<p>I sent in my fafsa on Jan 1 and it was processed yesterday. I sent it to UW Madison, UW Milwaukee, UM Twin Cities and Marquette. (My number one choice is Madison). Do i have to fill out a separate financial aid form for these schools? Or do they just look at the fafsa and determine everything from there?</p>
<p>To those who attends one of these schools (and have similar stats)... How much did they meet your need?</p>
<p>My Stats:
EFC = 0
Vietnamese, first generation student
"A" average grades, AP student, involved in many volunteer and extra curriculars</p>
<p>For now I know I can qualify for the Pell grant, but I cant be for sure. I am just trying to avoid loans as much as possible. </p>
<p>Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you to those who reply!</p>
<p>There are estimated financial aid calculators on both the UW-Madison and the UW-Milwaukee websites. Public schools, even for instate students usually don’t meet full need and will almost always have federal loans in them.</p>
<p>Depending on how crucial the financial aid is for you, you might want to check out some of the other UW schools. I have a coworker whose husband went to Oshkosh and had almost his entire education covered by financial aid. Madison definitely won’t do that.</p>
<p>I’m vietnamese too! have you gotten into madison yet? maybe ill see u there next year!</p>
<p>Anyways EFC is how much your family would have to contribute towards your education. Since it is 0, then you would qualify for a lot of scholarships and grants from the government. The pell grant is one. You would definitely get some of the scholarships that are for need-based students. There are other financial aid options avaliable such as work-study (job). However, financial aid also includes loans so you will probably have to take some out. The good thing about loans from financial aid is that there is less interest on it compared to private loans.</p>
<p>but my advice is to look up some scholarships…local and at the school. Also if you signed the Wisconsin Covenant in 8th or 9th grade (I’m assuming you live in Wisconsin from your list of colleges) you could get some money from the state too. </p>
<p>Tax forms aren’t coming out until Jan 15th or so. My family won’t be able to file ours until we get it so I dont know how much we’ll owe. It wil probably be pretty high for us though.</p>
A lot of people make the mistake of assuming that the EFC means that is all a family will have to contribute. This is not true unless a school is one of the very few that promises to meet full need. The EFC is used to determine eligibility for federal aid. Federal aid is quite limited and will not meet the cost of even most 4 year state universities. </p>
<p>As far as federal aid is concerned, a 0 EFC will make you eligible for the maximum Pell grant of $5550. That is the main federal grant, and the only one that is automatic based on EFC. You will be also be eligible for Stafford loans of $5500, of which up to $3500 may be subsidized. Other federal aid will depend on your schools policies. There are 3 campus based programs - SEOG, Perkins loans, and work study. Schools are given a limited amount of money for these programs and must determine how best to disburse them to their neediest students. They set their own criteria for awarding them, and also the maximums. These can vary enormously. For instance at my daughter’s school the max SEOG is $2,000 a year, at my sons it was $100 a year.</p>
<p>That is it for federal aid. Any other aid would be either from state programs (if your state had need based grants), or from the school’s own institutional funds (if they offer money of their own for aid). </p>
<p>Are you likely to qualify for any merit scholarships? Those can make a huge difference for a 0 EFC student, especially in schools that do not promise to meet full need.</p>
<p>@Linaaaa regarding additional forms it depends on each school, you should go to their sites and look in their financial aid section where they will have the details. I know Marquette only requires the FASFA, but they have a lot of other scholarships you can apply for and they are detailed in their financial aid & scholarship sections.</p>
have you gotten into madison yet? maybe ill see u there next year!</p>