No, federal student loans for freshmen are limited to $5,500
Are there other loans she can take? (or is it up to us to take the PLUS loan - which we could be denied based on credit)? I read they can get more if PLUS loan is denied.
The more Im reading, the more it looks rather expensive 
Yes, parents can take out Plus loan, and I believe student can take extra $4k as freshman if parent is denied.
But the school has to be affordable for four years. If the student has to transfer because of cost then the merit scholarship goes away as well.
It is a lot easier for freshmen to get merit scholarships at schools than transfer students.
Yes, unfortunately a school that costs more than EFC after aid is expensive and most likely unaffordable.
You have to pay what the school charges: tuition, fees, room and board (if not commuting) minus any aid (merit, institutional, federal, state). That is your out of pocket cost.
The schools will provide estimates for books and travel costs in their COA, but you don’t have to pay these costs to the school and might be able to save money by buying used books, renting books, choosing a school where travel costs are relatively low.
Students often focus on the school with the best personal fit, but it has to be a good financial fit for the family as well.
thank you all.
@jtolpin Please keep in mind that it’s not accurate to think that if a school meets 70% of need, that you multiply your unmet need by 70% to arrive at the amount of aid your student will receive.
A school might meet zero% of your need and 100% of 2 other people’s need and 75% of 2 more people’s need for an average of 70% of need met.
Or there could be 4 wealthy applicants whose need is only $7,850 each, which is ‘met’ through the $5500 federal loan obtained through filing the FAFSA and no school-provided free money. Each of those 4 students had 70% of need met.
Someone can jump in but I believe if you are denied a parent plus loan your daughter may get a small bump in what she can borrow.
What you need to understand is that EFC is meaningless except for determining your eligibility for federal aid for most schools. As stated above, it usually represents the least amount you will pay unless your merit based aid exceeds your need based aid. If you are applying to a school that uses the CCS Profile then they will calculate a EFC based on what they feel you can pay based on the Profile. This EFC will likely be higher (in many cases much higher) than the FAFSA EFC. This number will vary school to school because every Profile school has their own formula for EFC. Even this number has limited value since most schools do not meet full need and gap. You will not find out your actual EFC for these schools until you get the FA package.
So - going back to this now, the package came:
Cost : 42K
FA Awards:
Merit Scholarship 10K
Direct subsized Stafford $3,500
Direct unsubsidized Stafford $2,000
Federal Work Study - $1,800
Remaining Direct Cost $26.4K
Other Costs (Books, etc…) - $5K
My question, I guess, going back to EFC - I was expecting more to come off the costs.
(A 2 day meet/greet is next week where we meet with our FA person for 15 minutes, but what can we do, if anything now, to bring the costs down?)
Thanks!
^
That is not a guaranteed. If your child is late to find job, he/she might not find any.
What am I supposed to do if I applied to more than 10 colleges?
The school costs $42k the only aid is $10k merit. So you would pay $32k.
Student can take out $5,500 loan. That would leave $26,500.
Work study is earned as a paycheck during semester. Not available for paying semester bill.
Earlier you asked if student could borrow more if parents denied because of credit rating on the Plus. As answered, yes she could borrow $4000 more. BUT, being denied is not as common as being approved. They aren’t looking at a credit score for approval or even ability to repay. Parents are denied only if 1) delinquent on a major credit obligation (car, house); 2) in default on a debt to the government (parents own student loan, loan for another child, VA loan, FHA loan) 3) bankruptcy filed in last 5 years. Not easy to be denied.
Your meeting the FA office can let you know if there is any money to be had.
Thanks… The term ‘Any money to be had…’ would mean what?
I guess the first timer shows now… I thought there would be more money (any money) taken off from grants or anything, but there wasn’t.
Is there actually something that could come off the billl, after talking to the FA person this week?
Ok if your EFC is low then there might be extra federal or state grants available, institutional need based grants or federal work study.
But if it’s not and the school does not meet need for all then the merit and loans looks like all you would be able to get.
Last year my D applied to an instate public and private school.
The public one had a merit scholarship, state grant and federal loans in our FA package.
The private one had a merit scholarship, state grant, work study, institutional grant and federal loans in the FA package. But the remaining net price was still higher than our EFC and higher than the net price of the public school because the private school was much more expensive to begin with.
For your net price to be close to your EFC of $16k the school would need to offer at least $20k in merit or (merit plus institutional grant) and then student can take $5,500 loan.
Or you need to have a school that offers full tuition for stats and then you pay room and board, books, etc.