<p>Sometimes the most affordable option is to either commute to a local 4 year (to save on the R&B costs), or to go to a CC for 2 years, and then transfer. </p>
<p>There was a time when many kids never considered “going away” to college, because the R&B costs were more than the tuition. If you’re lucky to live in a state that has many state schools, commuting can be an affordable option for some.</p>
<p>LasMas,
I did a random sampling of state schools and listed below is what I found. The costs are tuition, room and board for 2009-2010.</p>
<p>Iowa- 26K Wisconsin 32K Colorado 15K
Michigan 24K Illinois 23K Maine 18K
Oregon 18K New York 15K Virginia 20K
Florida 15K Maryland 18K Georgia 14K
Washington 18K Texas 18K Maine 18K
North Carolina 14K</p>
<p>There is a big range but on the average most state schools are in the “doable” range for a family with an AGI of 90k and up. Here are the qualifiers as I make this outrageous claim: a prudent lifestyle, no major debt aside from car and housing ( housing not being more than 1/4-1/3 of monthly net) no job layoff, no recent jump in income (up or down) or big medical expenses.<br>
One consideration is the community college route. I teach at one and our kids routinely transfer to the flagship and from there go to grad school, med school and business school. I know there is a great variation in CCs from state to state so I offer this with caution.</p>
<p>kwu quote: My family’s EFC was 7,331. Missed the Pell Grant cutoff by <2,000 dollars.
The difference would have been paying 10,000 a year instead of the 20,000 we pay now. Bah.</p>
<p>I don’t see how that would be true. The Pell cutoff is EFC $4617. Your EFC is $2700 higher than that. Even if your EFC had been $3000 less, you wouldn’t have gotten much more aid…certainly not $10k difference. </p>
<p>A person with a $2800 EFC, only would get $2600 from Pell…and that EFC is $4500 less than yours.</p>
<p>Deskpotato,</p>
<p>People with limited income but who have worked hard towards savings get likewise penalized with a high EFC. Our EFC is 80% of federal AGI! Effectively, we are penalized for saving. Of course, in the current economic climate, not all of our assets are easily turned to cash, so it will be interesting to see how the EFC plays out in the financial aid that is offered. And yes, we would expect to apply savings towards college tuition expenses but not to the extent the EFC suggests…</p>
<p>*I understand California is expensive *</p>
<p>Calif schools are expensive if…you can’t/won’t commute. Many Calif students can still get a public education for a “somewhat” reasonable cost if they can commute to a Cal State or UC…or…go to a CC first and then transfer. At least that is way to avoid paying 4 years at $30k for each year. Luckily, with so many Cal States and UCs sprinkled across the state, many students do live within commuting distance to at least one if not more. </p>
<p>That said, there are still other states that charge even higher tuition/fees than Calif does.</p>
<p>People with limited income but who have worked hard towards savings get likewise penalized with a high EFC</p>
<p>Not if your savings went into retirement. While earned income counts as available the year it is earned, even if it goes into retirement, previous deposits do not.</p>
<p>More liquid savings do get dinged, because ya know, liquid. ;)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>kwu,
How are you able to pay the $20K/yr tuition? Are you having to take out huge loans?</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>People with limited income but who have worked hard towards savings get likewise penalized with a high EFC. **Our EFC is 80% of federal AGI! **Effectively, we are penalized for saving. Of course, in the current economic climate, not all of our assets are easily turned to cash, so it will be interesting to see how the EFC plays out in the financial aid that is offered.*</p>
<p>Your EFC will likely play heavily into your FA packages. </p>
<p>You must have a lot in assets if after asset protection, your assets still cause your EFC to be about 3-4 times higher than it would be if just income and low assets were considered.</p>
<p>My wife and i just got married and by EFC was 0 and i received 4000 a semester for room and board, i was wondering if my wife will also recieve 4000 or is it fused together with mine because of the thought of living together. Her EFC is also zero. Plus since we got married would her parents income and assest be included in our financial aid? Thanks</p>
