<p>Family of 6 (4 kids); two will be in college in 2013 (freshman and a transfer from CC)
Family income between 90-100K
No assets, no savings, no equity, no retirement</p>
<p>Special circumstances: family lost home in fire two years ago; dad has own business; dad was out of work for two months in 2012, but took some consulting jobs, so income took small hit.</p>
<p>I'm not familiar with UCs or Cal States since my son didn't apply to any, but I'm helping a friend.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Instate resident? My understanding is that most need based aid in CA is for instate residents via eligibility for the Calgrant. I think the income threshold, however, is an income of less than $80,000. If that is correct, this family would not qualify for a Calgrant. I don’t know if there is a different income threshold when multiple students are in college.</p>
<p>If the student is OOS for CA, my guess is he/she would get Direct loans and not much else.</p>
<p>For 2012-2013 the income ceiling for Cal Grants A & C was $92,600 for a family of 6. Source: <a href=“http://www.csac.ca.gov/facts/2012_13_income_ceilings_new_applicants.pdf[/url]”>http://www.csac.ca.gov/facts/2012_13_income_ceilings_new_applicants.pdf</a></p>
<p>Thanks, guys. It looks like this family just misses the cut off for the Cal Grant A based on what I was told. (Student is California resident)</p>
<p>So, does that mean there’s no other need-based aid for California residents?</p>
<p>Are there small merit scholarships at UCs and Cal States or are those only for top students? </p>
<p>I just need to communicate with them what they’ll likely pay.</p>
<p>My dd got a merit scholarship of $307 at UC Davis. She is a good student, high gpa, but wasn’t “off the charts” or perfect SAT. We’re paying full fee although she is URM and has sibling in another college. California is really “broke” and most aid is in the form of loans.</p>
<p>His best bet is to try to get into…</p>
<p>Berkeley since that school has extra special aid and would likely be more affordable.</p>
<p>USC…meets need. however, since dad is self-employed, CSS may not be favorable. </p>
<p>(is this the incoming frosh or transfer?)</p>
<p>If this is the incoming frosh and he has high stats (what are his stats) then apply to all the UCs because some of the lower tiers are offering merit money. </p>
<p>Since the family will have 2 in college, the EFC for each student might be lowish…about $12k per kid.</p>
<p>I hate Blue and Gold for this exact reason. The family’s income exceeds it, but they have TWO in college. </p>
<p>What are his stats? perhaps we can suggest other affordable options.</p>
<p>He also needs to apply to a UC and CSU that he can commute to. Commuting to a CSU is affordable for nearly all…a student loan and some summer earnings can cover most costs.</p>
<p>Thanks, Aunt Bea and mom.</p>
<p>The student is not a high stats kid, though she has an excellent uw gpa 3.878 but weighted is only 3.9268, as she’s only taken one AP class. She’s taking one more this year. Her current SAT is 1640 but we believe (my son’s been tutoring her) she can get 1800-1950. She takes long to finish tests but I guess the school wouldn’t test her for LDs because her grades are so good.</p>
<p>I’ve posted a thread on the parent forum looking for schools for her:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1391114-looking-college-suggestions-student.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1391114-looking-college-suggestions-student.html</a></p>
<p>Oh, and dad says he figures he’s ok if daughter takes out 5K in loans each year. He thinks they can come up with about 6-7K per year. Add work study at maybe $2,500-$3,000 a year. I figure the total available resources could be $15,000.</p>
<p>Student is Hispanic and I will be helping them look at outside scholarships. She also is very talented as a photographer and has a mentor at the local UC, which I’ve told them could be a big plus.</p>
<p>We’re mexican american and our income was too high for any aid. She was a finalist for Hispanic Scholarship Fund and, in the end, she was declined for ALL 10 that she was “eligible” for. They say that they don’t look at income, but they do. Have her try her local city’s “foundation”; in our city all private and public scholarships post their scholarships there and you fill out a type of “common” scholarship app. If anything comes through, she’ll get it through the scholarship foundation.</p>
<p>Oh, and dad says he figures he’s ok if daughter takes out 5K in loans each year. He thinks they can come up with about 6-7K per year. Add work study at maybe $2,500-$3,000 a year. I figure the total available resources could be $15,000.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t count on work study for this student at a Calif public. Those schools run out of W-S for their low income students. A number of schools don’t have enough W-S to give out to the non-Pell student.</p>
