<p>my efc is quite maneageable at 1637, although 0 would have been nice</p>
<p>I’m an undergrad, to the person who asked. I guess the other side of the argument is if someone has a loaded non-custodial parent willing to pay, it’s not fair to give the student huge financial aid. Doesn’t help me out any though ha.</p>
<p>It’s a little irrelevant to this thread, but I know several kids my age whose parents didn’t save a dime in their child’s college fund until their sophomore years. These same parents all were completely shocked by their EFCs, as they assumed that their straight-A students would be given full rides everywhere. It’s ridiculous.</p>
<p>Our EFC is $37K, no way we can come close to paying that. I had a divorce many years back that put any savings out of the question for many years, with a single income. Remarried, but then mommy tracked, worked part time for some years. In order to kick start my career, I went back full time, but that meant expensive preschool for the little ones for a few years. Again, no real savings.</p>
<p>So now, I am finally earning a decent wage, but we don’t have huge savings and are paying down some debts. Little ones go to Catholic school. And who knows if I’ll keep a job in this economy, so there’s no way I’m taking out large parent loans.</p>
<p>I went into this not understanding EFC well. I thought it would be based on my income and my ex’es. So that would give us a low to mid 20’s EFC. Once I was corrected, I had to backtrack with S on the college search. He is disappointed, but luckily he’s had plenty of time to get used to the idea of not going to a pricey private. </p>
<p>I do feel bad that his friends that have stay at home moms are getting enough aid to let them go where S can’t.</p>
<p>OK, I’ve vented.</p>
<p>^^^
Unless those kids have very high stats, I doubt that they are getting much “free aid” to go to pricey privates. </p>
<p>Most kids get a lot of loans in their FA packages. Most people have to pay more than their EFCs. Schools are sometimes stingy with grants/free money to students w/o strong stats.</p>
<p>If those families think they’ll get a lot of free money to go to pricey privates, they probably will be in for a surprise. Having a low EFC is not a golden path to large amounts of free money…unless you have high stats and get accepted to an elite school (which is hard to do). </p>
<p>I know that some think that having a low EFC means that’s all a person has to pay. That is usually not true.</p>
<p>If your son has strong stats, he might qualify for some high merit that will actually bring down a high EFC if the scholarship exceeds “need.” In your case, that could happen.</p>
<p>^^Yes, I have no idea what his friends will end up getting. I’ve been living in the 3.0 -3.3 thread, so no merit at higher tiered colleges. S wants engineering & did not want to go far from home, so that limited our options.</p>
<p>S will probably attend a state school and I think he’ll do fine and be happy there. I am thankful I found this place, since our initial inclination was student loans, which would have been ruinous for S. And we’re much better prepared for the next two when it’s their time.</p>
<p>I love how my efc is 2,200, yet i’m paying 7,700 for catholic school -_-. Well actually its 5,700 because i have a 2000 dollar scholarship, but my school has all of these rediculous fundraisers where you must participate, plus i have to pay for sports, so its really around 6,700. Still, having to pay 6700 for high school when my efc is 2200 is absurd.</p>
<p>My family’s EFC is $0, so I’m pretty lucky when it comes to paying for college. My brother’s at a 4th tier public school with no private aid, but we’re probably spending less money with him at college (including loans) than when he was here with us.</p>
<p>I think we need to rework the system, in part by getting rid of this idea that everyone should go to college. Our country is spending a ton of money to send those who lack basic skills (SAT ~900/2400) to colleges which do not really teach anything. We’re also one of the very few countries whose top schools are private, not public.</p>
<p>I think the government should step in and provide most of the money to those going to college, but only to those who will actually benefit from it–and can thus benefit the economy. We don’t need every retail-, coffee-, and bookstore filled with psychology, criminal justice, and English majors from the University of Nowhere at Nowhere.</p>
<p>Perhaps the only complaint I have about my situation is those schools (like UChicago, if I read their site correctly) want 100% of students’ savings, leaving no incentive for them to get jobs. All that this means to me is that I might have to make a few college-related purchases before reporting my savings. =/</p>
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<p>And who decides which students get to go to college?</p>
<p>If I get in, I will end up with $20,000 of debt once I’ve graduated, so long as I do nothing but study and work while I’m at school. If I ever want to, I don’t know, go to the beach with friends, or even see a show, I’ll end up with a good $30,000, which sucks for someone like me who will never earn a six-figure salary (I want to work in Theatre in Education)</p>
<p>Not everyone can save enough money for college before their children go to school. Some EFC’s are based on income from just 5 or 10 years. I know quite a few parents, like my sisters that SLOWLY went back to school and got an RN or degree that upped their income quite a bit but their EFC doesn’t factor that in. I was told the same by a FA officer, a promotion, a part-time worker or stay at home mother going back to work after many years is penalized, but these are choices we make.
