Does this mean we have to pay $12883 a year
No, you may have to pay less than that or more than that. It depends on the cost of the college.
It means you will not qualify for a Pell grant. The college will determine if the Stafford loans will be subsidized or unsubsidized based on total costs, other grants and scholarships. Some schools use the FAFSA numbers to award their own funds for grants. The school will determine if your child qualifies for SEOG (fed grant) or work study, usually comparing all the students applying for those funds and giving them out to the students with the most need until they are gone (some schools have a lot of funds, others very little).
No, it generally means that you will have to pay at LEAST 12883 since most schools gap. Most schools will not give need based FA that reduces your EFC. Also understand that CSS Profile schools will calculate the EFC base on their own formula.
It means very little. That EFC is well-beyond qualifying for fed grants (and that is what FAFSA application is for…fed aid). Some schools may use FAFSA to give some of their own aid, but usually schools that have aid of their own to give also require CSS Profile.
Most schools do not have much/any aid to give OTHER than fed aid. So, often a family with an EFC like that is “full pay” and may only see a $5500 loan and maybe $2k of work study in the FA pkg.
Where did your child apply?
What is his home state?
How much can you pay per year?
the term EFC is a misnomer. the Feds have ZERO authority to tell colleges to give you any money beyond federal aid (and you don’t qualify for fed grants). Besides, most colleges have little/no money to give.
Where do you get the “most colleges have little or no money to give”? Most colleges are little LACS, and they do give aid, often lots of it.
Most students, however, go to large state universities. Your statement about little or no aid money does apply to large state U’s. (And what aid there is at large state U’s may be first-come-first-serve, so be sure to apply early.)
To OP:
You should also check into aid from your state government. Many states have a state college fund where students who are eligible can take the money to any in-state public. This may require a separate application process from the school application process. (But the school financial aid website should tell you how to go apply for funds at the state website: schools always want the money.)
The little LACs that give more aid have much higher initial sticker prices than the state U’s. Your actual net price may be higher or lower than your net price at a state U versus a small college, depending on the schools and their aid policies. Run NPCs for both types of schools to figure it out.
For example…say your child wants to go to an OOS public that costs $45k per year and your child didn’t receive any merit scholarships from that school (many schools don’t give much/any merit either).
$45k COA
$13k EFC
$32k of “need”
The school would likely ONLY give your child a $5,500 loan and maybe $2000 of work study, leaving you to pay over $40k per year.
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Where do you get the “most colleges have little or no money to give”? Most colleges are little LACS, and they do give aid, often lots of it.
Most students, however, go to large state universities. Your statement about little or no aid money does apply to large state U’s. (And what aid there is at large state U’s may be first-come-first-serve, so be sure to apply early.)
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Most colleges are not “little LACs” that have a lot of aid to give. Absolutely not! Lol
There are over 4000 colleges, and most of them are NOT “little LACs” with a lot of aid to give. And certainly most do not come close to meeting need.
If the OP’s child got into one of those LACs that give some aid, not only would they have to pay their EFC each year, likely they’d have to a pay a good bit more.
Most colleges are not “little LACs” that would take a $13k EFC and fill the rest with aid.
Hopefully the OP will come back. Her post sounds like even paying $13k per year would be an issue, so paying more may be absolutely impossible.
The above is confusing. @AnitaH73 if you apply to “meets need” schools, you will generally be required to pay $12,833 with the remaining amount being covered by a combination of work study, $5000 student loan, and grant (discount) from the school. The “generally” part is tricky… Schools determine their own need and high ranked schools are usually more generous than low. The best way to find out the cost is to run the Net Price Calculator of a school your child is interested in. If that lines up with the EFC, you should feel pretty confident that the EFC is close.
@suzyQ7 except for the net price calculators that aren’t close, which we’ve discovered are many.
