My family’s gross income is roughly $405,000 a year. My dad’s gross income is $360,000 a year as a physician and my mom’s gross income is $45,000 as a part-time healthcare worker. My dad used to work for VA hospitals, so I’m thinking that might catch FAFSA’s interest.
My mother is also currently enrolled in an online bachelor’s program while working part-time in order to become eligible for a full-time day shift job as an MT which brings in an average of $60,000 a year. I’m also thinking this might help with financial aid because she’s currently a college student.
The downside is, our household consists of 4 people with me and my younger brother being the only “dependents” so we have way more money than we need to live comfortably and afford college.
My brother and I both have plenty of money saved up for college, but I still want to know if it’s possible to get anything at all from FAFSA or other financial aid. I have already sent in my deposit fee to a college which is $67,000 a year for tuition, housing, and other random fees… Despite having money saved up, a high income, and a small family, would we benefit from any financial aid?
**Please keep in mind that I’m not trying to say I’m needy or deserving of financial aid!! My family can afford to put me through 4 years of college without penny pinching or selling their cars and I’m grateful of that. I’m just curious about what my chances are with financial aid in a small, high income household! I hope I don’t come off as spoiled or demanding of anything.
It’s very, very unlikely that you would receive any need-based aid based on your parents’ income.
Also, you don’t sound spoiled. I don’t blame you for asking this question. It’s smart to try to save as much money as possible. I suggest you contact your school to see what your options are (such as if you may be eligible for another scholarship).
I see- unsubsidized loans won’t help because we can pay for 4 years of school out of pocket anyway. Taking loans out would be pointless… Thanks for the reply though!
Federal grants you get from filing FAFSA are only for low income students.The only way you could have received some scholarship is for merit based not need based. So you can apply to schools that give merit aid where you are in the top of the student pool. There are colleges that give automatic merit based on your stats and there are colleges where merit is competitive. This can give you anywhere from 10k to full tuition depending on if you pick the right school. But you can’t pick any school you want and expect any aid to be forthcoming.
Another way to save is to pick colleges that cost less.
Sometimes you can pick up small scholarships but most scholarships have a need component, therefore helping a student who would not go to college without it. Not one really wants to make a foundation to give funds to well off people.
As I stated before, I don’t see myself as needy of financial aid. I was just wondering if certain little details could get me any aid despite my household income. I just don’t want to go halfway through college and realize that I could’ve been eligible for financial aid and didn’t take the opportunity.
Nothing wrong with asking but 1) it comes from the school, that’s why I mentioned picking the schools that give it for your stats is key or 2) some outside small scholarships are on merit only like rotary club and you have to apply for a bunch of those.
@OP, I get the impression that u think college FA budgets are limitless. They aren’t. Colleges have to carefully dole out FINITE funds, such that even truly needy students often times don’t get adequate aid.
@GMTplus7 why are you being so rude? He clearly just wanted information. It’s not like he went and said “We have three cars to pay for for. We have our vacation home to pay for. We have my grandmas car insurance to pay for. Also my parents pay for a graduate student’s HOUSE in LA.” He clearly just wanted information and if it didn’t work out in his favor, he was prepared for that. Go take a nap.
I’m pretty sure you can get a loan through FAFSA of $5,500 for the first year, and a bit more in subsequent years. I don’t think there is an income limitation on that. But you do need to file the FAFSA to be eligible. Also, consider offering to pay for part of your tuition from summer earnings at a job. Your parents will be impressed!
Really, if you had wanted to ease the financial costs of college for your family, you could have aoolied to schools where merit aid is awarded. But you didn’t.
Did you apply for any smaller, local scholarships that require applications and are not need based? You might want to consider that. It won’t be a huge amount of money, and it will only be for this one year…but you might get one or more of those.
@thumper1 - I did apply to a school with merit based scholarships. Since it is pretty selective, especially with the major I applied for, I received a small merit based scholarship of around $4,000 a year.
@GMTplus7 I was mistaken about financial aid then, I guess. I know some people that get small amounts of aid with a $150,000 annual household income. $150,000 a year is less than half of my family’s income but it’s far from being “needy”! That’s why I was just wondering. I’m only 18… I don’t know much about this topic
