<p>Pretentiously, what would have happened without the bonus? Yes, you would have gotten YOUR aid, but your family would have still needed to pay all of the things that they absolutely need to pay, and without that money. THEY would have been worse off.</p>
<p>So where are the funds coming from to pay for a medical school education. Even if he is commuting from home, going to an in state med school, it’s going to be a hefty amount.</p>
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That’s not the pool I was referring to. Suppose for a moment that after the taxes all of the bonus $ went to pay off the medical bills. Before the bonus (which was unexpected) there must have been a “Plan A” with regards to paying the medical bills. Some other source of money or scheme. Then comes the bonus, and “Plan B” was to use that to pay the medical bills. Well, then the money from “Plan A” is still out there, waiting to be borrowed or whatever to pay for your ed. </p>
<p>Some people are seeing this as a major windfall for your family, but there can be situations where despite appearances you are no further ahead. We see it all the time here on cc where a student gets a large “outside” scholarship and the school immediately lops it off his need-based aid. If the aid wasn’t loans or work-study, the student has no net gain. The only one who wins is the school. </p>
<p>In this case, it seems like the government got a chunk and the school wants the rest, so they are the ones who win, and your parents have no net gain from the bonus. Unfortunate, but what can you do?</p>
<p>my main point was to point out that the bonus was offset to the point where my aid was cut and that the financial aid office interpreted that we had extra, when it -if my brother and cousins expenses are left out -still ultimately depletes my parents’ combined income while having to scrape last minute $ to pay for the increased EFC</p>
<p>It sounds like another reason why your “family contribution” has increased is because your brother no longer is an undergrad. If he graduated from college and is now heading for med school, then your school now is saying that your family only has one in college and not two.</p>
<p>And, what are these “cousin expenses”? And, why are your parents paying for everything except what they should be paying for???</p>
<p>Your parents are paying for your brothers med school, AND they are paying for cousins to study abroad? Sorry…but these are CHOICES not necessities. </p>
<p>If you have huge medical expenses and huge bills from a natural disaster, submit a special circumstances request letter to your college. Be prepared to document these unreimbursed expenses.</p>
<p>I’m sorry…but if your family has ALL these other expenses, how or why would they have the money to fund study for other relatives. </p>
<p>Something isn’t right here.</p>
<p>Where are you going to college that is costing you $200,000 for three years? Why not attend an instate public university?</p>
<p>Somehow, I think this student has annoyed the parents in some way (poor grades, dislike of major, or something), otherwise why would they be throwing money at brother’s med school and COUSIN’S expenses before paying for this student’s undergrad expenses?</p>
<p>There must be more to this story.</p>
<p>Hey Sybie, yep the max loans a student can take out in Stafford loans is $5500 and I’m maxing em out. When I talked with my financial aid officer, she was pointing me in the direction of taking out loans from private institutions as a last option. Financial suicide. In a tired/hasty calc prior to my 1st post, I had originally lumped in the diff in EFC, the stafford loans, and cumulated private loan interest rates with misc expenses like books per term, etc. to get a figure, spread out over 7/2 years, upwards of 6 figures. Sloppy math I know. To resolve this, I want to thank you for your clarifications. </p>
<p>They were significantly more help and informative than what I’ve been getting from the paperweights at the fin aid office, and I understand the evaluation more clearly now. Sucks that my brother hasn’t been claimed as a dependent for 3 years and is killing my funds but I guess thats just how life, or, the limits of the CSS Profile and evaluation, goes. And I’m going to have a lot of fun digging out papers tonight! Again, thank you for explaining the differences in what instances will be able to count as a legit appeal. </p>
<p>And I understand some of your concerns about graduating with a large amount of debt and I do plan on using my 1st year to establish my GPA at the transfer univ to apply for their continuing students’ merit aid. Whether or not I get them is another story but I’ll always kick myself in the a-- if I turn this admission offer down for doubting my capability to improve my competitiveness. Go big or go home! But not in debt of course</p>
<p>With regards to Sylvan, I understand what you’re referring to now. The med bills were paid before bonus, and after the unexpected bonus, what do you know? Another emergency, another bill. bonus was there to help pay for it, otherwise it would have been another loan to cover the growing expenses. hope that cleared things up. &, only difference with winning a scholarship, is that it will go to the student’s funds for sure. when $ goes into household income, there’s no telling where it’s going to end up. in combined taxes, or elsewhere</p>
<p>^I still do not understand why you are not attending a public university - much cheaper and they take CC credits so you can do the first two years there and minimize debt. Continuing student scholarships are very difficult to get - what is plan B? It shouldn’t be to take the debt.</p>
