<p>^ Yeah, but would Vassar know about that beforehand?</p>
<p>I’m assuming Vassar would meet ALL need, and THEN once the OP shows them the award, Vas would go ahead and subtract the loans or whatever self-help aid they offered.</p>
<p>Okay, its late and my math was wrong…guess I need to stop doing math calculations after 5pm ;)</p>
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<p>College is a huge investment. It is going to be quite expensive. It WILL and is SUPPOSED TO (based on the financial aid system in place) eat through much of your income and savings. Your family makes $140,000 a year and has $350,000 between savings and equity. I would say your package is on par for a 100% need school. In fact, if you went to any other school than a 100% need school, you’d probably be paying full tuition.</p>
<p>It isn’t pretty. It isn’t what you want to hear. The system may not be fair to you. In fact, it may not be fair to a lot of people. But unfortunately, that’s the way it works - colleges are money-making institutions.</p>
<p>schools that meet need 100%- use any combination of Loans- work study & grants to do so.
PROFILE and the schools own forms helps to identify additional need and available funds for college.</p>
<p>* not saying we can’t afford it. We can…by eating through all our savings and a substantial amt of income. *</p>
<p>THen as you are intelligent enough to be admitted to Vassar, I expect you had enough foresight to identify colleges your family could afford.
Especially considering that next year they could reduce your grant and extend the unsubsidized loans instead.</p>
<p>My daughter is at Barnard and my annual contribution has always been at least $10K more than the FAFSA EFC. (For the coming year, my d. is eligible for a Pell grant … so it will be interesting to see what Barnard does with that – last year we were required to pay about +$18K over and above the FAFSA EFC). The big wildcards for me are home equity – and I’m a single parent, but my d’s father’s income is included in the calculation, even though he does not contribute anything. My income from employment is usually around $45K (I’m self employed). </p>
<p>I come up with my end with a PLUS loan. Usually I can pay about half out of my income and assets, and borrow the other half. The loan payments really aren’t bad – I’ve signed up for automatic withdrawal and the truth is I don’t even notice them. I figure that when my daughter graduates from college, I’ll be in a position to start paying the loans down faster. Plus my daughter has been taking the maximum subsidized stafford loan each year, even though her college does not require quite that much. And we’ve shaved off some of the cost of attendance by economizing, so I don’t pay as much as the figures would indicate. For example, my daughter doesn’t have a meal plan but cooks her own food, and pays for that on her own -that right there is a savings for me of about $4500 a year, though of course it is a greater burden on my daughter. (I do send her packaged food to help out – but a box of dried spaghetti or a packet of tuna fish costs a lot less than even a single meal on the plan, and will go a lot farther). </p>
<p>afaceinspace – your post is a good illustration as to why ED is such a bad idea. There is no way that I would have allowed either of my kids to apply ED. I would not have allowed my d. to attend Barnard if our first year financial aid package was anything like what we had to pay last year – but the first year aid was better and I’m hoping for a better package next year. But we didn’t make a choice until we had all information in hand – plus we were making a choice based on what my assets were in May, not what they were the previous November. (Back in 2006 when my d. applied to college, I don’t think things changed during that interval – but of course this year is quite a different matter.)</p>
<p>I guess in the end its up to your parents to decide what they want to do. I’m sure if you ask, Vassar will explain where the figures come from – I’ve always written out my questions, sent them by email, and then asked someone from financial aid to call me to discuss them. One year the grant was increased by several hundred dollars when it turned out that I had a personal expense that they would consider but hadn’t factored in - we wouldn’t have discovered that if I hadn’t been on the phone talking.</p>
<p>I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for your family, simply because nobody forced you to go the ED option. My kids both had to turn down their top choice colleges because of inadequate financial aid - a tough choice, but they also had an array of other options including our in-state publics. I wouldn’t go to a car lot and agree to purchase a new car without knowing what it would cost me – I am continually amazed that so many prospective college students are willing to do just that. </p>
<p>And for what? A slightly improved chance of getting into a college you now discover you can’t really afford? It’s sad, because you are willing to go to UW and you definitely would have been admitted – but you gave up your right to make that choice when you signed the ED agreement. </p>
<p>I apologize if this sounds harsh, because in my opinion this really is not your fault – I think it is the parents’ responsibility to take care of the financial planning part, since it is their money and they should have the knowledge and experience to think about such things. (I mean… I wouldn’t send a 17 year old to meet with my broker and plan how to invest my retirement assets; why would I allow the sane kid to try to navigate the financial aid system on their own?) The information about financial aid is widely available – your $200K home equity accounts for +$11K in EFC by itself, just following the standard formula. Your parents would have figured that out with minimal inquiry.</p>
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Not true, IF the college is defining “need” to be higher than FAFSA EFC. Stafford Loan eligibility is defined by the FAFSA EFC, no matter what the college determines via the CSS Profile.</p>
<p>** OK – I see now that OP has an outside scholarship which was applied to the loans – so that’s why he no longer has the option. He (or she) probably is still technically eligible for the Stafford loans, but if he takes them, then Vassar would have every right to reduce its grant. It makes sense to opt for a grant over loans.</p>
<p>The college determined my “need” to be less than what FAFSA determined ($11k less, specifically, like I mentioned before). However, FAFSA determined me to be eligible for federal aid (I’m assuming this means I’m eligible for the Stafford loan). If the loan was used to meet my lesser determined “need”, should it be a subsidized loan? Or is an unsubsidized loan used to meet need standard? </p>
<p>Thumper1-“my children never had a subsidized loan.” were you guys eligible for federal aid on FAFSA? If not, that would explain why. I think.</p>
<p>Our EFC was $22,000. Cost of attendance was $48,000. Scholarship was $10,000. Loan was partially subsidized and partially unsubsidized…that was with TWO kids in college.</p>
<p>DD’s EFC for next year is $39,000. Cost of Attendance…$52,000. Aid is $6000 grant. Loan is UNSUBSIDIZED. VERY similar to your situation. She is also losing her work study award (which is ok because her job is also a university funded job…not just work study).</p>
<p>aface,</p>
<p>Unsubsidized loans are federal aid. A student can have an EFC of 99,999 and still qualify for unsub loans, but not sub loans. Unsub loans are not need-based loans.</p>
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If you have unmet need according to your FAFSA EFC, you should be eligible for a subsidized Stafford loan.</p>