<p>Sorry for all the misspelling i am trying to multi-task</p>
<p>I teach at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. My students almost all work 2 or 3 jobs as well as go to school full time (the only way they can get financial aid). They come to class bleary eyed after working the night shift at hospitals, UPS warehouses, grocery stores, etc. Many of them still live at home and work 2 jobs to help they parents pay utilities. Many first generation immigrants, but more and more middle class kids driving in from the suburbs. College has gotten so ridiculously expensive I am finding my classes more and more filled with middle class kids who have had to drop out of U of I Urbana or private colleges and transferred to NEIU. It is not by any means as good a school as I would like to send my son. Most of my students have no idea how to use a syllabus or how to write a research paper. They can barely write a coherent sentence. Yet in my classes I have students who are desperate to learn. Very challenging to teach in this environment!</p>
<p>So TRUE! My son wants to badly to go to U of I Urbana and tuition is supposed to go up 12-20%. That puts it close to 30,000. Our EFC was 19,000. The first financial aid package he got gave him 35,000 towards 50,000 tuition! SO private is MORE affordable, definately! He is devestated because he’s always wanted to go to U of I.</p>
<p>***SO private is MORE affordable, definately! ***</p>
<p>Well, it can happen that way, but not always. Your child may have high stats for that private school or something else that the school wants…such as playing a needed instrument or URM status. That can inspire a FA office to be generous. 
Another student with lesser stats may not have gotten that same FA package. or</p>
<p>The thing about EFC not taking into account cost of living in different areas of the country rings a bell for me.</p>
<p>As part of my job, I coordinate the applications for Free or Reduced Price Lunch for our public school district. The cutoff to qualify is the same in all 48 continental states (it’s higher in Alaska and Hawaii). There is no acknowledgement that $40k/year goes a LOT further in Mississippi than it does in Massachusetts, or that the costs of housing in California or NY are probably double that of Nebraska. </p>
<p>I never thought about EFCs not taking that into account, but it’s probably true, and it doesn’t help those of us living in high-cost states.</p>
<p>Really? I did not know that.
Wow, we maybe should have moved to another state…one of the 42 states where my daughter’s PSAT score would have made her a NMSF and opened up a lot of scholarship opportunities, with a lower cost of living, and maybe even a less expensive public university system.</p>
<p>Hmm…time to start thinking about that before daughter #2’s college years.</p>
<p>^^Try living in Pennsylvania…our “public flagship” and even it’s branch campuses aren’t even public…they are only partially public, meaning tuition for branch is around 12k/year and main is about 15k/year…add on room and board and it’s unaffordable for most families.</p>
<p>Lower cost of living also means a smaller paycheck. My state has a lower cost of living but the mean reported household income for it is 46K compared to 61K for California. States like West Virginia and Mississippi weigh in at 37k. Average k-12 teacher salary in Savannah, Georgia-25K, for Springfield, Illinois -48k-almost twice as much!</p>
<p>^^Hornet, this is very true. </p>
<p>But in the case of a cut-off to qualify for aid, the cutoff is the same for everyone. So the lower income person in the lower cost state gets help, but the higher income person in the higher cost state does not - even though at the end of the day the person in the high-cost state has no more disposable income than does the person in the cheaper locale with the lower income.</p>
<p>Ugh, my family’s income is around $80000-90000, but our EFC is around $25000. Too many assets (they invest in real estate for retirement) is probably the problem. I applied to colleges with good financial aid only, and tried to pick some with merit aid. Luckily, I got a full ride at my safety, a school I would be happy to attend, but other than that I’ll just have to cross my fingers…</p>
<p>Ha my parents have two houses and idk all together there EFC was likkkkke 39K… and I have two siblings in college. ■■■ haha they said that if i take out loans in my name, they’ll pay for them so that may be what i do</p>