Financial Aid/Federal Loan Situation as a part time student
Here to share some info that I think is crucial for part time students who have to consider federal loans and the ramifications of the OBBBA on graduate/professional loan caps.
This cycle, I was accepted into a school in NYC with a non conditional scholarship in a part time program that covers about a third of tuition every year for the 4 years a PT program requires. After getting accepted and doing the calculations, I figured that I could easily get the remainder of tuition, fees and cost of books, etc covered with the $50k a year federal loan cap. NEGATIVE GHOST RIDER. After filing for FAFSA and receiving the full scope of my financial aid package, I was offered a maximum of $38k a year via federal loans. Leaving me with around a $5k gap a year for tuition, not including loan fees, etc. Not a massive gap but large enough for someone living paycheck to paycheck. The package outline also recommended taking out about $27k a year in private loans to cover the tuition gap and help pay for cost of living expenses (I am not factoring in COL expenses because again, I’m a PT student who will be working FT). I called the financial aid office to have them walk me through this and was shook.
• Apparently, the government requires schools to pro-rate the amount of loans available to PT students, so the full $50k a year cap only applies to full time students.
• What IS available to PT students does not seem to have an exact formula. According to the financial aid office, there was so little guidance provided to them by the government that they essentially GUESSED at what the numbers are based on current guidance, though they believe that their margin for error is slim to none. If the cap given to me changes come July, when the caps go into official effect, it would be incremental at best.
• There is no ability to negotiate loans nor scholarship to get tuition fully covered and they are simply recommending private loans as a means to close the gap.
All of this said, so little seems to be known by schools and applicants about the federals cap fine print, especially as it applies to part time students. I’m likely not in a position to take out private loans so I will be spending the summer hustling to figure out a way to pay for this gap in costs.
It’s an incredibly demoralizing thing, to have finally gotten to the promised land of being accepted during this horrifying this cycle, just to be met with these restrictions. Law school and higher education is truly becoming only accessible to those with familial support or high achievers who managed to get a full ride (congrats to those who did!)
Hope this is helpful to anyone entering a PT program this fall and beyond. We persist past the horrors. ❤️