My sister took out more parent loans than she wanted too, but she spread them out and can afford the payments. Her daughter also took a few and worked every year. She was sick for a few years with breast cancer, operations and I thought it was sad to hear her saying, “At least the loans die with you, your family isn’t burdened with them”.
Nothing is ever fair across the board, rich families have children that get full rides, sport schoarships etc. and get to keep their savings, poor familes sometiimes, for many reasons, don’t get anything or information on aid, you just have to do the best you can.
One thing that does help some familes is the assets, I know we received a little more aid than others in our bracket and I think it was because we had less savings, or other assets. I don’t know how much it helps, but that does figure into things.</p>
<p>
^^^
I think we know the answer to that question.
Here is another: How will affirmative Action factor into the decision making process of deciding who should go to college?</p>
<p>These same parents all were completely shocked by their EFCs, as they assumed that their straight-A students would be given full rides everywhere.</p>
<p>Yes, that is a common misunderstanding. Because of grade inflation, there is a large pool of high GPA kids. There is a smaller pool of high test score kids. There is an even smaller pool of kids who have high GPAs & high test scores. That smaller pool has the best chances for big scholarships…but even many of them won’t get free rides or even free tuition.</p>
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I don’t know about his ■■■■■ status, but he has a very good point.</p>
<p>
Then there’s the parents whose athletically gifted fifth grader is going to receive a full ride in their sport so no need to save.</p>
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<p>This is always a concept I’ve failed to understand. Don’t work and save money because you’ll just have to spend it. Don’t send that stay-at-home mom to work because her money will just be spent. Uh… isn’t that the point? To pay for the education? </p>
<p>I find it interesting that a lot of people complain that so many people take advantage of welfare benefits, and yet the middle and upper class is often doing the same thing - not working because they can get institutional aid to cover the same thing. I think it’s an (unfortunate) American mentality.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Yes, it’s a problem…and the funny thing is most find out that they don’t get much free institutional aid. Those with lower EFCs will still often find gaps/loans in their FA packages. So, instead of working and having funds to have less loans, kids (wrongly) have the mentality that they’d rather have loans and no jobs.</p>
<p>That said, I do think that students’ earning should have some protections so there is an incentive to work. Just like high taxes become a disincentive to work more hours, having your EFC jump too high because the teen worked a summer job to pay is counter-productive. If a student knew that only 25%-50% or so of his earnings would have to go towards schooling, then he’d have an incentive to work. Kids do need some “walking around” money, entertainment money, etc. They can’t dedicate 100% of their earnings to education.</p>
<p>I’ve seen kids refuse work-study and summer jobs because they fear that their EFC will rise the following year. That is not a good mentality for us to be feeding.</p>
<p>^^Especially as work study income does not affect the EFC at all. It is deducted from a student’s income before the EFC is calculated. </p>
<p>The income protection for student non WS income is $4500 plus allowances for any federal tax paid and allowances for FICA and state taxes.</p>
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<p>If there is a perception that the middle and upper class is doing this I think sometimes it is just a matter of the middle and upper class needing to be educated about how the system works. In all fairness when you go to visit the top schools they say “not to worry if you don’t have the money, we’ll make sure you have enough money to attend.” The reality of what demonstrated need really means comes later when a person sees their EFC.</p>
<p>But then you have to ask yourself what does need based assistance really mean? I’m comfortable with the notion that it is for people truly in need but I had to be in the system for awhile before I got there.</p>
<p>Also, it is always better to have the money up front rather than from assistance. Assistance isn’t usually dollar for dollar and it is often in the form of loans so you are always better off if you have the money.</p>
<p>Hoping and praying for Scholarships, ours is over $17k. All the schools my d has applied tuition is 37k up to 56k. Doubt we can break even.</p>
<p>Swimcat. Thanks for providing those figures. That might help kids not fear a part time job. What’s the situation with kid savings?</p>