Trying to pay remainder of COA after grants through working, is this viable? (costs, school)

[IIEarthII]

So this school I am considering is offering me $22765 in Grants/scholarships and $5500 in direct unsubsidized and subsidized loans, for a total of $28265. The cost of Attendence is $41394. Broken down, it is $28638 in tuition; $10108 in room/board; $950 in books (which I could reduce if I rent/use discount or used books); $1634 in personal charges.


Now, if I applied all of my grant/loan money, I can completely knock out the tuition, leaving me with $12756 dollars to come up with. Do I need the majority of this extra money right when I start school in the Fall, or can I work while in school to make up this portion? I planned on working in the Summer which I could make about $2000-$4000 during my 11 weeks before school starts, meaning I only have about $10756-$8756 leftover to pay. Is this sum something I can pay off through working or do I need this money immediately?


If I can pay this through working, here is what my plan was. My mother said she would be able to give me like $50 each week, which adds up to $2600 a year ($8756-6756 left). I was offered $3500 in work study money ($5756-$3756). I could probably get another job to float the leftover $5756-$3756. Does this sound viable or am I making some sort of error somewhere?


Also, I would be billed for the Fall semester in August (amount due by the 22nd) and for the Spring semester in January (again, due by the 22nd). If I cannot pay the full amount in August, I can enter a deferred payment plan where I am billed August, September, and October with 3 payments equaling the total due. For the Spring semester I would pay 3 smaller charges for January, February, and March.

[bler144]

Both your aid and tuition is likely structured by term. So if you're at a semester school half the tuition (and room/board if living on campus) would be applied at the start of fall, and the other half in spring.

So if the school is charging you room/board, they will assess roughly $19,373 in Aug, and half of the grant/scholarship, leaving a bill of $7991. Not counting what you need in pocket for books or incidentals/personal costs.

If you take the loan, net of loan fees, it would reduce the balance owed to around $5265. Plus what you need in pocket (money from mom). Say you have $2000 in pocket from summer, so $3265. Not counting the money you need for books.

The school is obligated by law to offer you a payment plan, and as you note they have. So for the sake of argument you might need $1100 per month for the first 3 months of the first term, and then you'd be earning Nov/Dec to save money towards spring, etc.

Can you earn that much through working? Well, at $10 per hour you'd need to work about 25-30 hours per week to get there depending. That's a pretty tall ask. If you can earn $20/hr suddenly that looks more feasible. If they're paying federal min. wage of $7.25 it just ain't happening.

Now, either:
1) You're looking at a low/mid endowment school that knows you have higher need but can't/won't meet it.
2) Your school is looking at your parents making a larger contribution, which they aren't doing.

I would talk to their financial aid office to make sure you understand if there are any options for increasing your aid, or at least what they're expectation is for you and your family. It's within their rights to expect your parents to carry some load, and it's within your parents' rights to refuse, but if you're trying to pick up the slack on your own...that's not easy.

In either case, if you aren't getting much support from parents, you're at least potentially setting yourself up for a hard road. Working long hours through school and still coming out with significant (likely $27,000) in debt on the back end, and that assumes the long working hours don't interfere with your grades or otherwise delay graduation.