Paying for School

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Hello, in this video we will explore the cost of attendance at MSU and ways to fill the gap.

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We will dive into direct and indirect expenses, finding your net cost, determining what your gap is.

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These are the funds that are not covered by your financial aid awards and a variety of ways to fill that gap that may work best for your family.

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This video is brought to you by the Office of Financial Aid and Education with offices in Montana Hall and the Student Union Building.

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What is the cost of attendance?

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The cost of attendance is divided into two categories, direct expenses.

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These costs are the ones most likely to be on your MSU bill and indirect expenses.

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Expenses that we budget for you that you will need to spend in order to be a successful student at MSU but are not going to be on your bill.

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The direct expenses include tuition and fees and food and housing.

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If you are living at home or living in an apartment off campus, food and housing will not be a direct expense.

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It will move to indirect expense.

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As you can see on the chart, we have divided the budgets for Montana residents, WUI and non resident students so you can find the column that applies to your situation and determine your housing, tuition and fees, books and supplies, and personal expenses.

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The total estimated cost of attendance is in the dark blue box at the bottom.

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Indirect expenses are things you will often have control over.

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You may choose to buy your books used or only get online versions, which may have a slightly different price point than if you buy new hard copies.

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Personal expenses may vary too, depending on travel costs, whether or not you'll have a car on campus, and your goals for your personal entertainment and spare time.

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How to determine the net cost?

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The gap Your estimated out of pocket expense?

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Step one, find your cost of attendance.

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Step 2 subtract your Gift Aid.

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That's any scholarships and grants that you have received from your cost of attendance.

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That gives you your net cost.

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Net cost is also known as the gap.

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Your next steps are to determine best methods to fill it, whether that is loans, family funds or income.

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Student employment 5 to 9 college savings plans or other resources you may have.

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Here is an example of a cost of attendance.

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The sheet below shows a typical out of state student cost of attendance.

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You can see we've divided by the year and the semester.

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It's important to remember that we send bills to students in August for fall semester and and January for spring semester, so your annual cost of attendance will be divided into two billing periods.

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As you can see, you can have a variation on things like room and board depending on whether you choose A5 or seven day meal plan and which particular dorm and room selection you make.

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Then you can see financial aid award, an achievement award we've put in here for an out of state student, subsidized and unsubsidized loans, and an example of a scholarship you might receive through your high school like the Kiwanis Club.

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The gap at the bottom shows what you need to find funds to cover.

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We also include a budget planning tool on our website that can help you to organize this information and also assemble all of the different sources that you might be using to pay for school.

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Ways to Fill the Gap There are a variety of strategies that you can use to fill the gap.

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Each family's choices are unique to them.

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Student Loan Options You may choose to use federal student loans through your FAFSA application.

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The parents may choose to apply for Parent PLUS Loan Important notes with the Parent PLUS Loan.

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They open each year on May 1st.

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The parent applies for the student, the the loan is in the parent's name.

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There are new loan limits of $20,000 per year and $65,000 per lifetime per student.

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Many families also chose to explore private loans.

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There are multiple options and we strongly recommend you do your research and some comparison shopping before you make your final selection.

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The MSU Office of Financial Aid and Education has some loan comparison tools on our website that you might find useful.

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You may also want to take a look at your state funded loan opportunities.

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Many states have created their own version of the FAFSA in which residents can apply for student loans at a really low interest rate in order to go to college.

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Some other strategies to fill the gap include scholarship resources, Ms.

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Use Cat Scholarship application is always something you should explore.

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You.

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Students want to apply annually between November 1st and January 31st for best opportunities at a departmental scholarship on campus.

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Outside scholarships should also be applied for annually, and these can include local, state, and national scholarship opportunities.

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We've included here a few websites to explore in your scholarship search.

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In addition to loans and scholarships, families can consider what their family resources might be.

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If you're going to be paying a portion of the tuition bill out of the parents income, a payment plan may work well for you.

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Students can set up a payment plan through their My MSU Billing and Payment portal.

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Many families have also created 5 to 9 college savings plans in anticipation of their student attending university.

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You can sit down with the budget planner and determine how you're going to distribute those funds.

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Are you going to use all of the funds in one year?

