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This does not make sense - how could you have a net cost of $11,000-$14,000 with gift aid of $14,000? Gift aid includes Pell grant, CalGrant, SEOG grant, USC grants, etc. - you are saying that all that adds up to $14,000???</p>
<p>And since you live at home, USC should not be billing directly for USC housing.</p>
<p>Pell Grant: 4,780
Cal Grant B: 8056
Cal Grant B Stipend: 1473
Federal SEOG: 500
University Grant: 14582</p>
<p>Loans & Work
Work Study: 2750
Stafford: 4500
Stafford unsubsidized: 2000
Perkins: 1250</p>
<p>Estimated cost of attendance: 53,835
Total Financial Aid (Loans and Work+ Grants): 39,891</p>
<p>Estimated Remaining Cost: $13,944</p>
<p>@alamemom Sorry about the confusing, I thought you meant specifically USC’s gift aid. I posed the full breakdown I had from financial aid. </p>
<p>This is my appeal letter:</p>
<p>First, I would like to thank you for the financial aid awarded, and the time you took to generate the award. However, I wanted to highlight certain aspects of my financial situation that a financial aid officer over the phone stated was not taken into account, namely the nature of my father’s income. </p>
<p>Looking at the tax return I had sent for 2013, my father’s income is listed as foreign income, which is indeed taxed. It can be seen starting from the third page on the federal tax return for 2013. This is why the gross income, $5,037, was much lower than the listed wages of $66,477. I was told by the financial aid officer that my father’s income was considered as untaxed income, while in fact, this is taxed in Japan. This income he makes in Japan is needed to support not only my mother, my sister and I in America, but also himself in Japan. He is working in Japan because he needs to be there to take care of my grandfather and grandmother. </p>
<p>I was told that it was looking at my father’s income as untaxed income that gave an expected parent contribution of $9200. Because of the fact that my father’s income is indeed taxed and that we do not see most of this money in American, I would be extremely grateful if you could adjust the expected parent contribution to reflect this information.</p>
<p>I want to also highlight that there will also be a drop in my own income from 2013 because I left my job at BriteMinds Learning Center to focus more on my studies making it even harder to cover not only my expected portion of the tuition, which I was told was at $4684, but also my parent’s expected portion of $9,200. Please let me know if you need any additional information.</p>
<p>Thank you for your consideration.</p>
<p>You are right you have about $9,000 in tuition to cover. If you decide to go to USC despite the cost, do sign up for the payment plan <a href=“Student Financial Services”>Student Financial Services; . That will allow you to have your USC bill divided into 10 payments (5 per semester) so you can use earnings as you go to pay. Be sure to sign up in late July so everything is in place before the semester starts. </p>
<p>So from what you have posted…alamemom has stated that your net cost to attend USC is $9000 (you are living at home), and you stated that your net cost for UCLA is $7000. So you are really only looking for $2000 additional from USC…is that correct?</p>
<p>@thumper1 Actually, the net cost for UCLA is $8000 minus the federal loans, so the total cost for UCLA would be $1,500. UCLA did not include loans into financial aid awarded and was instead listed as ways to pay the $8,000. I was told by the financial aid officer that the difference lies in how they incorrectly calculated the parent contribution portion. They did not notice that the income was foreign income. They looked at it as US income of $66,000 instead of foreign income that is meant to support two families at $61,000. (my mom bade $5000 in the US)</p>
<p>The financial aid office stated that my expected contribution is $4684, which I can afford, and my parents is currently $9,200 but should be adjusted to lower and thus lowering my overall cost. </p>
<p>Good luck! Like I said…make sure that USC has all of the necessary info ASAP.</p>