<p>Household Income: less than $45,000
tuition fee: more than $30,000</p>
<p>so what can I expect from FAFSA?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>FAFSA doesn’t give you anything. FAFSA is a form that takes you information and computes the eligibility for federally funded need based aid. With your family income, you would probably receive some portion of a Pell grant (the maximum is about $5000), maybe SEOG, a Stafford loan ($5500 max for freshman year). This will not equal $30,000, I don’t believe. </p>
<p>It is possible that your college(s) or state might also have money for low income students. You will have to check that.</p>
<p>In addition, if your academic stats are sufficiently high, some places might also award you merit aid in and addition to your need based aid, in the form of scholarships.</p>
<p>There is a lot of variance on what schools offer students in aid, even with very low EFC (your will be low). Some schools are more generous than others. Some meet a higher percentage of your need than others. Some leave students with gaps meaning their aid does not fill the difference between the cost of attendance and the efc. You need to check the financial aid website of schools to which you are interested in applying and see the types of aid they provide.</p>
<p>thumper1, thanks!</p>
<p>I did already check the website, but there’s no much information there.</p>
<p>I thought loans give a greater amount of money, but as I see…</p>
<p>The maximum Stafford loan for a student is $5500 for freshman year. Any loans beyond that would either be in your parent’s name or in your name with a cosigner. BUT with the income you reported for your family, I would not recommend that they take out loans in their name.</p>
<p>You say your school costs $30,000 a year? Is that a public university in your state? If not, are there any? Is there any public university near your home where you could commute thus saving the costs of housing/board? </p>
<p>Are you looking at any other schools with a lower cost of attendance?</p>
<p>I look at other schools with a lower cost of attendance, but I also care about the quality of the institution… the college(private) is in my state.</p>
<p>There are public university, but these universities are not near my home. Can you imagine driving 20-30 miles a day?<br>
so I don’t know what to do…</p>
<p>Yes, I can imagine driving 20-30 miles a day…I drive that distance to my job and back and my husband drives twice that far.</p>
<p>You need to discuss college costs with your parents. You need to find out IF they are able to contribute anything to your education. Some private schools meet better need than others. Without knowing your school, it’s hard to know just what they do. </p>
<p>You need to have a plan to pay your college bills. Some private schools will discuss their need based aid possibilities with prospective students. You might want to look into this. And you also might want to at least look at less expensive options. Have a broad range of options so you will have a choice in the end where the bills can be covered.</p>
<p>I am looking at Suffolk University and Simmons college. Both are in Boston, MA.</p>
<p>P.S. Other threads indicate you are applying to MA College of Pharmacy…I do not believe they meet full need. I checked their website and for the 2008-09 school year (two years ago) the cost of attendance was over $39,000 per year for years 1-3 and $55K per year for years 4-5 (unless I’m reading this incorrectly…which certainly IS possible).</p>
<p>Federally funded need based aid will be a drop in the bucket for these costs. You need to have some idea of how you will cover the costs.</p>
<p>Your current SAT score of 1500 will not likely put you in the running for merit aid there either. </p>
<p>Please…look at a lot of options. Pharmacy schools are competitive for admissions and scholarships. </p>
<p>Good luck…and cast a wide net.</p>
<p>Suffolk and Simmons are not schools with good aid. You would have to be a top candidate to get even close to what you need from those schools. Consider your state schools too.</p>
<p>Find an EFC (estimated family contribution) calculator, preferably from the colleges your are interested in. Once you find out your EFC, you can get a good idea what your family can pay and then try to find colleges that can cover all need. Typically these colleges are upper tier colleges but I’m sure there are colleges out there that cover all need.</p>
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<p>I would suggest that you add some more affordable, instate public universities to your list. You need to have AT LEAST one school on your list that is both affordable AND is a place you would attend if accepted. </p>
<p>What is it about Suffolk and Simmons that make them rise to the top of your list? Look for schools with similar characteristics that are less expensive.</p>
<p>Are you planning to study pharmacy? You have to ask a lot of questions specifically about their pre-pharm & pharm aid. Some schools consider the student in professional phase to be in a grad program as soon as they are classified year 1 - which means no grants. Others allow students to stay undergrad until they reach a certain number of credits. Also, many schools that offer good merit aid do NOT offer it for their pre-pharm students (because the program is so competitive, they don’t need to give merit to attract students). We ended up choosing a public U in our state for my S for pre-pharm/pharm. While he was accepted into other programs, the 6 year cost was a lot higher everywhere else. Please do some very careful investigation.</p>