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Are you going to spread them out between all four years of school and student employment?

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Students should consider what they expect to earn over the summer and how they might be able to send some of their summer earnings towards covering college costs.

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Are you planning to have a job on or off campus during the semester?

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How much of your funds can you anticipate using to help pay your bill or cover your indirect expenses?

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Questions about paying for school?

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Please reach out to the MSU Financial Aid and Education Office by a phone, e-mail, or you can scan the QR code for our Paying for School Resources page, which has the budget planning tool as well as an Excel document that will allow you to project out for four years of budget planning.

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We also have our Paying for School Resource packet and some other opportunities to learn more about strategies for paying for school.

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Yeah.

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Hello Bobcats, Welcome to key information for your college financial success brought to you by the Office of Financial Aid and Education here at Montana State University.

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In this video, we will discuss several MSU resources that may be useful during your college career, such as the Special Conditions Appeal, Satisfactory Academic Progress, FERPA and emails, Unsatisfied Requirements, and other services.

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Our offices are located for financial aid in Montana Hall and for financial education in the Sub or Strand Union Building, Room 152.

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Special conditions appeal.

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If your family's financial situation has changed in the last 18 months, we want you to contact either of our offices, financial aid or education for this form.

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You will complete the form and gather all associated paperwork, which is going to be tax documentation and potential medical bills.

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You will upload the forms and documents as a single file to the secure document upload.

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If you are a fully Pell Grant eligible student, this form does not apply to you.

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We also do not want you to change your FAFA application, but instead do a special conditions appeal through Ms.

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U.S. financial Aid Office.

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SAP or Satisfactory Academic Progress.

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A student must maintain a 2 point O or higher after earning 60 credits and pass 67% of those attempted credits.

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What is SAP?

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SAP determines eligibility for financial aid awards.

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What do you do if you're in SAP?

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If you're in SAP, you can submit an application to appeal to the Office of Financial Aid.

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If approved, you will be able to keep your award moving forward.

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How does SAP affect my financial aid award?

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You can lose your grants, loans, and scholarships if you are in SAP.

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Failure to improve grades can also result in academic suspension.

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FERPA and e-mail tips.

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FERPA or the federal Education Rights to Privacy Act How it affects your family's communication to MSU Without a FERPA form signed by the student, a parent, guardian, or whomever the student would like cannot talk to MSU staff about their financial aid or bill.

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How to sign the FERPA Form FERPA forms are available to download on both the Financial Aid and student Accounts websites.

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Student can also sign the FERPA at our orientation as well.

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We also suggest that students do not use your high school e-mail is cause likely your high school will turn that e-mail off and financial aid will communicate with you via e-mail.

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Unsatisfied Requirements.

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If you are not seeing your financial aid award, head out to your My MSU.

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In the Financial Aid tab from the home page, you will see any unsatisfied requirements that include citizenship verification, loan requirements, identity verification, or dependency documents.

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You can submit these documents through Financial Aid Secure Document Upload or deliver them to Montana Hall Room 21.

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Other services offered by Financial Aid and Education.

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We offer a Bobcat Bridge loan.

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This bridges the gap while waiting for a financial aid refund.

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Please note this must be repaid within 90 days.

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We also have a book loan.

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A portion of your refund is applied to your CAT card for MSU bookstore purchases.

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As we've talked about a lot in this video, Financial Aid has a secure document upload on their homepage of their website.

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Financial Coaching.

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We strongly urge you to make a financial coaching appointment to discuss any questions you have.

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We can meet in person, virtually or via phone.

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We also will help you build a four year plan and we offer a Excel document that can help you do that on the Financial Education website.

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If there are any questions, please reach out to Financial Aid.

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There's the contact information or Financial Education to the right.

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You'll see that QR code.

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This is additional paying for school resources such as our one year budget planner, our four year budget planner that I was just talking about, and our budget resources in packet with fantastic information and clickable links that you very well may need.

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Thank you for joining us, Go Cats.

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Hi Bobcats, welcome to managing your scholarship awards brought to you by the office of Financial aid and Education here at Montana State University.

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In this video, we will explain accepting your admission scholarships, CAT scholarship awards, outside scholarships, tuition waivers, and other awards.

