Can I get FA or something?

Paying for College
1

<p>My family income right now is around the $100,000 just barely, but the problem is, everyone in my family excluding my father is in college/taking courses.
For example:
My mother is completing her master's through an online school
My sister is completing her degree through online school
My brother and other sister are currently enrolled at a university</p>

<p>We have plenty of other bills such as house, cars, etc. but I know as soon as they see the $100,000 they would automatically reject me. My question is can I get something because my whole family is going to school as well?
I already know I have to get that $5,500 student loans but that will not be enough. Any help?? Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Just fill out your FAFSA and CSS Profile. They ask whether your family is going to university as well, so they won’t automatically reject you like you are thinking. My family makes a bit over 100,000 and I have 2 siblings in school, and I received grant aid as well as loans. Good luck.</p>

3

<p>I will! Thank you!</p>

4

<p>For Federal Aid it seems you are only eligible for loans, no Pell Grant. Individual colleges may or may not give need based aid. Siblings in college are considered as part of the aid calculation, not parents I don’t think. Each college has a Net Price Calculator you can run to get an estimate of costs. Look for low cost options in your state. Avoid online colleges unless they are REGIONALLY accredited, this is pretty important. Also there are threads pinned to the top of this forum that may be helpful to you.</p>

5

<p>You can count your siblings, but not your parents. How old are your siblings? Do they get aid? Are any old enough to file their own FAFSA as independent? are they all undergrads? </p>

<p>what schools are you applying to? What state are you in?</p>

<p>Just because you may qualify for some aid, doesnt mean that you will get much. </p>

<p>how are your siblings paying for college? </p>

6

<br>

<br>

<p>Schools I’m interested in (plan to go into engineering or CS): UIUC (really want to go here), Iowa State, Purdue, UW-Madison, UMinnesota twin cities, U of Michigan, any other engineering schools recommended would be great!</p>

<p>UW GPA: 3.776
W GPA:4.025
Top 8% in the class (I think!)
All honors math classes, All honors science classes- A’s in all of them
AP’s : Calc BC (4) had a B both semesters, this year I am taking AP Stats, Physics, Environmental Science, and this non-AP Multivariable/linear algebra class my teacher set up
ACT: 28 (plan to get 30+) (Reading is lowest, math and science highest)
I can get some Letters of Recommendation from teachers/coaches</p>

<p>EC’s: Varsity Track and Field, Made state finals this year and plan to place there next year (Not sure that matters now though)
National Honor Society
Ping Pong Club
plan to do math team?
Volunteer: At my local mosque probably around 20 hours?
Going to work the concessions stands this year at Games,Events, etc. for the school
plan to graduate with silver cord</p>

<p>Ethnicity: Male Arab-American (Caucasian I guess)
State: Illinois Suburban local town
I don’t know if this helps or not but my father graduated from U of I at Chicago and my brother and sister are currently enrolled there.</p>

<p>-I realize my EC’s aren’t so hot I was lost in high school and didn’t really think they were important as long as you got good test scores and grades.</p>

<p>I could use all the help I can get guys! Thanks!</p>

<br>

<br>

<p>I was afraid of this. You have a bunch of OOS publics…and instate UIUC. Right now, I doubt you would get much from any of these schools. UIUC isnt likely going to give you much either.</p>

<p>If you raise your ACT, you might get some scholarship to Iowa State, but can you pay the rest??. The rest of the school wont likely give you anything.</p>

<p>how much will your parents pay each year towards college? </p>

7

<p>Louisiana Tech will give you a full ride.</p>

8

<p>I’m confused about your OP. Do you have TWO sisters enrolled in college and a brother…or one sister and a brother? Are these siblings matriculated students more than half time at their colleges? </p>

<p>How old are these siblings. Are any over the age of 24?</p>

<p>Have you taken the SAT? Some students do better on that test than the ACT.</p>

<p>How much CAN your family contribute annually to your college costs? Find out…because that is going to be important. </p>

<p>The colleges all,have net price calculators on them. Run your information on those and see. But really…the college status of your siblings matters a LOT. If they are just taking courses here and there and are not matriculated students, you can’t count them as others in college for financial aid purposes.</p>

<p>I would look for options other than the OOS public universities you have on your list. They don’t guarantee to meet full need. They usually give their best institutional aid to their instate students. </p>

