FAFSA for Students with Parent on Disability

Paying for College
1

I am curious as to how much financial aid I will receive with my predicament.

I live with my retired grandmother, twin sister and single mother whose income is the sole income we live off of.

My mom has suffered from a nerve disease in her foot called RSD, and her only income is Social Security Disability. My mom is divorced and I am not in contact with my father, and do not receive any help from his income, which to my knowledge is not that much any way.

From what I’ve been told, Disability is not a taxable income, so how will the FAFSA calculate my need for financial aid, and if me and my sister do not make any income of our own, how much financial aid should I expect to receive?

Also, I do not have any family member who could cosign my loans, which seems to be a necessary thing with colleges. How do I go about getting a cosigner when I don’t have anyone who could?

2

https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1415/pdf/PdfFafsa14-15.pdf
Line 94i

As to how that affects your financial aid, it may not unless you attend a college that meets need. You can’t get loans beyond Direct Loans of $5500 as a freshman. That with your <$6K of a Pell Grant will be it at most schools. What are your stats and what is your home state?

3

So does this mean I’ll have to rely on what the school gives me? This worries me as I cannot afford full tuition.

Are you asking for academic stats? And my home state is New Jersey.

4

If your EFC is 0, which sounds possible you get:
Pell Grant 5,770
Student Loan 5,500

If you don’t have a qualified cosigner then you simply can’t get loans period. With one exception, if your pareent applied for and is declined for a Parent Plus loan, you the student can get an additional 4,000. But that adds a possibly unreasonable amount of debt for a new grad to repay. The amount you can take out in your own name will result in a $300 per month payment which most people consider reasonable.

If your state give state aid you would get that too. Otherwise any other funds will have to come from the college, however not all colleges are able to give it. Some ‘meet need’ for all students, but most do not. Some will give it based on your gpa and test scores. The colleges that give the best aid are not FAFSA only, only requiring your mother’s info. The privates will want CSS Profile information and that will usually require your father’s income and asset information also. Unless you have a case to make for omitting it --it is not necessarily easy to get but you can petition each college for a waiver. They don’t know that he doesn’t have anything until he fills it out and they have his tax info.

If you can’t afford your state college then some people start off at a CC. Others with high stats can find colleges that give merit aid, this forum keeps list of such colleges pinned in the threads at the top.

5

Cumulative GPA: 3.98uw
SAT: 1950 (590 reading, 730 math, 630 writing)

=1320 M+CR (that is what most merit aid is based on)

You applied to Pitt I see, but may not get enough to attend. Where else did you apply?

You need to apply to some schools now. Deadlines are approaching Dec 1 for some schools. Research who may give you enough aid in these threads. Also some more modest privates may but that is usually a big hunt and takes time.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html#latest

There are also other threads to look at pinned at top.

6

If you can commute to a community college from your home, the Prll Grant, and the Direct Loan should cover your tuition, fees, and personal expenses for college.

Your home state is NJ. It is highly unlikely that you will receive sufficient financial aid to attend Pitt, which is a public university that is out of state for you.

Where can you commute from your home? Can you commute to any of the four year public universities in NJ? What about the community colleges?

7

Do you have any summer job savings?

Can you improve your test scores?

8

Isn’t Pell Grant plus $5500 enough to cover tuition to many state universities? You can probably pay for a college you can commute to. Many colleges offer free room and board to RA’s but you usually have to be a sophomore to qualify.

Search “colleges that meet need” and see if there are any you can apply to. Most of them are very selective and in reality few students get the near free ride.

NJ is one of the few states that offer free tuition to state schools if you join the National Guard.

http://www.njarmyguard.com/tuition/

You could then use your Pell and loan to pay room and board which is usually $9,000-$11,000. I’m just brainstorming for you.

9

@BrownParent Yes, I was accepted to Pitt and it is my top choice. I would be crushed if I couldn’t go there, but if I do get some financial aid from the school I may consider taking out loans for whatever else I have to pay. Their general out of state tuition is around $44,000, how much do you think my tuition could be lowered?

10

How would you take that loan out? That would be far too much money, so thank goodness no one will lend that to you. You simply cannot select schools without regard to cost. Sure you can apply and get into plenty of schools you can’t attend, what is the point of that? Each school has a Net Price Calculator to estimate aid, at least need aid. And they all have scholarship pages. Now time is running out to find colleges you can get enough aid from. Even if you get a full tuition somewhere, and that is not easy, you will still have 15k or so of room/board/books/misc to cover.