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The Office of Financial aid is located in room 21 of Montana Hall and Financial education is located in the sub or Strand Union building Sub 152.

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Let's talk about MSU scholarships such as premier achievement, Wooey or CAT scholarship, accepting premier achievement and Wooey awards.

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There's two ways to do this.

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Online acceptance steps is for the student to go to their My MSU, go to the admissions checklist, and they can accept the award there.

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They can also submit the paper acceptance.

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They can mail it or upload the signed paper copy to MSU's Financial Aid office, either via Room 21 in Montana Hall.

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Mail it or the secure document upload on Financial Aid's homepage.

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CAT Scholarship.

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This is a yearly scholarship application where students apply between November 1st and January 31st at the website listed on the screen.

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If you were awarded a CAT Scholarship, you would accept at that website, but don't forget that you're likely to have to write a thank you note.

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The screenshots to the right shows you what that looks like.

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Tuition waiver and other awards.

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If you've received a tuition waiver, Please remember tuition cannot be waived twice.

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Tuition only scholarships cannot stack on waivers.

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Below you will see the types of tuition waivers such as the Native American Tuition Waiver.

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This is handled by Financial Aid Montana Hall Room 21 if you are using veteran benefits or you're a dependent of a veteran using their benefits.

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This is handled by the Veteran Services office located in Romney Hall, Room 136.

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Montana 10 is an in state scholarship.

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This office is located in the sub room 370 if you need information on that scholarship.

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If you received an in state scholarship known as the MUS Honors, this award is accepted through award montanaportal@mus.edu.

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Other scholarships include Presidential Award or using Voc Rehab support Outside scholarships.

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Any scholarships not awarded by Montana State or the Montana University System?

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There's a scholarship reporting form that you must complete.

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This is located on Ms.

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U.S. financial Aid's homepage.

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You report the yearly amount.

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Accuracy is important because it can affect your Pell Grant.

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Also, communication with your scholarship award organization.

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Make sure they have your correct name, MSU address, and your student ID Find out when your reward will be sent to MSU.

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If it will arrive after bills are due, which often happens, you'll just let Financial Aid know that.

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Any questions on this video or any of our videos, please reach out to the Office of Financial Aid at the contact information you see on the screen or the Office of Financial Education.

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The QR code to your right is additional paying for school resource that we have on our website.

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This will include our budget planner and our resource guide with very good information and clickable links.

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Thanks for joining Go Cats.

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Welcome to Understanding the FAFSA.

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In this video, we will explore what the FAFSA is, what awards are included in the FAFSA, and why it's important to do it every year.

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This video is brought to you by the Office of Financial Aid and Education, which has offices in Montana Hall and the SUB.

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What is the FAFSA?

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The Free Application for Federal Student Aid can be found at www.studentaid.gov.

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If this is your first time applying for the FAFSA, you will need to create your own FSA ID and password.

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Both the student and the contributing parent need to do this before you start your application process.

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It's important to do your application every year to find out about your financial aid award.

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That includes Pell Grants, work study and student loans.

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Doing it every year will increase your opportunities for scholarships.

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What awards are included in the FAFSA?

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Pell Grant is need based aid that you do not need to pay back.

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It's awarded based on your financial need as described in your tax returns.

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The SEOG grant is another need based grant that is available to Pell eligible students who meet the priority deadline each year.

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MSU's priority deadline is December 1st.

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Work Study is need based aid for employment on campus and it's select off campus employers.

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If you're interested to see if you qualify for work study, contact MSU's Financial Aid office to determine your eligibility.

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Subsidized loans are need based loans that do not accrue interest while you are enrolled in six or more credits.

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Unsubsidized loans are financial aid that is awarded to everyone.

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These low interest loans will accrue interest while you're a student.

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What should you do if your financial situation has changed between that tax year you are using for your FAFSA and your application?

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We offer the Special Conditions Appeal.

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This form, which is available through the MSU Office of Financial Aid and Education, can help determine if you may qualify for additional aid if specific conditions have changed in your family financial situation.

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Please contact Financial Aid and Education to see if you qualify for the form and to have any questions you may have answered.

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You will complete the form and gather any associated paperwork and upload it through the document upload on the Financial Aid homepage or you can bring it to Montana Hall, Room 1, Room 21.

