<p>How is the aid going to be for me since my parent's make no income at all since they both don't work. My father was in an automobile accident that left him paralyzed waist up and my mother's been helping him since last year..</p>
<p>People with low income and low assets have a low expected family contribution (EFC) toward the cost of college. So in your situation, it depends on the assets since the income is certainly low. </p>
<p>If you do have a low EFC, the other thing that matters is how much of your remaining financial need ends up being met by your colleges. You can look up each college at the College Board web site (type the college name into QuickFinder and then look at the “Costs and Financial Aid” section) to find out what percentage of need it meets on average. If you apply to colleges that usually meet all or most of their students’ financial need, you’ll probably be in good shape.</p>
<p>Make sure that you have at least one financial safeties – colleges that you know you will get accepted to, and also know you can afford. Typically such colleges are 4-year or 2-year public institutions that you can commute to.</p>
<p>It is worth it to pay the $15 to access (until next Aug.) the U.S. News premium college on-line guide because it will give you detailed financial aid information about thousands of colleges. This includes what percentage of students who qualify for aid get aid; how much on average of their financial need is met by the college; and how much the average amount of loans the students take out is. </p>
<p>Also check the archives of this forum because there have been many posts that gave good advice to students with very low incomes. </p>
<p>In general, the colleges that offer the very best aid packages are the most difficult ones to gain admission to: Harvard, Yale, Amherst, etc. Virtually all public institutions are not able to meet 100% of students’ financial aid: Many can only meet 60% or less of students’ need, and much of that financial aid may be in the form of loans.</p>
<p>Virtually all public institutions reserve their need-based aid for in-state students, too. It also may be hard for out of state students to get merit aid.</p>