<p>However, she can work summers and a part-time job during the school year.</p>
<p>I think the estimated budget should be about $13k per year. </p>
<p>??? </p>
<p>As for the $6k-7k from the dad…You may need some clarification. They have 2 kids in college, one attending a CC who will soon be at a university. So, does that mean that once that happens, the $6k-7k will be split amongst TWO kids???</p>
<p>If the family has had money issues, and income still hasn’t recovered, it might not be possible for them to come up with $12k-14k TOTAL for the two kids…that’s $1000+ per month. If they don’t have an extra $1000+ per month, then that $6k-7k figure may be a total family contribution period.</p>
<p>Frankly, I think the best route for this student is to go to a CC first and then transfer…or commute to a local CSU. </p>
<p>If the father DOES intend to spend $6k-7k per year on THIS child, then maybe the best thing is for him to set those funds aside for two years, so that when she transfers he’ll be able to contribute $12k-14k each year for those last two years.</p>
<p>She’s also looking at schools in the Western Undergraduate Exchange.</p>
<p>While she knows CC to a state or UC school is one of her options, she’s going to apply to 4 year schools first. If her SAT score goes up considerably, with her arts and athletic supplement, it’s possible she could do ok in admissions. Most of her schools are state schools or a few UCs including Riverside, but a few are reach schools.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>The tuition rate is 150% and she’d still be considered OOS, so not likely going to get ANY aid beyond a $5500 loan. WUE seems to work best for those who can pay. Instead of having a instate COA of about $20k, she’s going to have a WUE COA of about $25k-30k.</p>
<p>The sad fact is that students with unaffordable EFCs and modest test scores generally don’t get accepted to the schools that give the best aid …and scores aren’t high enough for merit. That’s why most American kids end up commuting. </p>
<p>If there were schools out there that gave lots of aid or merit to students like this, they would soon be overwhelmed with apps and then become hard to be accepted to. </p>
<p>with her arts and athletic supplement,</p>
<p>Is she majoring in photography? If not, will she get money without the major??</p>
<p>What sport is she being recruited for? And at which schools?</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Yes, then she could include schools that will give her good-sized merit scholarships or give better aid.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that her FA pkgs will already have full loans in them, so her $5500 student loan CANNOT go towards EFC. </p>
<p>The big concern here is that she’s going to have an unaffordable EFC. If a school expects her to pay $13k-15k per year, how will she do that?</p>
<p>Student apparently isn’t being recruited–and the sports is gynmastics (which gives only partial tuition scholarships at best).</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>The student isn’t being recruited? Then why does the OP think she’d get athletic money? Walk-ons don’t get money.</p>
<p>-Good gymnast (Will do a supplement)</p>
<p>What does that mean???</p>
<p>While it’s good to be hopeful and explore options, it’s also important not to unnecessarily get a student’s hopes up…unless a school gives some money for a photography major scholarship, she won’t get money for that either. And, if she’s not recruited for her sport, no money there, either.</p>
<p>Do the UCs have a photography major? If so, which ones?</p>
<p>Right-she’s not being recruited. She’s a level 6-7, good but not at a recruited level. </p>
<p>This family started late in the game (with me, just this past week, to be honest) for a number of reasons, but mostly due to loosing their house in a fire and just getting back in after two years of home hopping. The house isn’t done but they are moved back in.</p>
<p>UCSD has a photography minor and her mentor works there. Though she would love to live on campus, it would be possible-should she somehow get in-for her to commute to UCSD.</p>
<p>UC Riverside has either a major or minor and there’s a photography museum right near by. Those are the two UCs I have suggested for her.</p>
<p>Ugh. The finances just don’t sound good for them, even with the exchange.</p>
<p>She’s applying to UNM (possibly the Amigo scholarship), NAU, and Colo. State Univ. this weekend. All are part of the WUE. I was kind of hoping other states have more aid but maybe not for OOS?? I haven’t looked into it yet. Got my hands full.</p>
<p>Her list looks like this:</p>
<p>NAU
UNM
CSU (Colorado)</p>
