Cover the EFC

Paying for College
1

<p>For some very complicated reasons, my parents are unable to support me financially, and are unwilling to accept PLUS loans and unwilling to co-sign any private loans. The scholarship package at most from my school would cover COA-EFC so I need something to cover that amount. I cannot work much, because I am border line qualified for Pell Grants, and earning anymore than probably a thousand dollars a year would put me over the limit.</p>

<p>I have a simple question, can unsubsidized direct Stafford loans be used to cover the EFC? I know that just because my parents refuse to apply for PLUS loans does not mean I qualify for the extra amount if my parents actually applied and got rejected. </p>

<p>If unsubsidized direct Stafford loans cannot be used that way, are there any private banks out there that would provide private loans to a student with no financial/credit history or income? Quick Google search says no bank around is willing that I can find. I am willing to accept high interest rates, but I need to find private loans that would take into account that I am a straight A student with perfect attendance for years and is responsible enough to pay back my loans. Does anyone know any?</p>

2

<p>Yes, Stafford loans can be used to cover your EFC.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>This probably isn’t true…dependent students have an income protection allowance of $6,000 according to the EFC Formula Guide. If you’re within $1K of the Pell cutoff then it would make sense to work and minimize your loans.</p>

<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>If you are “Borderline” Pell eligible…then your EFC is very low. Federal Direct Student loans for a freshman are $5500. Make sure that isn’t currently included in your financial aid. Will that and a summer job get you where you need to be?</p>

4

<p>*because I am border line qualified for Pell Grants, and earning anymore than probably a thousand dollars a year would put me over the limit.</p>

<p>*</p>

<p>Not true…you can earn about $5k-6k before it affects your EFC. </p>

<p>Give us more info…</p>

<p>How much is your school’s COA (include breakdown of costs)?</p>

<p>What are you getting in a merit scholarship?</p>

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

5

<p>Ok, thanks for the replies, my main concern was if the Stafford loans could be used to cover EFC. If they can, then I should be in pretty good shape.</p>

6

<p>The great majority of schools will include student loans in the FA package, so unless you are at a school that meets 100% of need with no loans (a handful of schools) you probably will not be able to use the stafford loans toward EFC. The only caveat is if you get merit $ larger than your need then you can use loans toward EFC.</p>

<p>Wait - since you are low income there are some schools that do not expect the parent to contribute. Some say <40k up to <65k (Harvard I believe) do not expect parental contributions.
What schools have you applied to?</p>

7

<p>Please let us know what the COA is, and how much your scholarship is. It will be much easier to advise if you let us know these amounts.</p>

8

<p>*Ok, thanks for the replies, my main concern was if the Stafford loans could be used to cover EFC. If they can, then I should be in pretty good shape. *</p>

<p>What schools are you applying to?</p>

<p>Most schools will put student loans in your FA package so you won’t be able to borrow to cover the EFC.</p>

<p>Also…most schools don’t meet need…so even if your EFC is 4,000 if the school costs $20k, you may have a gap.</p>

9

<p>I am going to University of South Florida. EFC’s around 4-4.5k, and the COA is around $21k. $6k for tution, $9k for dorm + food, $1.5k for books, rest for general expenses. The merit scholarship for my 1560 Math/Reading SAT score is only $4.5k. My state gives around 3-4k in scholarships. Rest is praying that I’ll get a Foundations scholarship from the school.</p>

10

<p>USF doesn’t meet need.</p>

<p>Is that SAT for all 3 sections?</p>

<p>*University of South Florida.</p>

<p>EFC’s around 4-4.5k,</p>

<p>COA is around $21k.
$6k for tution,
$9k for dorm + food,
$1.5k for books,
rest for general expenses. </p>

<p>The merit scholarship for my 1560 Math/Reading SAT score is only $4.5k. </p>

<p>My state gives around 3-4k in scholarships. Rest is praying that I’ll get a Foundations scholarship from the school. *</p>

<p>When you say that your state gives 3-4k in scholarships, are you talking about Bright Futures? If so, which level do you qualify for?</p>

<p>You can save on books by buying used and online.</p>

11

<p>It looks like the grants/scholarships you will have available to you will likely be:</p>

<p>Pell Grant: 5.5K (it looks to me like you qualify, but I’m not an expert)
Merit Sch: 4.5K</p>

<h2>State Sch: 3.5K (est)</h2>

<p>total 13.5K</p>

<p>self help:
federal work-study 2K
Stafford loans 5.5K
total self help: 7.5K</p>

<p>Total 21K</p>

<p>I think that their estimate of over $4K for “other expenses” is actually very high if you have health insurance through your parents. (Will your parents maybe continue to pay your medical expenses?)</p>

<p>So, I think that if you’re willing and able to get a work/study job you’ll be in good shape, and even if not, you’ll be able to squeak by if you are careful about saving money on textbooks and other non-necessities.</p>

<p>Do you have any cash in the bank right now? Are you able to work this summer to earn some money and give you a little bit of a cushion and reduce your need to work during the school year, and/or enable you to take out smaller loans.</p>

12

<p>I am really surprised that with a 1560 (math + reading, 2200 overall) and a 4.6 gpa, that you did not apply to a wider range of schools. With your low EFC, at schools that meet 100% demonstrated need you would have received a better FA package.</p>

<p>I would recommend that you go to <a href=“http://www.commonapp.org%5B/url%5D”>www.commonapp.org</a>
click the tab member colleges and universities
search
do a search for a list of school that are taking applications on or after 02/01/2012
it will return a list of ~325 schools</p>

