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School Psychology Program -
New Student Guide
MONEY/EXPENSES
Paying Tuition
Financial
Aid
Books
School
Psychology Organization Membership Fees
Other
Expenses
International Student Expenses
Paying Tuition
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One
more additional fee that all first year students are responsible for paying
is a $37 student activities fee. For
your knowledge, last year’s cohort was required to pay this fee before
they were allowed to register, so we recommend that you have it paid on the
first day of orientation to avoid any complications.
- once you log in, click on "tuition, fees, & payment"
- then click "pay by credit card"
- next, in the pull down menu, select Fall 2006
- if you have a 1-yr old or more FL license, pay approximately $854
- if you are out of state, pay approximately $1443
- To get your exact amount owed, you must check on your specific amount owed in OASIS "View my account summary."
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If
you can pay these fees before orientation starts, it will probably make your
life much easier in the long run. However, you may need to wait until loans or fellowship funds are disbursed. Make sure your loans or fellowship show on your financial aid statement in OASIS. You may need to get an extension from the Financial Aid office if funds do not disburse before tuition deadline, so that you can register (and stay registered) for classes.
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Out-of-state
checks may not clear for 5 days, so it's better to get a bank check to
deposit when you get here rather than writing a check from your old checking
account to open your new one. In
addition, once you deposit any kind of check (either in or out of state)
into a new bank account, they may hold your check for as long as 30
days—this may affect payment of rent, etc. so plan accordingly.
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Financial Aid
If you are applying for financial aid, be sure to submit your
FAFSA EARLY! The sooner your budget is determined, the sooner you will receive your
loan check.
Each student is assigned a financial aid counselor. Make sure you find out who that person is. You can either call or drop by the Financial Aid Office to find out.
Students are assigned counselors by the last four digits of their social
security number.
Make sure you tell your counselor that you are taking 19 graduate
credit hours. The Financial Aid
Office does not have access to this information. Financial aid budgets are based on a standard of 9 graduate
credit hours. Inform your counselor
IMMEDIATELY that you will be taking more than double the amount of credits.
NOTE: Please
be aware that the amount of loan money you accept (or are eligible to receive)
will be substantially different once your tuition waivers go through. For example, one of our students was offered and accepted a Federal
Stafford Loan totaling $8500 for the 2003-2004 school year. After the student’s tuition waivers went through, the government
adjusted the student’s “perceived financial need”, and reduced the loan
from $8500 to $2200 for that current school year.
You will need to fill out a Budget Adjustment Form to account for
these extra credits in your eligibility for more loan money. Your counselor may not suggest this to you as an option. Be sure to ask your counselor about this form and have him/her explain to
you how to fill one out. You will
not be allowed to submit this until approximately the second week of classes,
and it takes about 2-4 weeks to process. Do
not plan on seeing any financial aid funds for about the first month of classes. Also, save all of your receipts for books and school supplies. You will need them for your budget adjustment. Also, financial aide loans are disbursed in two segments. One right after your adjustment goes through, and the other at the
midpoint of the semester.
Make sure you set the above suggestions in motion before your loan
check is processed. If not, you may
find that your loan disbursement is less than you had anticipated.
- Last
but not least, if you do happen to experience financial aid difficulties –
which most students will not! - be
sure to constantly keep track of progress being made. Call your counselor weekly or daily, if you have to. Again, most students will
not experience financial aid difficulties. The above suggestions are
only recommended in the event that you do.
- Whether you experience difficulties or ot, it is highly recommended that you keep up with your account on OASIS.
- For
more information regarding financial aid, go to this link: http://usfweb2.usf.edu/finaid/
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Other Expenses
You should expect many expenses when you first
arrive to Tampa. Here are as many as we can think of. (Don’t shoot the
messenger! We thought it would be better for you to be prepared and to know what
to expect).
- Parking
Permit for one year: $105 (2003-2004)
- Health
Insurance: varies
- Deposits
for apartments: varies
- Move-in
expenses: varies
- Electric
bill: Turn-on fees of up to $250 dollars
- Phone,
Internet, and cable: Fees are high per month. Many consider using a cell phone as both home and business phone. Different complexes provide packages for internet and cable so
inquire to see if there are any discounts.
Furniture:
It takes a while to get acclimated to the various stores in Tampa and the
surrounding areas. Note that
you can get some pretty nice furniture from Rooms-To-Go for very, very LOW
prices!
There’s a Discount
Rooms-To-Go on Rt 4 going East. And oftentimes they have special deals where you don’t have to
pay for over 2 years. Also
check out the Closest
Costco or Sam’s Club—they also have some
furniture. Other furniture stores in the area include: American
Signature Home, Thomasville
Furniture, Pier 1 Imports, Pottery Barn, Restoration
Hardware, and Z Gallery.
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Books
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Expect to pay between $1100 - $1400 on books for your first semester. You
are also going to need to have a good stopwatch, a clipboard, and a
walkman/tape recorder for a class first semester. Second semester, you need
a tape player that plays out loud. This
is a lot, but some of these books and materials will be used in later
classes, and this is the most you will ever pay for books. You can also ask advanced students to borrow some of their books. If you join NASP, you will find a number of books that are about $15
less than in the bookstore.
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To
be perfectly honest, the majority of us purchase books online rather than
from the USF bookstore. With some books, if you order them in bulk
directly from the publisher, the books will be less expensive. This
won't really be that feasible for the 1st semester, but we definitely
recommend doing that second semester. Other places that we have found
textbooks at a cheaper rate are half.com and amazon.com.
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The books you will need for first semester may change by year, depending on release of new versions or choices by the professor. To find out the books currently required for each class, vist www.campusstores.com/sftampa/index.asp. You will need the course number and section to find a listing of required books for each course. After you regster, you can use OASIS for a listing of required books for each class under the link "Reserve Textbooks" at the start of each semester.
- We strongly advise investing in binders for classes. We recommend 2 inch binders for Assessment I and II, Statistics, and Graduate Seminar. 1.5 inch binders will be fine for the other classes. Take into account how much you estimate yourself spending on
school supplies.
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School Psychology Organization
Membership Information
The
School Psychology Department strongly urges you to join NASP and FASP.
You may do so at www.nasponline.org and www.fasp.org. Just click on MEMBERSHIP and follow the prompts. NASP student membership fees are $50 and FASP student
membership fees are $15. If you do not have Internet access, you may join NASP
over the phone by calling (301)-657-0270.
The websites also have information about upcoming the NASP
and FASP annual conventions. This
year, the FASP convention will be held November 5-8, 2003 (in Tampa Bay Area)
while the NASP convention will be held March 30-April 3, 2004 (in Dallas). Many of our students attend (and present at) these conventions.
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International Student Expenses
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