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If you have already award been awarded full Pell Grant, this application does not apply.

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Please do not try to change the information in your FAFSA application because your financial situation has changed.

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Please do the special conditions appeal navigatingstudentaid.gov.

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You will login to create your account or at any point to view your personal dashboard and check on your loan status in the Login Create Account area.

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Once you have your FSAID and password you can then complete the FAFSA form.

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The application form is located in the drop down under FAFSA form.

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If you have questions or need assistance with your FAFSA application, special conditions appeal, or understanding your aid award, please reach out to MSU's Financial Aid and Education Office by phone, e-mail, or you can scan our QR code for additional paying for school resources.

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Hello Bobcats, welcome to your financial aid award Today.

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This video will review the federal financial aid awards and how to apply them to your bill.

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We'll talk about FAFSA awards, accepting your Pell Grant, accepting your federal Direct student loans, work study and federal Parent PLUS loans.

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This is brought to you by the Office of Financial Aid and Education here at MSU.

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We're located in Montana Hall for financial aid and in the Strand Union or the SUB for the Office of Financial Education.

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So let's talk about what FAFSA awards first, the Gift Aid or free money grants and work study.

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Pell Grant is a need based funds that do not have to be paid back.

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SEOG grant are need based funds.

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These are limited awards but they also do not need to be paid back.

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Work study, need based opportunity for on campus employment.

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And then also out of the FASFA comes FASFA loans.

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The Direct Subsidized Loan, which is need based does not accrue interest while enrolled in over 6 credits.

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The Direct Unsubsidized Loan is awarded to everyone.

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It does accrue interest once used.

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Federal Parent PLUS loans are loans the parents take on behalf of the student.

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They do accrue interest and have higher origination fees.

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Next we're going to talking about if you were awarded Pell Grant, how do you accept it?

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You would go out to your My MSU Financial Aid Award tab and then click on Offer.

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You will then Scroll down to accept or decline your student loans and when you hit the submit button below that, the pop up boxes which will happen twice our terms and conditions will appear.

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Please check both.

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Click the box at the bottom and submit.

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You've now accepted your Pell Grant accepting your federal student loans.

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Budgeting for these funds, you can choose the amount of the loan funds you would like to receive.

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Please note that if you're in less than 12 credits, your loan amount will be reduced based on your enrolled credits.

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If you're in less than 6 credits, you are not eligible for federal student aid.

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Accepting your award, you will log into your MY MSU Financial Aid tab.

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Click over to offer.

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You can choose to accept, decline, or modify the amount.

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Once again, you will hit submit.

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Check the boxes at the bottom of the pop up, which will happen twice, and then hit submit.

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This is also the place you check if there are any unsatisfied requirements.

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If you're taking loans for the first times, there are two things you need to do at studentaid.gov.

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Complete entrance counseling and master promissory note.

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This screen shows you where to do that at studentaid.gov.

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And again, this is only for students the first time they are taking federal student loans to to talk about whether you qualify for work study.

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Work study is a need based aid awarded on your FASTA application.

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To see if you qualify, you can call, e-mail, or drop in to the financial aid office here at Montana State.

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Work Study provides opportunities for on campus and select off campus employment.

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Federal Parent PLUS Loan This is a loan that the parent takes out on behalf of the student and is non transferable to the student.

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To accept the Parent PLUS Loan, the student must accept terms and conditions that we talked about on previous slides.

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In the upper right hand corner of this slide, you will see where the parent applies for it.

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This application opens up every May and the parent logs in with their FSAID at studentaid.gov.

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Interest rates are fixed and set annually by Congress.

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They do have larger origination fees than the Student Loans.

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New this year, parents are limited to a loan cap of $20,000 per year per student and 65,000 lifetime limit per student.

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If the parent is taking the Parent PLUS loan, they will have their own master promissory note to do at studentaid.gov.

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Parents can select to defer the payment until the student graduates or pay while the student is in school.

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Thank you for watching this video brought to you by the Office of Financial Aid and Education here at Montana State University.

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There is our contact information and the QR code on the screen will bring you to additional paying for school resources such as our budget planner and clickable links in our resource resource packet.

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Thank you for joining us, Go Cats.