<p>UC Riverside
UCSD
Cal State Fullerton (reach but has photography)
Sacramento State</p>
<p>Scripps (super reach)
Stanford (super duper reach with dad as alumni)</p>
<p>I think there’s one more but I’m forgetting which.</p>
<p>SDSU is a reach due to how many kids apply, and doesn’t have photography, but that would be the local state school.</p>
<p>She’s applying to UNM (possibly the Amigo scholarship), NAU, and Colo. State Univ. this weekend. All are part of the WUE. I was kind of hoping other states have more aid but maybe not for OOS?? I haven’t looked into it yet. Got my hands full.</p>
<p>No, and to be frankly honest, why should they? They can’t meet the need of their instate students, so why would they give their precious aid to OOS students. They’re already giving a discount thru WUE. Their instate residents would be livid if need-based aid (tax dollars from their own state) was going to OOS kids when their own instate kids were getting gapped. Merit aid is different, but many WUE schools won’t give merit and WUE discount. And, right now her stats aren’t high enough anyway. </p>
<p>She might try some full-need test-optional schools, but her family EFC may be unaffordable. (they usually want test scores for merit)</p>
<p>Since the sibling is transferring to a univ, find out how much they’re giving EACH child.</p>
<p>The app process is time-consuming and expensive. Since her sibling is also applying are her parents putting a limit on how many apps they’ll pay for? Right now, her list has about a $1000 of app costs (apps, sending scores, etc).</p>
<p>This is the list of schools I gave her, not necessarily the ones that she’ll end up applying to.</p>
<p>What is the cost of applying to each UC or Cal State school?</p>
<p>I’ll ask about the sibling’s plans when I meet with them this week.</p>
<p>I’m not seeing a cost of $1,000, though. If she gets 4 free SAT scores, to send the others is $10 a piece for a total of $50. If she applies to 9 schools at an average of $50-60 each (I realize Stanford is $90 or something like that), that seems less than $1,000. Am I missing some costs?</p>
<p>You listed 9 schools and mentioned SDSU said that there may be one more…so 10 or 11 apps… I may have over-estimated at $100 each for app, sending scores, etc. Since she won’t be sending CSS Profile to most on her list, that is a savings. She also isn’t sending both SAT and ACT. The cost of 10-11 schools may end up to be less since most are public (lower cost apps) and don’t require CSS.</p>
<p>If the sibling is also applying this app season for Fall 2013, then the family may have to limit the number of apps per child. </p>
<p>Since the sibling went to a CC, the famly may not even be aware of the costs involved with applying. So, ask about that during your next talk with them.j They may not have thought much about it because of the distraction of moving, etc, but once it’s brought to their attention, they may feel that they can only financially absorb XXX total in app/test/CSS costs for the two kids applying. You might ask them how much they’ll spend on the entire app process for each child.</p>
<p>I think the cost to apply to a UC is $70. CSU is $55</p>
<p>If there is an app budget and you need to cut schools, I would cut…Colorado State, Scripps and Stanford.</p>
<p>Agree with Mom2^^^^^
Our children are legacy’s to Stanford. So far, 2 out of 3 have not gotten in. Stats and AP levels were very good, but our daughters did not publish books or travel to Russia to create schools, or were not olympic gymnasts. Needless to say, they didn’t get in, so don’t count on dad’s legacy or URM status. </p>
<p>Scripps Colleges are insanely expensive. We visited twice and both times, dd said she was uncomfortable with the campus set up.</p>
<p>Since this family has had money issues (related to job and fire), I would tread very softly before making apps lists and such for this D. The parents might become very annoyed if many of the schools do not pan out and they felt that all those app costs were a waste of their precious money. </p>
<p>Let them decide the application cycle budget for each of their two university-bound kids. Let them approve of the schools and number of apps, etc. If this student spends $500-700 of their money on apps, and most aren’t affordable, then parents will feel that their money was wasted and should have been spent on necessities. And, then they blame you.</p>
<p>the parents have been very distracted with job and fire and home-rebuild issues. They may need some gentle help focusing on the fact that they will have TWO in college, so how much can they spend TOTAL for college costs for BOTH kids. </p>
<p>I wouldnt’ be surprised if this student ends up at a CC because the family’s limited college money has to go to the older sibling who is transferring FROM a CC to a univ.</p>