My family’s income is about 100K and our efc turned out to be 18K. How good are my chances for receiving ample financial aid? I’m not sure if this efc is the average amount for families with this income–is this high or low? I’m applying to several upper-tier schools, which I heard have great financial aid packages (only if I get in, of course,) but I know it varies family to family. The schools I’m applying to are:
Yale, Brown, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Rice, Emory, UT Austin, UT Dallas (this one will be free plus extra money because of my scores).
I’m sorry that I seem to be a little clueless about this. Any responses would be amazing, thank you!
Apply and see.
Yale, Brown, Duke, Hopkins, Rice, Vandy, and Emory also require the CSS Profile. The Profile info is what these schools use to determine need based institutional aid.
And some of these schools have VERY low acceptance rates…VERY…so you need to get accepted first.
Are your parents self employed? Divorced? Do they own real estate other than your residence? If not…have you run the net price calculators on these college websites?
Yes, I’m aware of that, thank you for the response! My parents are still together, own no other real estate, and the NPCs for most of them have come to about under 30K.
Are you NMSF? or have you already gotten an AES offer from UTD? If you get into Rice and are a TX resident you should get good FA there, UT not so much.
The net price calculators should be a decent estimate of your net costs.
But I would be shocked if Yale net cost was the same as Emory…for example. YAle has much more generous need based aid than the others.
Are your parents ok with paying 30k/year?
Thanks for all the responses!! I am a Texas resident and NMSF. The npcs varied from 20 to 30k. My parents told me 30k was fine, although if the efc is 18k…that’s not adding up. They are the type to say “education first, money second” but I will try my best to alleviate some of the financial burden, they’ve already done so much for me.
The EFC is a calculation for federally funded need based aid only.
Your schools that use the FAFSA only (no Profile) do not guarantee to meet full need for all…so what you are seeing is a gap between your need and the cost of attendance. In other words…they will NOT meet your full need. That $18,000 EFC would be the MINIMUM you would be expected to pay.
The other schools use the CSS Profile which looks at a LOT more detail in terms of your finances than the FAFSA does. Many of the schools on your list consider some portion of primary home equity, for example. That is NOT reflected on the FAFSA EFC. So again…that $18,000 FAFSA EFC doesn’t mean a lot at schools that use the Profile.
@culaccino if you haven’t already, please visit UTD, it’s not the school for everyone but if you can see yourself there FREE is amazing! Save your money and go to grad school at a “prestious” school. I ran the math yesterday, picking the middle meal plan their, NM scholarship will cover all tuition, R&B and still have $49.28 left to apply toward books each semester. UTD is my son’s current first choice school, he’s also a NMSF.
@3scoutsmom UTD hasn’t been high on my list but I’m definitely visiting next semester! You’re right, free really is a great offer, so I’m not booting it off my list for sure.