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<p>This is not a good idea because your chances of getting merit aid as a transfer student is close to nil. Schools use merit aid to **attract the freshmen **that they would like to have in order to raise their stats. Transfer students are not added in the equation, so there is no need to “woo” them.</p>
<p>the way I see it here are your best options if you want your current school.</p>
<p>If the 29k bonus is a one time thing and you think there will be no more bonuses over the next 4 years:</p>
<p>Defer your admissions for a year. financial aid for school year 2013 is based on 2012 income.</p>
<p>Your parents must stop funding med school for your brother and programs for various other family members. schools expect them to channel this money in to your education.</p>
<p>Other wise,</p>
<p>take a gap year
rework your plan and apply to a new set of schools where you stand a chance of getting the merit $$ need.</p>
<p>research now, pay attention to deadlines as many merit programs want you to apply early to have the best shot at getting the money.</p>
<p>Are you an incoming frosh or a rising soph? </p>
<p>If you’re an incoming frosh, did you apply ED to this school? Is that why you first had a generous offer, and then later, after the bonus, your aid changed?</p>
<p>Your plan of getting a high GPA and then getting merit as a transfer is a plan for FAILURE. Continuing students get very small merit scholarships…we’re talking like $1k…and even those are competitive. You have to understand, today, colleges have 25% or more of their students with high GPAs. Your high GPA won’t impress them nor warrant any decent merit scholarship. </p>
<p>You need to take a gap year, let the bonus disappear, and apply to schools that will give you large merit or great aid. And, maybe then your parents will come to their senses about how they’re directing their money!! How do they expect you to pay for college? with loans? </p>
<p>You can also ask this school if you can delay your admittance by one year. That, too, will allow for the bonus to disappear for next year.</p>
<p>What are your stats?</p>
<p>The problem is between your parents and you. Why do they consider your brother’s education (including payment for med school) and your cousins’ frolics abroad worthy of their money, but not your undergraduate education? </p>
<p>Something is definitely not right here…</p>
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<p>That’s the way I see it.</p>
<p>
It seems that op has been at a cc for 2 years, but the transfer school won’t accept all the credits, so she still needs 3-ish years to finish. However will not enter as a new freshman.</p>
<p>If she’s a transfer and needs 3 more years, she needs to find out if her school will give 3 years of aid. Some won’t do that for transfer students. Some will only give aid for 2 years.</p>
<p>I think she needs to ask for a delay of enrollment, do more at a CC this year so that she won’t have to take 3 years at the univ…and the bonus won’t count for next year’s FA filing… She’ll still finish at the same time.</p>
<p>Agree with mom2college kids – take more transferrable classes at the cheaper cc, and wait a year.</p>
<p>Probably also reasonable to have a calm discussion with parents about choices for funding – perhaps they do not understand how the system expects that they are the ones primarily responsible for undergraduate costs, and that the financial aid system views the money they pay for your brother’s med school and money they’ve spent on your cousins’ study abroad program as “first” funding for your college. But, if their answer is that your brother’s med school and your cousins’ study abroad is more important to them, that’s ultimately their choice, and you’ll need to figure out a solution that will work within those constraints. (I have a hard time imagining parents continuing to do this once they understand the implications, but every family is different.)</p>
<p>It hurts when you are awarded something and it is then taken away, even if you should not have gotten it in the first place. I remember when a friend of ours had two going to college, and then one of the girls quit. That changed the financial aid picture so drastically because of the way the one college calculated aid with two kids in college. I know a number of kids upset when they lost aid due to getting a nice scholarship. They were all set and ready to double dip when the rug was pulled out from under their expectations. Other situtaions involving ED have arisen where the estimate did not include an unexpected payment like the OP’s here, and when the final award was calculated, it was substantially less than the estimate. It always hurts when expectations are dashed.</p>
<p>I take into account the financial unpredictability of next year. Another “windfall”, emergency bills, whaa- long lost thrice removed fifth cousin shows up!? state U deadline was long ago, not an option. </p>
<p>Many schools, at least the ones I’ve come across, have little to no merit $ for transfers. Taking your advice into account Syb, I’m going to apply for merit $, though not exclusive to a specific univ, now and later with my new gpa/ CV. Gunning for scholarships targeted for freshmen, I’d cry. I was referring to the univ’s $ exclusive to rising juniors/seniors. weeds out half the undergrad apps, but, granted for obvious reasons, I’ll have to up my game regardless, not just GPA wise. Would you say these scholarships are more impossible to obtain than regular scholarships open to all undergrads?</p>