9

<p>UIUC doesn’t rely heavily on ECs. They are much more a stats based admission. </p>

<p>I would suggest looking at some privates because they are usually better with merit and need grants, however ECs are more important at most privates.</p>

<p>For engineering and CS, look at Illinois Institute of Technology. They have merit for kids with your stats, especially if you can get your ACT up.</p>

10

<p>UW-Madison will be very pricey for you since you are not a Wisconsin resident.</p>

<p>Try using the EFC estimator on the college board website.</p>

<p><a href=“Expected Family Contribution (EFC) – BigFuture | College Board”>Expected Family Contribution (EFC) – BigFuture | College Board;

<p>Then plug the EFC into UW-Madison’s Net Price Calculator:</p>

<p><a href=“Office of Student Financial Aid – UW–Madison”>Office of Student Financial Aid – UW–Madison;

<p>Here is an example:
EFC $11,000</p>

<p>Student Profile</p>

<p>Residency Status Other
Academic Level Freshman
College of Engineering/School of Business student? No
Dependency Status Dependent
Housing Plan Residence Halls
EFC ? 11000</p>

<p>Estimated Cost of Attendance (COA) for 2014-2015 ?
Tuition ?: $26,874.00
Books & Supplies ?: $1,200.00
Room ?: $7,300.00
Board ?: $1,300.00
Miscellaneous ?: $3,214.00
Travel ?: $1,674.00
Total Cost: $41,562.00</p>

<p>Estimated Need Calculation for 2014-2015
Cost of Attendance (COA) $41,562.00
Expected Family Contribution (EFC) ? - $11,000.00
Total Need: ? $30,562.00</p>

<p>*Estimated Eligibility for Grants (Gift Aid) for 2014-2015
UW-Madison Initiative Grant ?: $3,000.00
Total Estimated Grants: $3,000.00</p>

<p>Estimated Net Price Summary for 2014-2015
Cost of Attendance (COA) $41,562.00
Total Estimated Grant Aid - $3,000.00
Estimated Net Price ? $38,562.00</p>

<p>Estimated Eligibility for Other Aid (Self-Help) for 2014-2015
Federal Work-Study ?: $2,200.00
Perkins Loan ?: $2,400.00
Subsidized Direct Loan ?: $3,500.00
Unsubsidized Direct Loan ?: $2,000.00
Total Estimated Other Aid: $10,100.00</p>

<p>Estimated Remaining Cost for 2014-2015
Estimated Net Price $38,562.00
Estimated Other Aid - $10,100.00
Estimated Remaining Cost ? $28,462.00</p>

<p>*Note that the $3,000 gift aid disappears for out of state students at an EFC of $12,001.</p>

11

<p>Sit down with your parents and find out what you can expect them to contribute for your college. You are absolutely right that it’s not so much the income your family has as how much they have available for you. So you should find out what that amount is. </p>

<p>You also need to get income and asset information from them–the AGi from their last tax return, and their non quailified assets (no 401Ks, pensions ). That will give you enough info to run an EFC estimate. There are such estimators. Primary home values are not included for the FAFSA EFC. You also have 2 in college, those siblings who are dependents (generally under 24 years old) going to an accredited college full time. Your sibling taking an on line course…how old is she, how many credits, is the program accredited. These are actually questions you need to research regarding all of your siblings to make sure they count as concurrent students.</p>

<p>The EFC you get is pretty much the MINIMUM you can expect to pay before getting any financial aid. Yes, the $5500 loan freshman year would be available, but none of it on a subsidized basis until you pay that EFC.</p>

<p>A problem is that schools do not guarantee to meet need as defined by EFC, so you then should run your numbers through the individual NPCs of the schools you are considering and see what kind of packages you could expect, on average. </p>

<p>It may well be that commuting to a local state school is your best option. You certainly should include such schools on your list. You need schools that you KNOW will be affordable and that will take you.</p>

<p>Then you can apply to whatever schools you want. Many will be lottery tickets. I recommend you look at the stickies at the top of this part of the forum and see what 's out there in terms of guaranteed and higher probability awards. </p>

<p>As others have said, OOS publics do not tend to be generous in aid. If a student has high stats or has some other attribute that the school wants, they may kick in money, but there are very few public universities that meet full or most need for their OOSers. They often don’t even do so for their own instate kids. My state pretty much guarantees that need is met for the tuition and fees, but not for room, board, and other expenses You want to go to sleep away school, you and your family pay for your own maintenance. </p>

