<p>So I submitted my FAFSA yesterday and my EFC is 44339! That is totally not what I expected it to be. My parents don't have that much to spend on a year of college! Their income for 2009 was $100k. Do colleges really expect my parents to spend half of their income to pay for college? </p>
<p>I don't know if my EFC is high because of my parent's investments, which are $176K, but half of that is stocks, which haven't even been sold yet.</p>
<p>Also, I hate how the FAFSA doesn't take into account whether or not your family owns a home. My family has more money saved up because we don't own a home and we rent an apartment. It just doesn't seem fair. </p>
<p>My parents have $125k in savings/checking. Does my EFC match my parents' numbers? I just find my EFC completely ridiculous! I wasn't expecting that much financial aid, but the possibility of not receiving any is frightening!</p>
<p>Yeah, a lot of people have this reaction when they see their aid. Part of the reason for your high EFC is what you noted above; your parents are (relatively) wealthy and have significant assets and savings. All of this is taken into account by the federal government since colleges assume that you’ve saved up money to pay your EFC.</p>
<p>Luckily, filling out the FAFSA often makes you eligible for merit scholarships financed by your college, and a lot of privately-funded scholarships are available that you can apply for. Since they don’t take into account need, your family’s assets won’t count for much. And there are always loans.</p>
<p>Plushminkie, you’re not missing that much really. Even at the lowest income levels (and I mean really low!) the Pell grant is at maximum only $5500. Our family income this year is mid-60K and we don’t qualify for even minimal Pell funds (with 2 kids in college, yet), let alone the max amount. And we don’t have money in the bank or stocks.</p>
<p>So what you’re missing out on, as far as gov’t aid goes, is only some loans (and you can still borrow around 5K in unsubsidized loans regardless of your EFC just for filing the FAFSA) and workstudy. So no big loss in terms of gov’t aid.</p>
<p>And Jahaba is quite right, that filing the FAFSA often makes you eligible for merit-based aid from your college(s).</p>
<p>So, yeah, the EFC comes as a shock sometimes, but wait to see what comes back with your acceptances and then you’ll have a better idea of how the money part will all break down. But, yeah, in all likelihood it’s going to be way more expensive than you want it to be!</p>
<p>My mom did say that she’d take as much money needed out of her CDs and checking to pay for college, but I don’t want to drain her bank account.</p>
<p>I don’t know if the schools I applied to are financial safeties.
I applied to: UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD, SDSU, Cal Poly, Boston College, USC, and Washington University in St. Louis. I’m guessing Cal Poly and SDSU are financial safeties?</p>
<p>I haven’t received any scholarship offers yet. The only school I’ve been accepted to so far is SDSU, which is one of my backups. I’m hoping that I’ll get some merit scholarships. My GPA is 4.2 W and my SAT is 2110. I know that’s not amazing, but do I even have a chance of getting some sort of scholarship money?</p>
<p>Uh, yeah. Those are great scores. And there are also scholarships for non-academic things such as sports, or essay-writing, or community service.</p>
<p>Oh, yeah. Perhaps some nice scholarships from the colleges themselves, and also other outside scholarships are a possibility. This a good time to look into local scholarships that might be a good fit for you, as well as other outside scholarships. Check with your counseling office at school. They are usually a good source of information.</p>
<p>What does this mean? Unless something has changed…the maximum EFC calculated by the FAFSA is $99,999.</p>
<p>To the OP…your family has $175K in “investments” and $125K in a savings and checking? That’s $300K total. Let’s say your asset protection is $50K (I don’t know the amount but for discussion…let’s use that number). That would mean your parents’ unprotected assets are $250K…5.6% of that is $14,000. </p>
<p>Your parent’s EFC on their $100K of income alone would be somewhere between $25K and $33K…but when you add the asset assessment to that, it does bring your total to $40K give or take a few thousand dollars.</p>
<p>Even with just your family income of $100K per year, you would not have been eligible for federal need based aid at most places. Your EFC would likely have been too high. All you would have receive would have been a Stafford loan. </p>
<p>It sounds like you applied to a number of instate schools (you ARE a resident of CA, right?). Hopefully, you will receive some kind of merit aid at one or another of those schools. And hopefully the cost of an instate CA public education is affordable for your family. It’s NOT $44K per year to attend a UC as an instate student.</p>
<p>*I don’t know if the schools I applied to are financial safeties.
