<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I was wondering if I can even afford a good, private college, like Columbia for example.
If I can somehow afford one, I will probably need a lot of financial aid & so leads to what I was wondering next:
How much financial aid do you guys think I could get?
All &/or any numbers you guys can provide would be helpful & greatly obliged (be they dollar amounts, percentages, or whatnot)!
I was wondering if you guys could tell me based on the following information that I am about to give you:
Because of my (financial) situation I am able to have the 2-year junior/community college enrollment fees waived with
the Board of Governors (BOG) Fee Waiver, because/& I am on
SSI, & I was able to have received a
Federal Pell Grant for the Spring session of the 2010 school year (probably because of me being on SSI, again-My EFC was 0), & I am an
independent student.</p>
<p>Kris</p>
<p>If your EFC is $0 AND you get accepted to Columbia, they will meet your financial need. Keep in mind that there is an expected student contribution in most cases. The first hurdle is getting accepted at Columbia. </p>
<p>If you are applying as a transfer student (from the Community College?), you do need to know that their %age of acceptances for transfers is very low.</p>
<p>So…do your very very best and then apply. If you get accepted, it is very possible that you will be able to “afford” to attend.</p>
<p>Yes, if you have an EFC of 0 then you’d get great aid.</p>
<p>However, if you’re under age 24 and if your parents are divorced, then your expected family contribution may not be 0, if your non-custodial parent has a good income.</p>
<p>There are a number of colleges that guarantee to meet full need. You can ask the financial aid offices of any schools that interest you if that is the case for any particular college. Many of these colleges are very selective in admissions, so getting accepted is an issue. Columbia falls into this category.</p>
<p>Good private colleges usually have better financial aid than mediocre private colleges. If you can be admitted to Columbia there are a number of other very good colleges with excellent fin aid that you should consider.</p>
<p>Post your HS stats and we might be able to suggest some match schools for you that meet full need. :)</p>
<p>Columbia meets close to 100% of need, meaning that if your EFC is zero, they’ll pay for your tuition, fees, room and board and other expenses comprising the “cost of attendance” for one year of school.</p>
<p>I would recommend you take a close look at what classes from your Junior College they’ll give you credit for…before you go too far down the road. It’s hard to get 100% of your credits transferred to competitive schools like Columbia.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<ul>
<li>Andy Lockwood</li>
</ul>
<p>I’m not sure the 0 EFC will hold for an independent student at Profile schools like Columbia and it may depend on the school. While SSI is not reported for FAFSA, schools are free to consider that income in calculating their EFC for institutional aid. Your best source for whether they will consider your SSI will be the college itself.</p>
<p>Also, although Columbia is need blind for admissions, they explicitly state that they have “a limited amount of institutional funds for transfer students”. You may want to post on the Columbia or Transfer Students forums to see what others have experienced.</p>