12

<p>First of all, thank you everyone for your replies! Very helpful! </p>

<p>My sister taking the online classes is paying her own way through her job (She is 24)
My brother (21) and other sister (23) are full time students at UIC, they pay their tuition directly through loans and commute there everyday. My sister (23) was part time before at a CC before she transferred to full time. </p>

13

<p>Your 24 year old sister will not count in your number in college. The other two will. So you will,have three in college at the same time.</p>

<p>But that doesn’t necessarily translate into more need based aid at schools that do not guarantee to meet full need.</p>

14

<p>Run some numbers through the FAFSA estimators and the NPCs for some colleges on your list to see what the possibilities are. Do keep in mind that having need does not equate to having need met. Also, be aware that whatever aid you might get may change when your family situation changes, like when your 23 year old sister becomes independent by turning age 24. And then the same with your brother. But a big issue is that even with a zero EFC, it does not mean that all of your needs will be met. I don’t know a college that guarantees to meet full need as defined by FAFSA EFC (possibly the military academies). A zero EFC guarantees you a PELL grant of up to $5700 or so, and the Direct Loans the first year of $5500 with up to $3500 subsidized. That’s all the guarantee you get even with a ZERO EFC.</p>

<p>So the schools are not going to be automatically taking you off the need list due to income, but will look at that EFC and then even more importantly at their policies on financial aid. Some schools, tending to be the most generous ones, will require another form, PROFILE, completed. Then aid will be allocated by availability and policy. </p>

<p>So it’s important to know what your family is willing and able to commit t paying, as well as the policies and funding of the schools to which you are applying. DO look for some schools where you are up there in the applicant pool with your test scores and grades, and see what merit awards you might qualify for. Those may not be subject to your family’s economic status as your siblings age out of dependency.</p>

15

<p>Thank you very much! And don’t worry I am applying to schools that are cheaper and able to compensate I just did not put them on the list! Those are just schools I really want to go to! But thanks again! </p>

16

<p>Your list won’t work because it’s mostly made of out of state public universities. Your best bets are to apply to your in-state publics (apply to various universities, not just UIUC) then add private universities that aren’t in-state and preferably are a bit far away. Unfortunately, Illinois is not generous even to its in-state applicants. :s Run the Net Price Calculator for all three IU’s, SIU Carbondale, Northern Illinois University, then show the results to your parents.</p>

<p>For all five universities, check out their honors programs: what are their criteria for eligibility? what are the perks? what percentage of classes do you take in honors? do you have Honors Housing? Do Honors students get special scholarships or are there merit scholarships they’re especially qualified to get?</p>

<p>Other schools in Illinois where you may have a shot at a scholarship and that are highly ranked:
Illinois Wesleyan would likely be interested in an Arab American male applicant and it’s a great school for CS (
DO include Illinois Institute of Technology as you are likely to get a scholarship - run the Net Price Calculator to see how much it’d cost too.</p>

<p>Outside of Illinois, check out Olin (reach), RPI (reach), Rose-Hulman (reach), RIT (match), Stevens (match), UMinnesota - Twin Cities (out of state but should be close in costs to UIUC), UMN-Morris (for CS).</p>

17

<p><<<
My sister taking the online classes is paying her own way through her job (She is 24)
My brother (21) and other sister (23) are full time students at UIC, they pay their tuition directly through loans and commute there everyday. My sister (23) was part time before at a CC before she transferred to full time.</p>

<br>

<br>

<p>The 24 year old is independent.</p>

<p>Likely the 23 year old will also be independent by the time you apply for aid.</p>

<p>It sounds like the siblings commute to school, so only have tuition to pay. However, tuition is more than Stafford loans, so how do they pay the rest??? (I think tuition is about $13k per year…plus books, fees, etc)</p>

<p>You need a different list. </p>

18

<p>Please remember that you need a 4 year plan for paying for college. You family sounds like it will only have you in college for some of these years.</p>

19

<p>@sprinter96 When is the 23 year-old’s birthday? Does she turn 24 this year? What acadmic year will you begin college - 2014-2015 or 2015-2016?</p>

20

<p>No she turns 24 at the end of April next year</p>