I applied to: UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD, SDSU, Cal Poly, Boston College, USC, and Washington University in St. Louis. I’m guessing Cal Poly and SDSU are financial safeties?</p>
<p>I haven’t received any scholarship offers yet. The only school I’ve been accepted to so far is SDSU, which is one of my backups. </p>
<p>I’m hoping that I’ll get some merit scholarships. My GPA is 4.2 W and my SAT is 2110. *</p>
<p>It doesn’t look like you applied to any schools that would likely give you generous merit for your stats. Maybe something from SDSU. I think it might be too late to apply to some schools that do give generous merit for your stats.</p>
<p>If you are in-state California, then your parents will have to pay the full-freight cost of attendance of your California publics - ranging from about $17k - $30k (estimate since 2010 prices will be higher than 2009).</p>
<p>OP: From your list, I’m guessing you’re in southern California. One option to make these pricey schools alot more affordable is to live at home while you go to school. Also, the CSUs on your list, SDSU and Cal Poly, are going to be less expensive than the UCs and the private schools.</p>
<p>One needs to understand the reasons and returns for CD’s versus alternative “investments”.
The obvious is: CD rate of <3%, that is taxed which may yield <2.5%. A student loan will be a minimum of 5.5%. There are other reasons to keep the CD’s and to obtain a loan to finance college.</p>
<p>No, I’m actually from Norcal. There weren’t that many schools around here that interested me so I applied to many Socal schools.</p>
<p>We discussed my options if I do end up not getting financial aid. My mom is concerned that the loans will have high interest rates and for that reason, she’s willing to take some money out of CDs if this is the case. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see when my financial aid package comes.</p>
<p>You need to visit [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and read up on the various kinds of student loans. Talk with your parents about how much they can afford to pay each year (and you are correct, you don’t want to drain all of their savings), how much loan burden they are willing for you to have when you graduate, and how much money they expect you to make during the summers and during the school year.</p>
<p>For rock bottom financial safeties, you could live at home and attend the California Junior College closest to you. You are fortunate to be in a state where there are clear transfer pathways from that level into the state university systems, and where the Junior Colleges are very affordable.</p>
<p>OP: Ah, you’re a fellow Norcal-er, and I see you already have Berkeley and Davis on your list. There are a number of CSUs up here as well, and University of the Pacific (in Stockton). Attending a school which is close to home will save your parents a bundle if you don’t live on campus.</p>
<p>Sorry to say this, but you applied to the wong schools if you’re looking for scholarships. There are schools on the level of the CSUs you applied to that would give someone with your stats merit aid, but the CSUs have almost none. Same with the UCs, and they base their already small scholarships on income and consider yours high.</p>
<p>You might consider a gap year to reapply to schools that will give you money. See merit aid threads on this site for specifics.</p>
<p>No, I didn’t apply to any CSUs in Northern California because to be honest, I really don’t want to stay up here.</p>
<p>I don’t think our financial situation is so extreme that I’d have to go to a junior college or take a gap year. My mom is insistent on sending me to a good 4-year college and if it costs $30K to do so, she has agreed to do that. </p>
<p>I just wasn’t expecting that my parents would have to pay full tuition, that’s all. I really appreciate all the responses! Thanks everyone! :)</p>
<p>“My mom did say that she’d take as much money needed out of her CDs and checking to pay for college, but I don’t want to drain her bank account.”</p>
<p>The assumption is (rightfully) that one of the purposes of parents’ accumulating assets over the years is to provide for their children’s educations, and the EFC calculation uses that assumption. Your family, like so many others, will have to use some savings and make some lifestyle adjustments in order to contribute to your college costs. You can work summers and part-time during the school year to help reduce their burden, or take a year off to work and accumulate your own savings to help defray costs. Why is this not perfectly fair? Who else should be paying for your college experience if not you and your family?</p>