<p>I am choosing between Pittsburgh and Umass Amherst. Pitt gave me 13k in grant, but no scholarship, and Umass gave me 10k in scholarship, and 5k in grant.</p>
<p>I am curious if my financial aid is going to change dramatically because my mother got a new job, that pays about 4 times as much as her last job.</p>
<p>My efc for this year was 3,200 dollars. Will I be able to rely on grants next year too? Both schools are about 40k a year and I don't want to have to find out next year that I have to pay full price. </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>If your FAFSA changes that substantially, and it sounds like it will, then you will probably have reduced grant money, especially if it is federal money. Look at the scholarship and see if it continues based on a gpa, and if so you shouldn’t lose that.</p>
<p>Yes, your grant aid might be reduced if your mom’s income goes up. </p>
<p>Scholarship aid is usually merit based. Is that what UMass gave you? A merit based scholarship for $10,000? Is the grant from UMass a Pell grant? If so, it is very possible you won’t be eligible for that next year, but it is impossible to really know without knowing your mom’s income. </p>
<p>The Pell Grant is a Federally funded grant that is given to students with FAFSA EFCs of $5000 or less. Your Pell this year should have been about $2400, is that right? If your FAFSA EFC goes over $5000, you will be ineligible for this grant at any college.</p>
<p>Your aid for Pitt sounds like it is entirely need based, not merit based. </p>
<p>Try this…go to both colleges run the net price calculator using your mom’s new income. It won’t be totally accurate but it will give you an estimate.</p>
<p>Then…look carefully at your financial aid awards. The scholarship award from UMass should give the provisions for continuation of this scholarship, usually a GPA requirement. </p>
<p>Neither of these universities meets full need, so it is possible that your aid won’t change. But then again, neither school has extremely deep pockets, and need based aid IS calculated annually. Call BOTH schools and ask them IF your aid will change if your mom’s income increases to…and tell them the amount. They will better be able to tell you.</p>
<p>It sounds like you are an OOS student for both schools. Can you pay the $25,000 or so balance for these schools for the next four years. That is a lot of money for a family with an EFC of $3200.</p>
<p>Ohio State- $23,000
Baruch- $17,000
Northeastern- $60,000
Umass Amherst- $30,000
Uconn- $30,000
SUNY Binghamton- $22,000</p>
<p>This OP is a NY state resident. These are the net costs for each of the colleges to which he was accepted…don’t know why Pitt isn’t listed here. </p>
<p>OP…As a NY state resident with an EFC of $3200, wouldn’t you be eligible for TAP? I’m not a TAP expert by any means, but others here are.</p>
<p>Free advice…with your low EFC, I would suggest picking one of the IN state NY colleges. Otherwise, you are expecting your mom to put her entire increased income into your college costs. You say you want to be a business major. You can do this without breaking the bank at an out of state university at OOS costs.</p>
<p>If you are majoring in economics and finance, your first lesson should be to figure out if the financial situation will work for your family.</p>