I'm so confused about grad school loans!

[¯|_(ツ)_|¯]

This is actually a rant, not an advice-type thing which is why it's in Why Me and not Education!

So on a whim I applied to grad school, knowing that if I get accepted and cannot afford to attend I can defer up to one year. I got accepted, yay me. I have been worrying about whether or not I can afford it though, but tonight I saw that I will be getting $10,250 per semester for this first year in loans. HOPEFULLY I don't have to borrow the same amount next year with more saving.

I'm so confused on what I'll actually have to pay though!

Cost of attendance as stated by the school on the loan section - $28,682, but this iNCLUDES board/meal allotment, room, books/supplies, and personal/transportation.
My estimates say I’d be paying 8 or 9 grand per semester. I am assuming board/meal allotment, personal/transportation, and room would not be a thing for me as I am not living there. So my estimate would be potentially more accurate? I multiplied the tuition I found for $393 and the general university fee I found for $316 for 12 credits and added the $55 registration fee and the $27 activity fee and got around $8600 per semester, IF I do not include books and supplies. I am also not living on campus so I’d assume the room/board/meal allotment do not apply to me.
So I am a bit confused on if my loans will cover everything per semester and have to call billing..


I've also been getting the runaround from financial aid in general. A few weeks ago I called my loan servicer to ask a question. They said to call another office. I call that office and they say to call the school. I email the school and they don't respond so I called them today. They helped me the best they could and told me to call the loan servicer to confirm. The loan servicer immediately told me to call the school and when I said the school literally JUST sent me, he said that the financial aid person I spoke to probably didn't know anything and contradicted everything that person said... And then said to call the school again.

I just want to know if I'm able to go to grad school this year.

[Arabesque- golfing girl.]

Hello Dez,

I am so sorry that you are having a hard time with this right now and I hope you will be okay soon.
I would like to start off with congratulations on getting in, that's amazing. When you have made it that is a great feeling to have. When you are not sure how to pay for this, that is hard and you are thinking about all kinds of things and I am so sorry that you are feeling like that. I'm also so sorry that when you called them they didn't know a lot and we're not able to help you out a lot. Can you try calling again and finding someone else to talk with, a person who is head of the financial department and ask if you are able to talk with them and see if they can help you out with this. You can tell them what happened when you called before and tell them that you need help and are not sure what to do. I hope that they are able to help you out with this and that everything will be okay soon. Lots of Hugs.

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The school once again said I don't need to fill out any forms so hooray hooray.

But now I'm looking at my potential schedule options and running into tons more confusion, lord help me.

I am glad you were told you don't have to fill out any more forms. I imagine having to do so would have been annoying. What is confusing you about the scheduling? Maybe you could talk to someone at the school? It might be something they could help sort.

Good luck on everything. Getting to Grad School would be amazing and I hope you'll end up liking it when you get there.

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What is confusing you about the scheduling? Maybe you could talk to someone at the school?

I know my original post was to rant but I'll answer this.

They give us a plan of study to follow. Basically I have one class waived because I already have my Bachelor's in Public Health (some people have a Bachelor's in something else and switch over) and I also took another grad level class in undergrad as a transfer credit. Both of the classes I no longer have to take were in the plan of study for semester 1. In place of the waived class, I need to take an elective.

In order to be considered full-time, you must have at least 3 classes. The plan of study has four listed so I want to keep taking four to keep up.

But there's only two more on the plan of study for the first fall semester. I CAN take classes that are supposed to be for my second fall semester if they're not full, but some are getting close. I'd likely need an elective, if not two, this semester to get to four classes.

The problem with that is that you need advisor permission for any electives...

I guess it wouldn't hurt TOO much if I had to take three courses this first semester since I DID take one for transfer credit already and it should balance out... It would also help with the transition.

I have one email out to the graduate coordinator already and will likely ask her about this when she responds. I don't want to bombard her and I hope she doesn't think I'm stupid with all these questions.

I also want to discuss the possibility of living on campus this first year, fi it's not too late. So I need to call billing to make sure I understand the price breakdown properly and I'm going to look stupid because it's all listed on the website and I want to make sure I understand. I already called them about pricing for things once today.

[Kate*]

As far as estimating the cost of attendance the school always over shoots that. Your books and classes will be more expensive than undergrad (That's what Amazon is for), but you can disregard most of the other stuff. Even if you live on campus, you may not need or be eligible for the meal plan. My school had the undergrad and graduate costs listed separately and then some of the graduate stuff was different depending on the program, so make sure you're looking at the right things. Grad stuff is usually listed per credit hour so you won't get the undergrad discount of "between X and Y amount of credits is one price"

Also, see how set in stone your plan of study is. The first few semesters you'll need to prereqs, but ours was more of a list and as long as we met the requirements, we could take most of them in any order we wanted except the ones that the end that had to be done in order. A lot of the plans of study they give you are examples that you don't have to follow to the letter, but every school is different.