Hi–I’m just starting to learn this business! Oldest is a 9th grader.
I came up with some surprising findings today when querying some local Us.
I was running the numbers thru the online aid estimators at the nearest two big Us. In our case, U of WA and WA State U. The numbers came out similarly for the two. We’re low-income, and with fafsa we qualify for simplified needs test, so for a “traditional student” (living in dorms or apt) the estimated costs came out to be about 26K, with 2K EFC, 8K estimated loans, and 16K estimated grants/scholarships. And if he got any outside scholarships, this would probably just lessen the loan amount first, according to the UW financial aid office.
Now, if my son instead lives at home, then there would be about 8K LESS than this in costs, so there would be no reason or need to get loans. But then if he gets any scholarships, my understanding is that they would then be taken out of grants, because there are no loans.
Is this a correct analysis? Am I missing something here? (Would the EFC be lessened by scholarships? Nobody mentioned that to me.)
If this is correct, then there may be no financial reason to apply for scholarships if he lives at home.
Run the net price calculator again for living at home. Do not assume it would only be loans that would be taken away.
Many schools do it by percentage- in your case it looks like 2/3 grant, 1/3 loan.
So your aid might look like this:
Cost 18 K to live at home
EFC 2 K
Need 16 K
And 1/3 2/3 might be 5K loan, 11K grant
In general, yes, outside scholarships increase your expected family contribution. And in general, colleges take away loans instead of grants so there is an incentive to apply for outside scholarships, but this can vary by school.
Neither U has an option for online estimation of live-at-home aid. Their online calcs only do “traditional student.” Maybe they’re hiding something? UW aid officer emailed me today in response to the loan/grant deduction question: “We would look to reduce Loans first, when possible, before reducing grant-based aid sources. There are some small limitations to that, but in general, we reduce Loans first.”
But, like you imply, this may be referring to one particular package offered. I’ll ask him the “what if” on the live-at-home scenario.
If the scholarship is based on merit and the school doesn’t give their own institutional grants, then it might be that the aid stays the same for commuting.
You might have to ask the schools. But Pell and unsubsidized loan should not be affected. Subsidized loan depends on need.
If the estimator included Perkins loans, those are being discontinued I believe. Normally a freshman can borrow up to $3,500 subsidized (depending on need), and $2,000 unsubsidized.
Also, $26,000 instate is the COA that includes costs billed by the school like tuition and mandatory fees, and costs estimated but not paid to the school like books, transportation and misc living expenses (which can be reduced by renting/buying used books for example).
So for WSU for example tuition of about $10,000 and mandatory fees of about $1,200 should be all the school would bill, except for maybe parking permit, if commuting with a car.
So with a $2,000 EFC, the student should get about $4,000 in Pell, and maybe based on grades a merit scholarship, and can take out a loan if needed. And maybe a work study job and summer job could help with spending money, gas or bus ticket for commuting.
Related question: Can you apply for FAFSA as traditional student, and then change FAFSA application to “live-at-home”? I assume that must be possible. So that means that grants themselves, depending on the type, might go down if you do that?
http://opb.washington.edu/annual-cost-of-attendance-first-year-undergrads
yes, UW is similar at about $10,000 tuition, and $1300 fees.
their net price calculator mentions a state need grant as well.
those two schools are not close to each other. do you live nearby one of them? what are rules for living off campus for a freshman?
We live close to UW Seattle or UW Bothell. WSU also has a branch not far from us. WA allows freshman to live w families, dorms, or frats.
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no, the EFC will not go down, they’ll reduce the self-help (loans and work-study) then the grants.
more than likely they’re going calculate the ‘commuter package’ differently and it will still contain loans and a reduced grant (compared to the ‘resident package’). it will be good to hear from the FA counselor though.