助学金组成：部分 1

we are here with Karen Cooper the director of financial aid here at Stanford University and Karen thanks so much for being with us today oh you're very welcome Karen one of the big things that students often struggle with in the financial aid process is they receive offer letters from several different schools and they come in several different formats they all look different so as a student you know what should I be doing to make sense of this information and organize it for myself so I can actually compare them across each other that's a really good question so I think the important thing to do is is pull out the information that you're going to compare from each one and you might have to search around for it but what I would start with is the estimated cost of attendance so almost every school is going to have a full estimated cost of attendance right there on their award letter for you and that includes these components like tuition room and board the things that we are billing students for as well as allowances for books personal expenses transportation so I want you to think about each one of those items and think about whether that's a realistic estimate of the costs at that institution for you great so when I receive a financial aid award letter they may give me the estimated cost of attendance well they always include all of these items in their estimated costs they may not break down all of the details for you and you know some schools might include just the direct costs the tuition and housing expenses that they're billing you for so you might have to go look for what's a good book allowance at that institution but if it's not directly there on their award letter it should be on the school's website somewhere okay so the first thing I do is I really figure out what is the full cost to attend this university tuition room board books transportation other costs add that all together I've got my estimated cost that's right where do I go from there well I think the next thing to look at is the the free money but where's the good money that they're giving you that they've offered to you so you're going to want to look for any grants and scholarships and usually those are very clearly identified on an award letter so the total amount scholarships from the school if there are any federal grants being offered or state grants or any outside sources of scholarship funds great and so once I have my estimated cost of attendance and I have my grants and scholarships what do I do next so the difference between those two figures I think is a really important thing to look at as you're comparing from school to school because whatever that cost of attendance is less all of the scholarships and grants you've been offered that is the amount that's going to come out of your pocket one way or another net cost is another thing that that's often labeled now it may come you may be offered loans or work-study to help meet those net costs but anything else that's not covered by grants and scholarships you're gonna be responsible for in one way or another okay so after we get that net cost number before we talk about my family contributing which isn't you know probably the toughest thing to do what are some of the different options that the school would give me so I think the next thing to think about is have you been offered work-study eligibility an opportunity work during the year on campus that allows you as the student perhaps to cover some of those personal expenses that are listed in the cost of attendance and I'm still during work-study I'm still a full-time student that's right so you know typically work-study jobs students are working 7 to 10 hours a week so a reasonable amount of work that allows you to stay engaged with your studies so in addition to work-study I know that often times on financial aid packages you know there's a Stafford loan or a Perkins loan listed what exactly are those loans so those are loans that the school is suggesting that you will need to help cover that net cost and they've determined that amount based on the information that you've provided on your financial aid applications so it's the amount that they're suggesting it doesn't necessarily mean that that's all that's available so you might if you are thinking about maybe borrowing more or working less those kinds of options that you have available to you you can talk to the actually at office about that so now that we understand work-study and for the Stafford and Perkins Loans that might be out there how do we actually get from net costs to what my family is actually going to have to pay on a yearly basis right so you know your net cost is just the overall picture of what you're you and your family are going to be responsible for but you the student may be able to pick up some of that net cost with the work-study and loans so you'll want to subtract those amounts from the net cost and that remaining amount is what you need to sit down with your parents and have a conversation about how are we as a family going to cover these costs generally the school is expecting that that remaining amount would be picked up by your parents