UT Tyler FAFSA workshop!

Have you been making sure you turn in a FAFSA every year? If not, you may be losing valuable financial aid from the University of Texas at Tyler! Not sure how to fill one out? No problem! UT Tyler is holding a workshop to help you out!

More Things To Do With Your Financial Aid Refund

   So we've had one blog about things you can do with your University of Texas at Tyler Financial Aid refund so why not another!

   I advocate using money like the Financial Aid refund to do things like clear things off you Life's To Do List. So, what kinds of things are that?

   1 ) Set aside the money or put up the $$$ directly to pay your phone bill for the semester ... or two. If you are like me then you don't like being without a phone or your ability to text. If your phone bill has a flat rate then just multiply the bill by however many months you don't want to worry about it!

   2) Paying your rent ahead of time ... and then some. So I know plenty of people who use their Financial Aid for rent, however a trend pops up from time to time ( one even I am guilty of ) - poor planning. If you're staying here for a 4 month semester then I'd say set aside two extra months worth of rent if you can spare it. Here is why ~ Summer courses and financial buffers. Basically, there are a plethora of reasons why you might wind up not having Financial Aid for Summer if you need the courses. Now, the issue is - how do you KNOW if you'll need them? Well ... you probably don't. Things come up, life happens, and sometimes you need a summer class to graduate on time. But if you don't get enough financial to cover school AND your housing? If you have some $$$ set aside NOW then you will be OK in the future.

 If you are in the Fall semester then you saved money now will add to your coffers in Spring!

3) Use the money to experiment with setting up a good cooking/shopping plan now. This one is something I never did until recently but I am glad I did. There were always dishes and things I wanted to cook and try but sometimes buying the foundation ingredients to test/try some dishes is not economically feasible. BUT, when Financial Aid refunds hit? Use the time now while you can to test new foods, see what you might be able to add to your diet later when things get sparse, etc...

4) Save your money and do some research into building a new PC instead of buying one direct. So, this needs a lot of homework and research. You might need a friend of family member to help with this ( however having your friends help you with this project is tremendous fun ) but you can wind up saving a LOT of money.

   Now, I say this as somebody who likes and has owned many, many Apple products. You do not need a 1,500 laptop for school if all you want to do is write papers, Skype, and use Facebook. Arguably gaming can be be done on laptops but for half of that 1,500 dollars you can build a desktop that will rip apart any game on the market. Period.

5) Save up a little money for a road trip of some kind! This one will need you to save up a various amount depending on what you want to do, however if you can afford it? Go see somewhere neat in your state! See your capital, visit a museum somewhere other than where you live! Maybe even pool in $$$ with friends and go somewhere together?

Summer Plans

Aaaah, Summer - that word tends to bring up thoughts of swimming pools, beaches, watermelon, and road trips. For some however it also means school.

I am not saying that this is the case all of the time, but many people take courses over the summer to get ahead early, pad their GPA, or just for ... well, for fun!

At UTT summer is divided into two sections, Summer Section #1 and Summer Section #2. Summer #1 basically overs June and Summer #2 basically covers July. This summer I am excited because I will be taking  some courses that are new for me, mainly because I am a Graduate Student.

As we explore Summer together, have fun. Some of us will be having fun in class while some will be having fun outside in the wide world!

How To Survive and Understand Financial Aid

How To Survive and Understand Financial Aid!

   Look, between you and me and the monitor? College costs money. Buckets and buckets of money for some, or easily managed payments for others. Every school is different and not every school costs the same … but it still costs.

   Are we all still okay? Have we survived the first obstacle in this talk on Financial Aid?  Awesome!
   The biggest thing to understand about financial aid requests is that it takes time, paperwork ( sort-of ), and the patience of a saint to get through the whole process. Sometimes you will need to have access to documents and forms that you, by yourself, do not normally handle depending on your age, mainly IRS forms.

   Here I will detail the steps you’ll need to go through in about as much sense as the process can be translated. It’s not AS hard as deciphering hieroglyphs into swhaili and then into English … but its tricky all the same.

   First – Have all the records of your income that you or your parents have. Be sure to know if you are claimed by your family as a dependent! This is a HUGE deal.  You’ll need to make sure you have the official forms because you will need *very* specific information from these documents when we get to the second step.

   Second – Go to FAFSA.ed.gov  Here you will make an account, get your 4-digit PIN, and then you’ll register your current financial “status” based on your income/dependency, etc… You’ll be asked a seemingly endless series of questions pertaining to how much money you or your family have made, considerations for differing things, etc… You will be able to “register” that you want this information sent to the school of your choice so it’s understood that step is done after you’ve confirmed your offer of admission with your university.

   Third, see what your college is able to provide you. For UT Tyler the website will be https://www.uttyler.edu/financialaid/scholarships/index.php . Here you can find the numerous options you have for finding scholarships.

