Our daughter’s a HS senior and trying to choose a college. One school she really likes is an out of state public university. SAR showed that our EFC is about $9700 and the estimated cost of attendance of this school is about $57K. To my surprise, this school didn’t offer any grants but only loans & work study.
When I contacted the FA office, I was simply told no financial aid will offered because our EFC is $9700. Does this sound right that we are expected to pay 100% of the cost? FYI, we already have another child who’s attending college FT.
It doesn’t sound at all unusual, especially coming from an out of state public school. Even though EFC stands for Expected Family Contribution, in the case of the FAFSA EFC/SAR, it’s highly misleading. In fact, it’s so misleading that the term EFC as far as it relates to FAFSA will soon go away. Good riddance.
As for where we stand financially, my daughter will need to get a loan of $45K/yr to attend this school, meaning she’ll owe $180K+ in loans by the time she graduates.
This is pretty shocking, especially this school being one of the top public universities in the country.
OP, an out of state public is funded by the citizens of that state. Good or bad- providing financial aid to kids whose families have not paid to support that university is usually not a high priority for a public institution.
Has she been accepted to your own state university? And is that an affordable option? In most cases, it costs substantially less than going to another state’s U.
By definition, the mission of a public university is there to provide education to the people of that state. The people of that state pay for that with their taxes. You did not pay their state taxes, so why should you benefit from the money that they paid?
Basically, that extra money is a partial payment for all of the state taxes which you did not pay.
PS. It’s not the same as low SES people who do not pay taxes, since part of the reason for state taxes is to support the low income residents of the state. You are not a resident of the state, so you do not qualify from that perspective either.
Your EFC is under $10,000. There are only 3 public universities that I am aware of that meet full need. Unless your child is going to one of those schools, you will be full pay (unless merit is involved).
Check that no extra zero got in there (97,000 instead of $9,700).
But, yes, out of state public univ serve their state residents and often admit oos students for the extra revenue. Out of allpublic universities, only UMich, Unc, and Uva meet full need for families making less than 90k I think.
I’m sorry for you and your child: this OOS university is not affordable.
For freshman year, she can get a 5.5k loan herself, that’s it- it adds up to 27k for 4 years of college, which become 31k with interest. That’s what a college graduate can expect to be able to pay back over 10 years.
Where else has she been admitted?
I could be wrong but I don’t believe UNC or UVA (unlike UMich) has an income cap for meeting full need. However, needs are met, at least partially, with loans at all three schools.
We have strong public schools in California (UC’s & CSU’s) and are often surprised when students, as well as their parents, from out of state, don’t REALIZE that the school is being supported by state tax dollars.
The information about non-resident fees are publicized on the UC websites.
From Berkeley:
[quote] New students who are not residents of California will not be eligible for our need-based grants or most scholarships. We encourage you and your family to develop a plan to meet your educational expenses until the time you graduate from UC Berkeley.
Nonresidents of California frequently inquire about assistance with Nonresident Supplemental Tuition. Unfortunately, institutional funds to cover nonresident expenses are not available. Additionally, financial aid appeals typically do not result in the offering of more need-based institutional gift aid.[/quote]
The popular public universities in California just don’t have the money to pay for non-residents. The non-resident fees make up, somewhat, for the expenses of the public universities. There are lines of students from all over the country and internationally who are willing to pay those ridiculous fees for a public university in California. Federal funding, like loans and work study, are FEDERAL and don’t even begin to put a bite on the non-resident fees.
We pay a boatload of money in California State taxes, hence, the residents want their California kids to have spaces available when application time rolls around.
I’m sorry that your child is going through this and you have to explain it to her that you can’t borrow this kind of money-it comes from parent loans. At any point, you may not qualify for future loans and she’ll be stuck because she can’t pay the university bill.
Plus, some parent loans are pay-as-you-go. The bills on some of these start immediately after receiving the funds. If you can’t afford it now, how will you repay thousands per month?
No it’s not easy, but there should be other options that cost less, in your neck of the woods, and wont bankrupt your family.
Has she applied elsewhere that is affordable? If not, are there affordable rolling admissions schools in your state that are still accepting applications?
In the spring there is also usually a list of schools still accepting applications, it would be worth a look. Some of them can provide need based aid.
If nothing else works, can she take a year off and reapply for next year knowing that you can look at finances more closely before application? It sounds like you weren’t aware that OOS public schools usually don’t offer aid to students. There’s no way in the world I would recommend taking out large parent loans for undergrad. Even if you qualify this year, you might not next year and she would have to drop out anyway.
CC is really good at hunting down affordable schools for students/parents, so if it’s needed, let folks know what her stats are (GPA, SAT/ACT if she has them) along with her desired major/field, any preference toward large/small, urban/suburban/rural, etc, and your home state and you will likely get several places to check into.
Meanwhile every state is lamenting the fact that they can’t attract young professionals to their state. Perhaps if they made it more attractive at the start, more young professionals would go to college in that state and stay. I think it has more to do with college profits from out of state students.
Your daughter won’t be able to get a $45K per year loan in her name only. Either she will need a qualified cosigner (for all four years) or you parents will need to take a parent plus loan in your name only.
$45k per year in loans for undergrad is way too much in loans…and I don’t care what school it is. If this is what it will take for her to attend this OOS public, frankly it’s not affordable for your family.
I hope she has affordable options on her application list.
OOS schools throw merit to top applicants, you can see here on CC that those high stat students who can’t afford full pay, students with 36 ACT’s, 4.0 with rigor getting full rides at out of state public schools.
Hm, not really full rides anymore. Even full tuition has become rare, and automatic full tuition is almost a thing of the past. It’s very striking if you compare merit options in 2007-2012, roughly, to 2019-2021.
I agree, there is no free college for the majority, which is why many with Ivy stats are competing for the small amount of generous merit scholarships out there. The valedictorian of my oldest’s class went to in state Rutgers, the salutatorian of the next kid’s class Rutgers, the next got into UVA but transferred to Rutgers a week later, salutatorian University of Delaware (Distinguished scholars) - college is expensive.
