<p>Hey all. I was hoping someone could give me an idea of what might happen, FA wise, based on my situation. I recently got my EFC, but after doing some digging, I'm not sure I will qualify for any aid. I should mention that I am hoping to attend a state school in our city in the spring and I am currently attending a CC. </p>
<p>I am an independent student, based on age and I'm married, no children. Our combined income for 2008 was slightly over 50k. We have no significant assets (savings, etc). My EFC was around 14k. The school I'm planning on attending has an annual tuition of around 9k. </p>
<p>Does this sound relatively accurate and should I not be expecting to received any sort of financial aid, such as loans? I know that Pell Grants and other need based aid is out of the question. </p>
<p>Well…you will be able to take out an unsubsidized Stafford loan if you file the FAFSA. Since your EFC is above the cost of attendance, you would not likely be eligible for need based aid. Yes, that EFC sounds “average” for your income range…maybe a tad on the high side, but not much. </p>
<p>Are you applying for any merit aid too? Perhaps you will get a merit award of some sort.</p>
<p>Thanks, Thumper! I had been going on the assumption that unsub Staffords would be the only thing I would qualify for, but read something recently that gave me the impression that I wouldn’t qualify for those based on the fact that my EFC was more than the tuition. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, I won’t qualify for merit aid, based on the fact that I made some bad educational decisions when I was younger (I failed several semesters). I have managed to raise my GPA a decent amount, but not enough for merit aid.</p>
<p>splash, someone will correct me if I’m wrong…but even as an independent commuter student (that’s what you will be, correct?), there is still an allowance for living expenses that is part of your cost of attendance. Check your school website…there should be costs for resident students, and for commuters.</p>
<p>You are correct, I will be an independent commuter student, but I’m not seeing anything on their website about an allowance for living expenses built into the tuition. Tuition is around $315 a credit hour and that only includes the usual student fees, but not room and board or books. Obviously, I’ll need the books, but room and board is covered already.</p>
<p>Splash…your living expenses are NOT built into the tuition. Most residential colleges (the ones that have dorms) also have commuter students. On the website, there should be the cost for room/board. There usually is an amount for oncampus…and off campus costs. Yours would be off campus.</p>
<p>Example from the U of Missouri website…this details the cost of attendance. You can see, it lists both on/off campus and gives the same amount for room/board costs as part of the cost…separate from the tuition. </p>
<p>I realize this may not be your school, but every school has a similar cost breakdown someplace.</p>
<p>Oh, now I understand! The rate I quoted doesn’t include room and board and is tuition only. This is mostly a commuter school to begin with, which is likely why room and board costs weren’t anywhere that I could find on the Cashier’s page. </p>
<p>This is the breakdown from the school’s website and the numbers I’ve been using in my planning.</p>
<p>Credit Hours: 15</p>
<p>Education Fees<br>
$3,684.00
Information Tech Fee:<br>
$183.00
University Center Fee:<br>
$74.62
Athletic Fee:<br>
$53.05
Student Activity Fee:<br>
$52.68
Physical Facilities:<br>
$8.31
Student Association Fee:<br>
$1.50
Student Health Fees:<br>
$46.36
Collegiate Readership Fee:<br>
$2.72
Multi Purposes/Student Center Fees:
$30.00</p>
<p>In the end, tacking on room and board would just mean you could borrow more unless the school meets need (most don’t) which you don’t want to do if you don’t have to.</p>
<p>Don’t borrow more than you’ll need. Paying back student loans can be a huge drag - especially if later you realize that you could have gotten by with borrowing less. (My H regrets borrowing more than he needed.)</p>
<p>Since you’re married, you might have children at some point during the “loan pay back” period. Children are expensive enough without having to pay back a lot of student loans, too. Borrow as little as you can. :)</p>
<p>I won’t be taking on loans for anything other than tuition and possibly books. Housing is taken care of, so there’s no need to borrow for that. I will also be working at least part time throughout, so that will also limit what I will need to borrow because I will be paying part of my educational expenses as I go. I will be completing my associates degree next month and paid for all of that out of pocket. The tuition costs at the university are quite a bit higher (obviously), so I will need loans to help pay for it, but don’t plan to finance the entire amount of tuition for the next two years. </p>
<p>This process is a bit different than the first time I went through it a decade ago. When I was in college before, I was Pell Grant eligible and all of my tuition and book expenses were paid for.</p>
Borrow as little as you can. :)</p>