Comparing financial aid packages

Paying for College
1

<p>So far I've received 3, from Aquinas college in Grand Rapids, the College of Wooster, and Earlham.</p>

<p>Aquinas' has me paying $5,293 out of pocket (without fed loans and room/board.)
Earlham - $11,210 out of pocket without fed loans
Wooster: $11,900 out of pocket not including fed loans</p>

<p>Are these figures typical from an LAC? How do fed loans work ($5,500)? Do I have a long time to pay them back?</p>

<p>As for the difference in out-of-pocket costs, will that $$$ have to come from private loan things, like Sallie Mae? A bank?</p>

2

<p>Can you clarify?</p>

<p>Are you including room, board, fees, books, etc in your out of pocket costs? How much will that be?</p>

<p>As for paying for remaining costs…parent funds, small student loans (up to 5500), private loans, Parent Plus loans, etc.</p>

3

<p>It includes room and board, but not personal expenses/books…at least, the Wooster one doesn’t. Earlham includes R/B as well.</p>

4

<p>I’m not sure there is a “typical” LAC award as they all have different criteria for awarding need based aid. Most folks look at what the bottom line contribution from the family and the amount of loans. In most cases, families who have significant financial need try to keep their annual contribution AND loans to a minimum.</p>

5

<p>I’m not sure what you mean, either. Do you mean your package includes federal loans and the out of pocket is what’s left or is this your out of pocket and you can take out the stafford to cover that?</p>

<p>To make sure you are comparing apples, write down the direct costs (tuition, fees, room, board) for each school. Then, subtract gift aid (grants and scholarships). The school with the smallest number left is your best deal.</p>

6

<p>Yes, the financial aid awards include fed loans. So, the numbers above are what’s left after the fed loans are used up.</p>

7

<p>Let’s see if we can look at it this way. Please post the costs and awards from each school. Show what the award components are (Stafford loans, etc). Then we can look at the same info.</p>

8

<p>Wooster: merit aid: 15k
need-based grant: 17k
Direct subsidized loan: 3500
Direct unsibsidized loan: 2000
Work study: 2k
Total aid: 39,500
Tuition/Room/Board: 49,400</p>

<p>Aquinas: Tuition: 25,070
Fees: 180
Total costs: 25,250
Academic leader Scholarship: 13,000
Estimated MI Competetive Scholarship: 1,512
Total financial aid: 14,512
Subsidized loan after fee taken out: 3465
Unsubsidized loan after fee: 1980
Out of pocket after full loan: 5293</p>

<p>I don’t have the breakdown for Earlham.</p>

9

<p>The Michigan Competitive Scholarship is only estimated. One of my kids first got it 3 years ago, and it has been renewed at different amounts every year. It won’t be a sure thing until the Michigan budget is finalized, but supposedly (hopefully) the Governor proposed a higher level of funding this year. If it really does come back as high as your estimate from Aquinas I will be pleasantly surprised. I think it was only $200 one year, and something like $500 last year. Aquinas has a good reputation. Good luck with your studies!</p>

10

<p>There is a really handy calculator for this at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org)</p>

<p>At the bottom of the first page, click on “Calculators”.</p>

<p>On the next page, scroll down to find “Award letter comparison”. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

11

<p>Wouldn’t you need to add Room & Board to the Aquinas out of pocket - making it the most expensive?</p>

12

<p>Perhaps the OP is local for Aquinas…Tuition/Room/Board etc. runs around $31,500 currently.</p>

13

<p>Don’t forget that while Work-Study is great, you cannot deduct it from your tuition bill. Also, even though they give you an estimated $2000 WS award, you may not accrue that much. Basically treat Work-Study as an easy to get on campus job to help you pay for your day-to-day living expenses.</p>

14

<p>Yeah, I already told Aquinas that I will not attend. I want to study anthropology and they don’t have an anthro program.</p>

15

<p>How much will your parents be contributing?</p>

<p>How much can you earn during the summer to put towards college?</p>

<p>The remaining costs will need to get covered in some way…parents, summer work, or a combo. You won’t be able to borrow any more money without co-signers…which your parents probably won’t do and will result in too much debt anyway.</p>

<p>Did you apply to ANY financial safety schools? Did you apply anywhere that would give you huge merit (I mean like full tuition or more)?</p>

<p>What is your FAFSA EFC?</p>

<p>edited to add…it looks like your EFC is about $8k and your parents will only pay for food…does that mean your “meal plan”…which may be around $3k. Is that right?</p>

16

<p>For Wooster you are getting $32K and will have to pay an additional $17K on top of that. $5.5K can come from a Stafford and maybe you can earn $3K during the summer. If your parents come up with $3k for board that would leave $5.5K for you to still dig up.</p>

<p>What about the detail from Earlham?</p>

17

<p>Yeah, my parents will pay for food, EFC is about 8500. For financial safeties I applied to some state schools, but with room/board they wouldn’t cost any less.</p>

<p>My parents will cosign…I plan to get a summer job…I hope that works out.</p>

18

<p>Is the only reason you turned down Aquinas that major? Because they may not have anthropology but they do have a sociology major with anthropology classes.</p>

19

<p>Well, I also don’t want to live at home…so with the added room/board, I don’t know how expensive it would be.</p>

20

<p>I think I’d make a spreadsheet. (In fact I already have but we don’t have any FA packages back yet, so far only merit and costs).</p>

<p>I have columns for tuition, R&B, fees, books to get total price.</p>

<p>Then I have columns for merit awards, institutional grants, federal or state grants to get net cost. Then loans to get out of pocket costs.</p>

<p>If you have outside scholarships you could add those if different schools apply them differently.</p>

<p>(or you could use the handy link happymom provided)</p>