<p>I know colleges make their decisions on FA based in part by the EFC reported by the SAR Report. I'm a dependant, but will have to pay for college on my own because my parents won't help. So I'm wondering if this EFC result is going to be working against me, or if I might have a chance at some good FA. </p>
<p>Thank you for your help.</p>
<p>Your EFC is fairly low, so you might be up for some subsidized Stafford and Perkins loans. If your college offers need-based financial aid, you might get something, but you might not. I am not sure if your Efc IS low enough to get a Pell Grant, but I don’t think so. All of the non-federal aid is dependent on which college it is you’re applying to.</p>
<p>It is too high for federal grants including the Pell.</p>
<p>It means $6,246 is the least most colleges will expect you to pay, but very few will cost you just that. </p>
<p>With an EFC this low, as long as your parents don’t have significant assets, it means your best bet for affordibility will probably be a school that meets 100% of need. These are mostly top schools, so you need strong stats to use this strategy.</p>
<p>Is this an estimated or actual EFC? It sounds as if you’re not in college yet? Anyway, the current maximum EFC that is Pell-eligible for 10/11 is 5273 (which results in an award of around $277/year). If this is an estimated EFC, you and your parents may be able to reduce it by using moving student savings to a 529 account, using parent savings (if above the savings protection allowance) to pay off bills that aren’t considered by FAFSA (ie credit card debt and car loans) but would free up monthly income. You can use this document to get a better feel for what is contributing to your EFC (just use the worksheets/tables marked A):</p>
<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/111609EFCFormulaGuide20102011.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/111609EFCFormulaGuide20102011.pdf</a></p>
<p>It depends entirely on the college you choose. It does definitely exclude you from the PELL grant. But that is about all it tells you without knowing what college you are spotlighting.</p>
<p>For example, if you choose to go to a local state school that costs less than that EFC, you are definitely not going to get financial aid. You would be permitted to borrow non subsidized Stafford loans towards that EFC which comes to $5500. If that local state school has dorms and you want to live there, bringing your Cost of Attendance (COA) up to say $16,246K, you could get some of that Stafford subsidized so you don’t have it accumulating interest while you are in school. As to getting any grants or other aid from the college depends totally on what that college has to give you. You could get the full $10K of need met (rare, but possible for a student that the school really wants and if the school has the money), or you could get nothing. In this scenario, what usually happens is you may get a small grant if you have high enough stats, and access to work study. </p>
<p>If you apply to a school that guarantees to meet 100% of need, the chances are pretty good that you will have to fill out another form, usually PROFILE and your need will be reassessed using that data. The school will then meet that need from their own funds, and also might throw in those Stafford loans as part of the package so you can’t use them to pay your part of the contribution. Many fin aid colleges have a grant component, loan component (often partly or entirely made up of Staffords) and some work study as well. It can vary greatly what the ratios of those parts are.</p>
<p>On the other hand, there are some extremely generous schools with tough admission standards that tend to generously meet need, generously define need and don’t give out loans or give out very few loans. You need great stats to get into such schools. If you have those kind of stats, some less selective schools might be willing to ante up more in funds even if they do not guarantee to meet need and you could get a good package from them too, possibly merit/aid combo packages.</p>
<p>IF your parents are divorced and this EFC is calculated with only the custodial parents’ financials, your PROFILE need figure might be waaay different as many kids from single parent homes have discovered. Many PROFILE schools want both parents’ and their spouses financial info.</p>
<p>@sk8rmom: I attend college, but abroad. And this is my actual EFC according to my SAR. As I mentioned, I’m living abroad and so are my parents. So I’m OOS because we pays federal taxes, so my tuitions aren’t exactly low. </p>
<p>@cptofthehouse: thank you for mentioning the divorced parents issue, as it’s my case. I’mm actually not working with my custodial parent’s financials. The parent I live with is not a US citizen, therefore does not file for taxes in the US. Would this make a difference? I was actually planning on trying to change my status into an independant student… which shouldn’t be a problem since I won’t be recieveing help from home.</p>
<p>Actually it is very difficult to change your status to independent. The requirements to be considered an independent student are quite rigid (age 24 or over, married, have a dependent of your own, are a veteran etc etc). Not receiving financial help from parents does not make you eligible to be considered independent for financial aid.</p>
<p>@swimcatsmom: yes I knew this already. But it’s a burden for me, being a dependent, because that money isn’t mine. I have read, don’t remember where specifically, that it was possible to become an independent if you file your own taxes (you work, get legally emancipated, etc etc). So I was considering on maybe doing that.</p>
<p>I might be wrong to consider it a burden, but it sure looks that way from where I’m standing. :S</p>
<p>It is a burden to many students, but that doesn’t change the rules for them. Many parents will not contribute to college but that does not stop the schools from expecting them to.</p>
<p>All parents would say they are not paying if their kids could then declared independent.</p>
<p>Legal emancipation does work, but it’s expensive to get and you’d need to prove your parents are abusive.</p>
<p>It is *very *difficult. I know several students who have worked full time and returned to school after a break and still have been considered dependents for FA purposes. My own son returned to college at 22 after working full time and being completely independent, including not being claimed on our taxes for several years and paying his own rent and bills etc, and he was considered a dependent for FA purposes. usually there has to be some sort of evidence of long term complete estrangement from you parents or something like an an abusive situation. As redroses stated, if it were that easy then all parents could just refuse to pay and all students could be independent.</p>
<p>Unless you are married, have a dependent, are a veteran or in some very special situation, you have to be age 24 to be considered independent. I don’t see that as a possibility for you. It is not easy to get that status for reasons that Swimcatsmom has stated.</p>
<p>I would suggest you look at MomfromTexas’s thread on full ride scholarships. If you look for schools that are not well known that have merit scholarships for which you qualify, you may find a school willing to pay for you. The mainstream schools have enough applications from so many kids that getting merit awards require very high stats most of the time to get full rides. And to get substantial financial aid, your best bet are the schools that use PROFILE and will disregard your FAFSA EFC and want your other parent’s financial information. I’m not saying that you should not give it a try, but you should tuck some safety schools on your list too since you need financial aid. Those schools should be financial safeties as well as admissions safeties.</p>
<p>Also, your custodial parent according to FAFSA is the parent with whom you are spending the most time. If you are living in the US and going to school as you live with the US parent, that is your custodial parent. It’s going to look strange that you have a custodial parent overseas while you are attending school here in the US. That would raise a flag on my part.</p>
<p>*I was actually planning on trying to change my status into an independant student… which shouldn’t be a problem since I won’t be recieveing help from home. *</p>
<p>Many, many parents won’t pay, yet kids can’t just become “independent” otherwise all parents would make that claim.</p>
<p>Which colleges will you be applying to?</p>
<p>Since you’re OOS, then you need to know that most state schools won’t meet your need and many privates won’t either. You may need to continue your education in your country.</p>
<p>Since you’re a transfer student, your chances for aid are even more limited.</p>
<p>Where will you be applying?</p>
<p>@Redroses & swimcatsmom: Thank you so much. And you ARE right, I guess every parent would say the same. I’ll just have to deal with it.</p>
<p>@cpofthehouse: Yes, I will check for those scholarships, also I’m looking into loans (for I suspect I’m going to have to take one) and I agree, schools using PROFILE might be more suitable as they will probably understand my situation a bit better. </p>
<p>“If you are living in the US and going to school as you live with the US parent, that is your custodial parent. It’s going to look strange that you have a custodial parent overseas while you are attending school here in the US. That would raise a flag on my part.”
^ I wouldn’t be living with either parent once I go back to the US, they both live abroad.</p>
<p>Where will you be applying?</p>