<p>So my school (The University of Texas at Austin) estimated my EFC to be 6232 and I was offered only 1300 in grants per semester (the school probably costs about 11500 per semester). Is this normal for large state universities? I turned everything in on time. And should I try to appeal? And are appeals usually successful in getting more financial aid? Oh I'm a continuing student if that helps at all.</p>
<p>Thanks so much everybody</p>
<p>I dont believe that UT meets full need.</p>
<p>The Maximum Federal Pell Grant is $5,350 regardless of how high the tuition is as long as it is more than $5,350 and your EFC is ZERO. They have their own guidelines and budgets to determine what they can give.</p>
<p>I understand that. However, it’s just that 1,300 per semester was less than I was expecting. So if UT costs about 11500 per semester, subtract 1300 and I’m at 10200, subtract my efc (per semester being 3116) and I’m at 7084. Surely they’re not expecting me to take out 7084 in loans per semester (totaling up to 14000 in loans a year). But I don’t know, maybe it’s this economy pulling down the financial aid.</p>
<p>I would suggest writing a letter to financial aid and ask if there are any other scholarship opportunities you might qualify for or be considered for as you are very concerned about the costs. If you have medical expenses or anything that may show you may show you will have difficulty meeting the costs include an explanation. Good Luck.</p>
<p>My daughter will be going to a state univ. and she got a Pell grant ($1400/yr) because our EFC puts her in the qualifying range, and she got $1500 in work study, and a $1000 “tuition waiver.” All the rest of her aid package was loans (sub- and unsub- Staffords, some Perkins, and PLUS loans.)</p>
<p>They are still working on allocating some insitutional scholarship funds --which she applied for-- so there may be a little more coming… but, yeah, I think this is how it can go with state schools. Technically, they met her full need with all the loans they offered, but there isn’t much “free” money in the award, and most of what there is comes from the government, not the school. If she didn’t qualify for Pell and work-study, there would be virtually nothing.</p>
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<p>Is this significantly different than your award at UT last year or are you a transfer? If your EFC went up, try to figure out why and take another look at the SAR to make sure you filed correctly. You can appeal if there’s been a change in your family income/assets that isn’t reflected by the FAFSA numbers.</p>
<p>I’m sure you know that the COA at most schools is a high estimate - buy your books used/online, take a smaller meal plan or live off campus, etc. and you can probably save a few thousand off the top. You should be able to save a couple thousand from your summer earnings as well. Work part time during school and you should be able to keep borrowing to $10K/year or less.</p>
<p>Just as a baseline, my D’s FA final award offer at an in state public looks like this –</p>
<p>EFC 0</p>
<p>State grant – 10000
Pell grant-- 5350
Perkins – 2300
Stafford sub - 3500</p>
<p>This meets the COA. D has worked and has a summer job so no loans will be necessary this year.</p>
<p>I think if you work in the summer and look at the room/board/travel/books costs that you may be able to get this down a little. My D will earn 5K this summer, so keep in mind that you MAY be able to save some money this summer.</p>
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<p>so you aren’t going to take out the perkins and subsidized stafford loan?? I don’t understand why not. Take the money you would have used instead and put in the bank to earn interest. You can always pay the perkins/stafford back after graduation with no prepay penalty or interest.</p>
<p>Why put out the cash if you are being given and interest free loan (and you have put the cash somewhere safe in the meantime)</p>
<p>Sue, my D was also offered more subsidized loans than needed and will not take the excess. Perkins money is very limited at most schools. If Linda’s D doesn’t need them there are surely others that really do! Also, the origination fee on loans would probably negate the interest for the first year and the money in the bank would be reported on FAFSA for next year. Finally, there’s a lifetime limit on Stafford that she needs to stay under to finish grad school!</p>
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Money that is in the bank from student aid does not have to be reported on FAFSA. My daughter gets a ‘refund’ from the financial aid because she lives off campus. That money is in her bank account pending rent and utility bills when she files FAFSA and is not required to be reported on FAFSA.</p>
<p>Perkins loans do not have origination fees so given the choice I would always take the Perkins. Some banks do not charge origination fees on Stafford loans. My son does not have to pay origination fees for his from a private bank. My daughter’s school is a direct lender she is charged origination fees. I always find it a bit strange.</p>
<p>I used [Discover</a> Student Loans - Apply online for college loans](<a href=“http://www.discoverstudentloans.com%5DDiscover”>http://www.discoverstudentloans.com) and there was no fees AT ALL on the stafford loan.</p>
<p>I didn’t consider the lifetime limit on staffords, good point</p>
<p>If the school is a direct lender, there is no way around the origination fees. They aren’t all that much, though. Lifetime limits are important to consider, but they are really quite high - not easy for the average student to hit.</p>
<p>The lifetime limits are high. $138.5k for graduate students, over $220k for professional students (medical etc) :eek:</p>
<p>My daughter had seriously considered thought about medical school but has gone in a different direction now. I am half sorry and half relieved. I would hate to see her with that sort of debt. She is planning on grad school and possibly a phd - hope she doesn’t come out with anything like that sort of debt!!</p>
<p>If she’s going to grad school in the sciences, she may be able to have all her tuition covered plus get an assistanceship. I know a graduating senior off to a PhD in biochemistry who will earning around 32K as a graduate asst and has his tuition waived.</p>
<p>Good to know. She is a sciences major. I pretty much understand the financing aspects of undergrad but have no clue when it comes to grad school. I know her school has a lot of TAs that are grad students so I assume they get some sort of funding but don’t really understand how it works.</p>
<p>Keep in mind though that the student I was talking about has really excellent grades and spent several undergraduate summers working in research labs around the country. It would help your dd if she could find a summer slot like that, not only for admittance, but also to make sure that she would be happy in a PhD science program when you practically live in the lab.</p>
<p>Thatsmekevin, is this a radically different package than you were offered in past years? If so, is your EFC higher (change in family size, change in # in college, change in income, etc)? If not … were you expecting more for some reason?</p>
<p>I looked at UT-Austin’s tuition. The combination of your EFC & grant is about average tuition for a year. For many publics, that is considered a fair package. You can use loans to cover living expenses - few publics require you to live on campus after freshman year, so the living expenses should be manageable.</p>
<p>I realize that you may not actually HAVE the money to pay your EFC. However, the packaging assumption is that your family will be able to pay that EFC. It may not be the case, but it is how many schools package their aid.</p>
<p>SCM, not sure how the future aid actually works if you’re “stockpiling” loans for future years instead of using it for the current semester. I know only the net asset value would be reported on FAFSA, which would be 0 + interest if it was sitting in a bank account, But thinking it might impact discretionary grant aid if she had interest income from thousands of dollars, which would be a relatively small amount of income at current rates, but still visible to FA! Although not if it was in a non-interest bearing account, I guess.</p>
<p>Kelsmom, any thoughts on this? Sorry, OP, for getting a little sidetracked!</p>