Run the NPC’s on each of your child’s schools’ websites. If you have a simple situation (wages, some savings), then the results should be fairly accurate. If your situation is more complex: assets, contributions to retirement accts, business deductions, NonCustodial Parents, rental properties, then NPCs can be less accurate.
Also…many see their EFCs and think that their “need” will be full met with grants, and therefore their child can take out a loan to help cover their EFC (and/or work part time to help cover it), only to discover a full loan and work study were used towards that “need”, and/or the school doesn’t even come close to meeting need and there is a big gap in coverage.
How much can you pay each year for 4 years?
What schools did your child apply to?
Did you try the Net Price Calculator for each school?
That is not at all what I said. What I said was:
The question for most students is not “which school will meet my EFC?” (since 100% need met schools are hard to get into). The question is “which school will have the smallest gap between my net price and my EFC?”
But, yes, most colleges are “little.” There are 4700 degree-granting institutions in the US. Only about 2000 of them are in the Common Data Set. The “missing” 2700 are almost all small, sometimes tiny, schools. Of the 2000 in the common data set, about half of them have 1500 students or fewer.
“if you apply to “meets need” schools, you will generally be required to pay $12,833 with the remaining amount being covered by a combination of work study, $5000 student loan, and grant (discount) from the school.”
Not quite. The 12833 is essentially meaningless. Where it starts, for a “meet full need” college, is THEIR calculation of what the family can afford to pay, then your “need.” You have to run the NPC, assuming your fin situation is vanilla.
Eg, our college’s formula said we could pay roughly Fafsa SAR plus 30%. In OP’s case, that could mean not 12833, but 17k. Then, you need to see how the NPC packages their aid.
@AroundHere But where do you get the idea “Most colleges are little LACS, and they do give aid, often lots of it.”
That sounds like “perfect world.” Many little schools don’t have the endowment and have to limit what goes out in aid.
OP’s going to need a big bundle of support.
Tuition revenue is, indeed, declining.
Revenue is not declining really. They increase the price by 3% per year then discount it 3% for 75% of students. They are still up! Its a racket.
Lower ranked private schools (under rank 150) with sticker prices north of 50K HAVE TO discount. They will not fill seats if they don’t discount.
From the article:
“According to the report, the average growth in net tuition revenue — the money earned from students after schools provide financial aid — per first-time, full-time freshman was 1.2 percent this year, compared to 2.1 percent in 2014-2015.”
Less of a revenue increase (average growth) from one year to the next does not equal a decline in revenue. It just grew less quickly. @AroundHere
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@AroundHere The above is what I was really taking issue with and I think you know that.
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Lower ranked private schools (under rank 150) with sticker prices north of 50K HAVE TO discount. They will not fill seats if they don’t discount.
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Giving phony discounts by “fake raising rates” so that the school can then pretend to give some merit money is not the same thing as giving lots of aid.
Someone concerned with having a $13k EFC is not likely going to find some “little LAC” affordable . A $65k COA “little LAC” with over-priced tuition is not suddenly going to be affordable because a $15k merit award is thrown around to every applicant.
AnitaH73, I think some of the responses implied that there are many private schools that will cover a large portion of need-based aid. Our EFC is approximately the same as yours for each of our twins. One goes to a large private university in Boston and our out of pocket cost is actually well-below our EFC (in part because they also offered some merit-based money on top of the need-based grant awarded). The other goes to a large private university in NY and our out of pocket cost is about 25 - 30% over our EFC. You simply have to do your research . . . public/state schools typically do not offer any need-based financial aid above the standard federal loans for $5,500. But most private schools will offer something toward your need. As suggested, it is best to run the NPC for each school to get an idea of how much you may be eligible for. Both of the schools my children selected turned out to be the best financial options for us. It took a lot of legwork but we couldn’t be more pleased to have found schools that work with the EFC and try to keep their costs attainable for families.
Maybe…maybe not. YMMV depending on the school.
Plus if you get a $5000 grant (which is “something”) for a college with a cost in the $65,000 range…is this really going to help?