care of my mildly disabled brother. I will also have minimal food expenses, and no utilities (the food expenses will also be forgiven). How do I explain to my school that my actual living expenses for the year will be roughly 7k (which I can cover), not 27k?

Edit- Before anyone mentions it, I realize this is posted in the incorrect forum. However, I'm not sure how to move posts between forums

Call or email the financial aid office. And explain it better than you did here, because I'm still not sure if you're asking for money or turning it down.

Anonymous User wrote:Hi All,

Here's my situation: I received 14.5k need based aid, plus 5k scholly from a local T1. I will be living at home during law school, so living expenses will be minimal. However, since I declined the (atrocious) GRAD Plus loans I was offered, my school has put a hold on my need-based aid. I'm wondering how I explain my situation to the school?

To be clear, I will be paying (minimal) rent to live in my parents house, so I am not receiving housing assistance. However, as my parents and I have discussed, rent will be forgiven if I cook dinner one night a week, and spend a couple hours per week taking care of my mildly disabled brother. I will also have minimal food expenses, and no utilities (the food expenses will also be forgiven). How do I explain to my school that my actual living expenses for the year will be roughly 7k (which I can cover), not 27k?

Edit- Before anyone mentions it, I realize this is posted in the incorrect forum. However, I'm not sure how to move posts between forums

I assume their possession is that if you are getting 20k of free living, you don't need need-based aid.

Will do. To be clear, I accepted enough aid to pay my tuition. However, I did not accept enough aid to cover the living expenses the school estimates I should have, because their estimates don't apply to my particular situation. Appreciate the advice.

Did you check "living with parents" on your FAFSA? At least when I checked that, my school didn't include room and board when it estimated my CoA. I'd go back to your FAFSA, make sure that's checked, THEN call.

sap wrote:Did you check "living with parents" on your FAFSA? At least when I checked that, my school didn't include room and board when it estimated my CoA. I'd go back to your FAFSA, make sure that's checked, THEN call.

I checked that. The emails I received let me know a hold was being placed on my aid, and that the financial aid office would like a budget detailing how I planned on paying my living expenses for the year. Because the school referenced a financial aid calculator (which includes estimates for living expenses) I'm presuming they are using the estimates posted publicly on their website.

Here's my story:
They forgot to subtract my scholarship from my COA so I was originally awarded a lot more than I needed to live on. So, I emailed, "Yo, could just drop it by like 10k i don't need that much" --then they dropped it by the full scholarship, to the actual cost of attendance (more than the 10k drop that I asked for), which blew, because I wanted more money, even if it has a high interest rate, because I can just pay it off in the future when I don't feel like drinking as much.

Needless to say, they do have the power to change your shit. Just talk to them.