Hi,
I just got back my financial aid package from Loyola Marymount in LA. My income (from 2013) was 51k and 6k was spent giving child support off to another child, so technically 45k? Anyways, my “expected family contribution” totals to 28k at Loyola Marymount with about 10k being loans and 5k merit. Does 28k sound normal at any school for a income of 51k?! I feel like it’s ridiculous and I obviously can’t go if it’d cost me that much.
Thank you!
Did you apply to any financial safety schools? Did you apply to any schools that guarantee to meet full need? What were you expecting to have happen?
@Madison85: I applied to a lot of schools but will not receive any of those packages until end of March/early April so I have no idea what to expect for the rest.
@Madison85: I didn’t expect for my “family contribution” to be over half of my parent’s income…
Before applying, did you check if any of the schools you picked guarantee to meet full need? How did you decide what schools to apply to? How much can your parents pay each year for four years? Can you commute to a community college?
@Madison85: I am definitely not going to community college. I applied to 18 schools. My parents are not contributing at all towards my college education, which is the problem. I’ve won $20,400 in private scholarships so far and I’m also a finalist for a couple national ones. I did a lot of financial aid calculators, but my income increased this past year so my original numbers are now inaccurate.
My income (from 2013) was 51k and 6k was spent giving child support off to another child, so technically 45k?
[/QUOTE]
???
“my income”?? Is it YOUR income or your parents’ income?
LMU doesn’t meet need. Your FAFSA EFC is probably lower, but LMU doesn’t meet need.
where else did you apply?
Are the scholarships mainly for the first year?
If your parents won’t contribute anything, and since you can only borrow a limited amount, you may have a problem…even if any of the 18 schools do guarantee to meet need, since your patents won’t pay anything, just be aware. …
One of the scholarships is $10,000 and is distributed over 4 years for just tuition. One is $1000 for just tuition as well. The others are presented to me with a check so I can use the funds any way I choose.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve won $20,400 in private scholarships
The others are presented to me with a check so I can use the funds any way I choose.
[/QUOTE]
So, you have $2500 per year from one ($10k total)
And you have $10k in checks to YOU?
@mom2collegekids Correct! 10k from one for tuition, 1k from one for tuition, others are in checks that will be presented to me later in this year at the organization’s lunch/dinner presentations (because they want me to have the option to use their money to buy a laptop, travel expenses, etc.)
Remember to report all scholarships to the college you attend.
Are you a CA resident?
@Lilliana330: No. Loyola Marymount is private though so my residence doesn’t matter there in terms of tuition.
What is your home state?
What other schools did you apply to?
@liveyourlife26 I understand that. I was going to ask if you had applied to UC’s/CSU’s if you were + suggest you use those as a financial safeties, but I guess that’s not possible.
If you run the NPC with made up numbers, of course it won’t have anything to do with your financial aid package. If you run the NPC with more accurate estimates, that tells you what to expect. You know the price of LMU from the website, that is the cost. If you get anything from them you are lucky, because they do not meet need. So you are ‘gapped’ like most students. Only if you apply to a ‘meets 100% need’ college can you expect your need to be met, and then the college determines what the need it, so different colleges will still vary. LMU only gives a few the full amount they need, just some.
Number of (freshman) students determined to have financial need: 750
Number of (freshman) students whose need was fully met: 104
On average, pct of need met: 66
And you need to be careful with your Outside Scholarships. Those have to be declared to your college and your college may very likely expect you to use that instead of their need based aid, so you may not be able to spend it on whatever you want. You will have to check with each school to see the policy.
Yes, that sounds right to me. Our family income last year was ~$56k and one of the private schools our son applied to (COA $60k) expected us to pay about half that amount.
It sounds about right to me too - If you’d really like to go there but, can’t pay that much, you can go back and ask for more. Particularly if you’ve got more cost effective options.
What’s the worst that can happen?
The question isn’t whether a particular amount “sounds normal” for a particular income when you’re talking about a school that CAN’T meet need.
That is like asking, “is it normal for Mercedes to expect me to pay $60k for a car when I only make $75k”?
A school like LMU (and most schools are like LMU) does NOT have a treasure chest of funds to hand out. That means that modest income students can rarely attend unless they can commute or have some other way to pay (ROTC or whatever).
There are schools that cost $60k that would only give you a $5500 loan with that income.