Would I be able to go through a year of college on grants alone?

Question

I'm attending Rutgers University. Tuition/room&board plus additional fees come up to about $22,000. Would federal and state grants alone cover it if my EFC is 0? I have not received my financial aid package yet so I don't know how much I'm getting. The Rutgers financial aid office said that they don't know how much more funds they have left. I don't want to have to deal with loans.

Answer 1

Elizabeth:

There is no way to know for certain, because only the financial aid office knows all of the various forms of state assistance that they have available to them. I can tell you that there is no chance that federal grants will pay for a year at Rutgers.

Your EFC of zero will qualify you for a Pell grant of $4731. That money will be paid to the school in two equal payments of $2365.50, one check for the fall and the other for the spring. You may well receive an FSEOG grant, but the maximum grant your school could award is only $4000. You may be given a work-study award, but that's a limited-hour part-time job that isn't going to add up to anywhere near $22,000. New Jersey has its own state grant programs, but I don't know much about them. I suspect it's highly unlikely that they're going to exceed the federal grants.

No one WANTS to have to take out a loan, but loans are a fact of life for the majority of students who attend college in this country. Very few students have parents who are wealthy enough to pick up the tab, and very few students accomplish everyone's dream of a "free ride" funded by scholarships and grants.

The federal government's Stafford and Perkins Loan programs are as painless as any loan could possibly be. You don't need a credit check or a cosigner to qualify, the interest rates are low and fixed, you don't have to begin repaying the loans until 6-9 months after graduate, and you can postpone payment if you experience financial difficulties when you get out of school.

With your zero EFC, you will be qualified to receive the best loans of all - the Perkins, with its 5.0 percent fixed interest rate, or the subsidized Stafford loan, with a 6.0 percent fixed rate. Both loans have the great additional perk of having the government pay all of the interest that accrues while you're in school. That will save you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, depending on how much you ultimately need to borrow.

The loan application process is easy (because there is no credit check) and your school will walk you through the entire process and explain everything to you.

I fully understand why you would rather not have to take a loan, but it is unlikely that Rutgers will be able to offer you anywhere near enough "free" aid to cover your educational expenses. You can trust that everyone wishes they could get that kind of assistance, but almost no one does.

Good luck to you.