<p>can a student who's parents earn approx 100,000/year receive financial aid? my parents will only pay instate tuition (UC or CSU) so if i wanna get out (which probably won't happen) I have to either get a nice scholarship or financial aid.</p>
<p>Read the thread "help with parents". It poses the same question.</p>
<p>It's not quite that simple...</p>
<p>Have your parents fill out the FAFSA Expected Family Contribution calculator here:
<a href="http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml</a></p>
<p>That will give you a rough estimate of how much your family will be expected to contribute to your education on an annual basis. It considers assets, not just income.</p>
<p>Once you have a number you can get a better idea of how much you might have to pay. In a perfect world, let's say you have an EFC of $20,000. That means if you go to a private school, and the total cost of attendance is $45,000, they will give you $25,000 in financial aid. </p>
<p>Here's the problem though: many schools do not promise to meet full need (in other words, they don't promise to give you $25,000 in aid), many schools will give you whopper loans as part of your aid, and some schools will require you to fill out an even more in-depth financial aid form called the CSS Profile, which may come back with a n EFC even higher than $20,000.</p>
<p>Your EFC is very likely to be higher than the in state costs of UC or CSU, so if your parents will not pay more you will either need a very good merit scholarship or you will have to take out loans. </p>
<p>Good time to start thinking about this stuff though!</p>