<p>I would suggest that you check out Muhlenberg, Franklin & Marshall, Dickinson, lafayette (yes, they are in PA, but they may be worth the cost of you applying). perhaps even check out some other schools. Ask your GC for college board fee waivers and NACAC fee waivers.</p>

<p>Are you a Florida resident? If yes, are you eligible for Bright futures scholarship?</p>

<p>with your current COA at 21k and an EFC of 4000, you have 17000 of unmet need</p>

<p>Pell 1500
Scholarships 8000
Stafford loans 5500</p>

<h2>work study 2000</h2>

<p>total 17,000</p>

<p>Given this scenario, you will need 4000, which is should be covered by an additional unsub stafford loan. However at this rate, you will graduate with over 40k in debt (as your stafford loans will go up every year). this is too much debt</p>

<p>Link to the pell tables
<a href=“http://www.kirtland.edu/financialaid/documents/1112Pellchart.pdf[/url]”>http://www.kirtland.edu/financialaid/documents/1112Pellchart.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

13

<p>Is the Pell awarded only after work study and stafford loans are applied toward need, and is that why you said the OP would only end up with $1.5K?</p>

<p>The Stafford loan maximum is 5.5K so if that 5.5K is applied toward meeting need, the student can’t get another 4K Stafford loan to meet EFC.</p>

14

<p>Pell is given on a sliding scale based on the family’s EFC. Just because one is Pell eligible, does not mean that one will receive a full Pell award of 5550. The minimum pell is $555 and the max pell is 5550.</p>

<p>If Op’s EFC is 4k, then s/he would receive a 1500 pell grant (not the full 5550).</p>

<p>If the parents are not eligible for a PLUS loan, the student can receive an additonal 4k as an unsub stafford loan (but they would have to apply and be rejected).</p>

15

<p>mathmom, Pell is awarded first but the disbursement tables are based on EFC. So, with a 0 EFC one would receive the maximum of $5550, but with an EFC of $4K the Pell grant would be much smaller, hence the $1.5K estimate.</p>

<p>The OP mentioned the additional ($4K) Stafford unsub loan if his parents apply and are rejected for a Plus loan. It’s not automatic but could likely be arranged through the school if needed.</p>

16

<p>Ah, got it. I don’t think the real gap is as much as it looks like because I think a total of $3K or so in books and miscellaneous expenses is probably plenty for a student who is careful about his/her spending, and doesn’t live a plane ride away from school. So I would think the true gap is more like $2K, which the student may be able to earn over the summer.</p>

17

<p>@mom2collegekids: right, I’ve been looking at sites and places for textbooks this year, I even found this site that sold PDF versions of older textbooks for a fraction of the price. As for the state financial aid, yes, that’s Bright Futures. I qualify for “Florida Academic Scholars”, which supposedly pays for 100% of your tuition, but in reality pays $101 per credit hour, not even enough at my local community college.</p>

<p>@sybbie719: due to some extreme circumstances, I couldn’t apply to far away schools, and had to stick with a school where I had fellow classmates and friends, who could provide transportation for me and I’d pay them back. My new unweighted GPA is around 4.9 and hopefully, after the SAT’s this Saturday, I’d be able to raise the 2200 SAT as well. Unfortunately, USF does not reward students for having such high scores or GPA’s. </p>

<p>@sk8rmom: The PLUS loans are not an option (parents refuse), and their refusal does not allow me to get the extra unsubsidized loan.</p>

<p>@mathmomvt: yes, I intend on living a very cheap life with little partying or wasting in college. The work study is uncertain, so I’m left with probably around a $6k gap in figures, and since my transportation would be very little (relying on friends, and paying them for gas) and my health insurance rates quite low (USF offers very low cost plans), I hope to probably cut that figure down to around $3-4k. I’ve seen that many older textbooks (3+ years old) have ended up in dark corners of the web as PDF files, and hope I can either obtain my textbooks via online sources or online auctions, not the ripoffs at campus book stores. However, considering most of my classes are in the computer science field, I doubt I can do much, and I estimate my gap to be around $3-4k. Needless to say, I’ve applied to every scholarship the school offered and hopefully, after they’ve made their decision and send me a final financial package in 2-3 months, I’d have at least enough so that I can cover the expenses with the about $2k I can expect from a job in low-wage Central Florida.</p>

<p>And of course, if it does work out, it would be a great opportunity to me, a first generation in college. The alternative for me is technical training and a technical job, and while I find myself being able to effectively compete with others in the arena of academics, I find myself lacking a competitive edge in the technical field, where intelligence is trumped by experience (which I have none).</p>

18

<p>Do you have a job now? Any money in the bank? Any prospects for a summer job? </p>

<p>Visit your guidance counselor to see if there are any local scholarships you can apply for. Many of these “outside scholarships” are only good for a single year, though, so be careful about barely patching together something that will work for the first year, if you can’t sustain it for all four. Outside scholarships are harder to find in subsequent years. </p>

<p>Are you parents willing/able to give you anything? A small weekly or monthly allowance even?</p>

19

<p>Parents are not willing to give me anything. Period. I don’t have any money or a job (very hard considering I have 8 classes at school and two online, nearly all AP’s), but I do have a few connections so my prospects look pretty good for this summer. And yes, I’ve spent quite a bit of time talking about scholarships and searching/applying for them, but most of the scholarships are not applicable because I’m not an “underrepresented minority” in the field of engineering (just being a minority doesn’t count these days if the U.S. Department of Labor claims that your minority’s income matches that of the majority ethnicity). The few that I found have very little funding, and like you said, nonrenewable. I’m not sure if my application would get looked at, the one I applied to today is for $500, with over 400+ expected applicants.</p>