EFC Question

Paying for College
1

<p>Well as this year is my senior year I have been putting together all my college info, and looking into financial aid.</p>

<p>My estimated EFC- 2000</p>

<p>So from what I understand it would tuition-efc=federal aid, or along the lines of that.</p>

<p>What worries me is how will going to an out of state college affect the aid I receive, and as I wish to work on a double major would that have any ill affects on federal aid.</p>

<p>Any information that you can provide you be appreciated.</p>

<p>Thank you in advance.</p>

<p>Oh one more question.
Do private and public universities calculate aid differently, or have a different amount of aid available?</p>

2

<p>First, you should know that your equation (tuition-efc=federal aid) is not correct. Your FAFSA EFC will determine whether or not you’re eligble for any government grants, and subsidized or unsubsidized loans. (It’s not really quite that simple, but just speaking broadly here.)</p>

<p>So even if you got, say, a $2500 Pell grant, and say $3000 in subsidized loans, and another $5000 in unsubsidized loans… that gets you to $10,500. (And of course if you kept up borrowing at that rate you’d have a debt of $32,000 at the end of 4 years – not good!) Then add in maybe $3000 in workstudy that you may not even be able to make. That gets you to $13,500. Add in your family contribution of $2000, now we’re up to $15,500. Depending on where you go (probably an instate public for that amount) it may be barely enough to squeak you by if it’s a relatively inexpensive school, assuming you’re living on campus paying tuition, fees, room & board, books, and personal expenses. (Living at home can save a bundle.) So… no, your equation does not reflect the financial reality of going to college.</p>

<p>And you need to be very careful how much debt you take on. Schools call loans “financial aid” – but it’s not really aid because it’s still going to be your money (plus interest!) that pays those bills… just later on.</p>

<p>Addressing your other questions: Going out of state would not affect your aid, except if your state has some state funds available for in-state students – you wouldn’t be eligible for that. It will not affect your federal aid, however. (Although going to an out-of-state public college is usually much more expensive than it is for in-state students. (There are a few exceptions to this.)</p>

<p>A double major is not a factor in determing financial aid.</p>

<p>Colleges (public and private) have very individual policies for calculating aid. Offers can vary <em>dramatically</em> between different colleges. You usually won’t know what kind of offer you’ll get until you get accepted and actually see it. They can also have very different amounts of funding available depending on their endowments, various dedicated scholarship funds, and their policies.</p>

<p>There are also outside scholarships you can apply for, but lots of students will usually be competing with you for those funds.</p>

3

<p>Federal aid is fairly limited and is not likely to be enough to bridge the gap between your EFC and even most 4 year state Us COA. My daughter has a 0 EFC and would have a large gap even with maximum federal grants and loans if she did not have pretty good merit scholarships. As far as federal loans the maximum Stafford loans for a freshman are $5500 of which up to $3500 may be subsidized. Those are the only fed loans you can be sure of. The other fed student loan, Perkins, are very limited and some schools do not even have them. For grants you should be eligible for the Pell (@$3500ish with a 2000 EFC) and possibly the ACG ($750) if you meet the academic criteria). Other aid would depend on the school and their policies - that is if they have their own institutional aid. Some do. Some do not. Also your state may or may not have aid programs. For instance ours does for students staying instate but requires an EFC below 1500 for their small grant ($1000).</p>

4

<p>^^^^</p>

<p>The three parent responses above are very, very good.</p>

<p>Many kids (and parents) mistakenly think federal dollars are going to pay all college costs minus EFC. Which is soooooo not true. </p>

<p>Also, I noticed in the OP’s post, he/she only spoke of tuition. Tuition is only part of college costs. If you must live on campus, you’ll have another $8k-12k costs for that. Plus, there are book costs (usually another $1k), plus college fees and course fees. Of course, there are usually transportation costs and personal expenses, too.</p>

<p>Therefore, a state college that may only charge $7k in tuition, may actually cost $18k or more to attend. So, if your grants only pay for a fraction of that $18k cost, you’ll be expected to make up the rest with various (expensive) student loans.</p>