Little confused on this topic. I have an EFC of $12,495. Sticker price is about $36,000 for Iowa State. I’m getting about $8000 in scholarships. How much aid would I be receiving from either the government or the school itself?
Thank you!
What does the Net Price Calculator at Iowa State say? ISU does not meet need, especially for an out of state student, so I wouldn’t expect a lot, if anything, from them. For federal aid the EFC is used to determine eligibility for the Pell grant, but yours is too high to get that.
eta: I just went and plugged your info into the NPC and came up with $21568 Net Price after 8K scholarship and $7560 grant (must be an ISU grant). You’d also qualify for work study and a subsidized loan. Here’s the link to the calculator.
All the federal government is offering these days is PELL grant, Subsidized Direct student loans, and possible work study in terms of aid for need. With your EFC, you do not qualify for PELL.
About $ 23505 what your need is. Simply Cost of attendence minus EFC. That is reduced since the scholarship takes care of $8k of your need, do your net need is $15,505. That means you can get some of that $5500 Freshman year Federal Direct Loan subsidized. You can also get a job funded with Federal work study.
If your state has some grant loan programs, your EFC May make you eligible for some of those funds. It varies from state to state. Your college may give you financial aid up what your need is. All of this aid generally cannot exceed that $15,595, if you take that scholarship.
Unless Iowa State meets full need, which I doubt it does, you are highly likely to have a gap and have to come up with more money than that $12 ,495 EFC. This is typical
@cptofthehouse - With a 36K COA, the OP has to be an out of state student.
@ALewis3 - What program did you or will you be applying to? The engineering department has a separate scholarship. DS20 was invited to apply for it and it said it was a minimum of $3600/year for 2 years.
@cshell2 I am out of state. Going for engineering since UIUC is far more expensive.
@cshell2 Forgot to add. I emailed one of the counselors there and they said the Net Price Calculator isn’t very accurate.
Yikes. Not very accurate as in high or low? I’m kind of relying on it being at least reasonably accurate with the info it has (I know things like outside and department scholarships aren’t included)
@cshell2 The guy said just don’t rely on it. I’m assuming he means it’s high. I need that extra $7500 annually or I won’t be able to afford school. Barely can already. My EFC is a little misleading as I won’t be receiving any help from my parents to pay for college.
Well, I’m crossing my fingers for both of us then!
Have you applied yet? You don’t get invited to fill out the engineering scholarship app until after you’re accepted to the school.
Do you have other, more affordable options? We’re out of state for ISU as well, (MN) and it was in the running according to the NPC, but maybe not…
I applied yes. Got in and all that. Accepted offer of admission. It was the most affordable due to the extra $7500. Everything else is 30k+ annually. I’m from Illinois so all in state schools are excessively expensive. Hopefully the NPC is right…
So what is your net cost per the financial aid page? That is what you will owe.
How are you going to pay that without any support from your parents?
Filling out FAFSA will allow you to take out a Direct Student Loan of $5,500, qualify for a Pell grant (with an EFC of $12K+ you don’t qualify) and/or qualify for federal work study if ISU participates and/or qualify for institutional aid from ISU
My mom said she’d co-sign the loan or whatever it’s called. She can afford it. She just won’t actually help pay it off. By financial aid page do you mean FAFSA or NPC page on the college site?
Are you saying you received your financial aid award letter already? If so, how much is this school saying your net cost will be?
Frankly, I don’t think this is an affordable option considering the amount of loans you will need…but that is my opinion.
You don’t need your mom to co-sign the $5,500 loan. That is all you can take out as a freshman, any additional loans would be on your parents (either Parent Plus or private).
You said ISU COA is $36K and you received $8,000 merit scholarship from them, is that correct? That leaves $28K. What estimate did the NPC give you?
Your net cost to attend ISU is unlikely to get close to your FAFSA EFC…your total cost is likely to be greater, perhaps significantly so.
NPC is giving him a $7500 grant in addition to the 8K scholarship, but he was told not to trust the NPC by Iowa State…which is pretty sucky of them to have an inaccurate calculator.
I meant co-sign a private loan. Going to have to do that for any college I go to, ISU is just the cheapest. NPC gave me about $20k-$21k, but the financial aid office I emailed said to not trust it. It’d be the $36k, minus the $8k. Minus the $7500 grant it said I’d get. I also am not sure if I’ll get that or not due to him saying the NPC isn’t super trustable. I can come up with the $12000 yearly, but that is literally all i have in my college savings account.
@thumper1 I didn’t get it yet. The NPC said $7500 annually in a grant. If I get that, after all the money i have saved I’ll be at about $40k in debt, which is the cheapest out of every college I looked at.
Got it now thanks.
So even with that $7,500 grant (perhaps that could still happen once they receive your FAFSA filing, but perhaps not) you would still have around $20K to pay…how will you be able to pay that? And that $20K doesn’t include travel expense, other living expenses, incidentals, etc.
And yes, an inaccurate NPC certainly isn’t helping matters.
You don’t have to make a matriculation decision until you have your actual financial aid award.
Did you get invited to apply for the engineering scholarship yet? Also, the cost of attendance includes $2400/year of “personal expenses”. There’s a good chance you can keep that a lot lower. Summer job, work study and Stafford loan should be a fairly easy 10K/year.