   Quick! Do you know the difference between a LOAN, and GRANT, and a SCHOLARSHIP? Grants and Scholarships do not have to be paid back so it’s free money ( well, kind of – some Grants/Scholarships have a dependency clause stating that to renew the funds you need to get a certain GPA, for example ) for you to use. Loans a are trickier and they will have to be paid back in time, however you have six months after graduation ( or between your last college class taken ) to start making payments.

   CAUTION: If possible, always be careful with taking out Loans for college needlessly. The temptation to just be given an extra 5-10,000 a year can really help your life out, however if you do not plan for paying this money back ( even in small 150 dollar payments a month )  they can become trouble down the road.

   The last step is to constantly check in with the Financial Aid office(s) for your college, however please be courteous to these hard working people and if they say “It will be a week before we know anything,” give them a week.

Writing, or ... THAT STUFF I HATE! Pt. 1

Procrastination, Perfectionism, and Pretentiousness – As once said by C. Montgomery Burns, these are the Three Demons you must slay if you wish to be good at business. Okay, so he was talking fictitiously about BUSSINESS, not Writing, and his Demons are not the ones in the clip … but it was a good excuse to bring in Burns. Anyway, the idea however of slaying metaphorical demons to succeed is not “new” ( thanks, Evangrius! ) so I have qualified some slayable-monsters that I think might get in the way of what is a genuine success at the art of writing … writing ANYTHING, really.

UT Tyler Summer Checklist

Now that the stress of finals is over and summer is here it’s all too easy to sit back and enjoy the break and forget to prepare for the fall semester. So here’s a quick checklist of things you might want to do before the fall semester starts up.

• Register for classes here. This one seems a little obvious, but there’s always a massively long line in front of the registrar’s office the first week of classes.
• Look up what books you’re going to need and see where you can buy them. The bookstore on campus is always a good place to go, or if you would rather buy them online then Amazon and Chegg are both a good place to look. 
•       Fill out your FAFSA. Remember, you have to fill a new FAFSA every school year.
    ·     Renew your school parking permit. With the school restriping the parking lots on campus, parking will be easier than ever.
     ·   Go ahead and skim through your text books for next semester. Don’t try and understand the material. Just try and get a basic understanding of what concepts the class will be covering. I find this to be very helpful when I’m taking classes that I have no previous background in, like Engineering Fundamentals of Thermodynamics.         

$$$$

It's that time of the year again for college students to start filing taxes and thinking about how they are going to pay for school for the following school year. Most college students will apply for FREE Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). This is the application that allows students to get government funding and scholarships to pay for their education. Every time you file your FAFSA it is good for one year starting July 1 until June 30 of the following year. The funds you receive based off your FAFSA are need based. You can't file your FAFSA until you have filed your taxes because it all runs together! The FAFSA is the application that 99% of the universitys and colleges accept. There are a few that do not accept it but those schools are very rare!
The FAFSA is available online at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/.(NOT .com, NOT .org, NOT .anything else!) There are several documents you will need to have avaliable during your filing time. You will need to have your parents information as well if they are the ones who support you.

The documents are:
1. Social Security card
2. Driver’s license (if any)
3. Permanent Resident Receipt Card (if applicable)
4. 2011 W-2 forms (if available) and other 2011 records of money earned from jobs and other sources
5. Income tax returns – use 2010 tax returns to help with estimating income earned in 2011 or use 2011 income tax returns, if available
6. Records of child support paid (if applicable)
7. Current stock, bond, and other investment records (if applicable)
8. Records of benefit information (including Social Security, veterans’ and welfare benefits).(if applicable)
9. Current business and farm records (if applicable)
10. Current bank statements (if applicable)

I know it's a lot but it is all neccesary to be able to successfully complete the process.

The priority deadline for filing your FAFSA to attend the University of Texas at Tyler is April 1. For UT-Tyler the average financial aid package is $9,062 which covers almost all of your schooling because to attend UT-Tyler and live on campus it costs about $9,927.

For any questions you may have about financial aid at UT-Tyler you can visit the Financial Aid homepage! For any FAQs about the FAFSA you can click here!

GOOD LUCK with your filings!

How To Apply For Financial Aid

The first step for any student to possibly receive any financial aid is to fill out the FASFA. Applications are available on the Internet at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov or get an application mailed to you by calling 1-800-433-3243. UT Tyler's school code when filling out the FASFA is 011163. The FASFA is processed through the system, a report is made accessible to the student at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov. You have to be admitted to UT-Tyler before your FAFSA is processed by the Financial Aid Office. The schools listed on the FAFSA will be given the processed information electronically. The report provides the student's Expected Family Contribution, which the school will use to decide the student's eligibility.

Types of Financial Aid:

Grants

Loans

Scholarships

Work Study Programs

Financial Aid Contact Information:

The University of Texas at Tyler
Office of Financial Aid
3900 University Blvd.
Tyler, Tx 75799
1-800-UT TYLER

Office Hours:
Monday - Friday

8 a.m - 5 p.m.

Ph: 903.566.7180
Fx: 903.566.7183

financialaid@uttyler.edu