The Pitt calculator is a bare boned federal calculator, pretty crummy. As you will see they don’t even bother to update it each year. For your situation as described above yields:

Academic Year: 2012-13

Estimated tuition and fees $27,202

  • Estimated room and board charges
    (Includes rooming accommodations and meals)
    $9,870
  • Estimated cost of books and supplies $1,132
  • Estimated other expenses
    (Personal expenses, transportation, etc.) $3,122

Estimated total cost of attendance: $41,326

  • Estimated total grant aid:
    (Includes aid from Federal, State, or Local Governments, or the Institution)
    $11,860

Estimated Net Price After Grants and Scholarships: $29,466 per yea

So as you see, they may not give you any need aid as an OOS student. That would be typical, it is more privates who will give the need aid. You would need a huge amount of merit aid. from the school to be able to attend as it will cost $120,000 over 4 years. So now you look at scholarships page:

In recent years, scholarship eligible students possessed ALL of the following:
–minimum SAT score of 1450 (math and critical reading scores only) or 33 ACT (Math and English subscores average)
–overall ‘A’ average
–top 5% class rank (if applicable) while participating in challenging high school curriculums consisting of AP/IB/Honors courses
–record of excellence in various academic and nonacademic activities outside of the classroom

So, because test scores are an important driver of merit aid, it is a good bet you will not be getting enough money to attend. Now where did you apply that you can attend? Temple will give you more I think, but not enough. You don’t qualify for the top 2 awards there because of test scores. But you can get 14k a year. Add that to 11k fed aid and you have 25 a year covered. However because there is an OOS rate it may not be enough.
http://admissions.temple.edu/sites/admissions/files/uploads/010-1415_Scholarship-Info_FINAL-ADA_508%20%281%29.pdf

11

By contrast look at the Rutgers calculator results, it actually asks your gpa and test scores so as to estimate more merit aid:

Rutgers University Direct Cost
Tuition & Fees + $14,130
Room & Board + $12,054
Total Direct Costs $26,184

Rutgers University Indirect Cost
Books & Supplies + $1,350
Other Expenses + $3,750
Total Indirect Costs $5,100
Total Cost $31,284

Your estimated need:
Total Cost $31,284
Expected Family Contribution (EFC) - $0
Total Need $31,284

Your Estimated Grants and Scholarships:
Federal Grants
Federal Pell Grant - $5,775
FSEOG Grant - $1,500

New Jersey Tuition Aid Grant - $9,284

Rutgers Assistance Grant - $2,441
Total Grants and Scholarships $19,000

Your Estimated Net Price
$12,284

Your Estimated Eligibility for Other Sources of Aid:
Student Loans
Federal Perkins Loan - $1,000
Direct Subsidized Loan - $3,500
Direct Unsubsidized Loan - $2,000

Remaining Cost After Financial Aid
$5,784

Additional Sources of Aid
Federal Work Study - $2,000

So it looks like you can attend Rutgers with a summer job and some work/study as well as federal loans. Now look at the lists of automatic aid and see if you can see a possibility. Apply Rutgers. Don’t give up your New Jersey State aid unless you get full aid from a private. Apply TCNJ, and anywhere else instate. Look for some privates that meet 100% need (see wikipedia.)

12

I’m not sure you will find a cosigner who is not a parent. Since you can’t take $44,000 a year in loans, you may find that Pitt is unaffordable.

In your situation, you need to concentrate the rest of your college search on colleges that you will be able to afford to attend.

Is there ANY college in NJ where you can commute?

13

@thumper1 There are some relatives I have that may agree to cosign. What is the maximum that can be taken out in loans?

14

The maiximum would be what your relatives agree to…and what they actually qualify to borrow. Your relatives cannot take out things like Parent Plus loans…which have a fair,y low threshold for qualifying.

You would be looking at private college loans. Lots of issues with those. First…the cosigner has to qualify for the loan…and keep in mind college is four years…so they will need to qualify for that amount of time. You are asking someone to borrow $150,000 or so (remember, costs will increase) to fund your college costs. That is a LOT of loans for an undergrad degree…a lot.

Private loans do not tyicallymhave a deferral period. So, once disbursed, you and your cosigner would likely need to begin repayment. Will they be able to do,that? Of course, you should check terms of any loan you take.

To be honest, I would strongly suggest you NOT take on this huge amount of college debt. It’s huge. The repayment over 10 years would be in excess of $1500 a month. Your relatives will be responsible for,this if you can’t pay.

I wouldn’t cosign loans for my own kids…I would never consider this for some other relative,mregsrdless of the situation.

Please reconsider this debt. There is no college that is worth $150,000 in undergrad debt, in my opinion.

15

What is your career goal? And how much will you likely be earning upon graduation?

It isn’t a good idea to borrow more than $30k for undergrad TOTAL.

To ask a relative to co-sign for you isn’t very nice. It puts them in a very uncomfortable position. You’re not likely going to be able to pay that much back, and the burden will become THEIRS.

I hope that your relatives have the good sense to save you from such a risky plan.

16

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I’m sorry for the harshness, but to get one’s heart set on an unaffordable school was setting yourself up for disappointment.

Pitt is just a state school. There’s nothing so significant that you can’t get a similar education at someplace affordable.

I wouldn’t go test drive a Ferrari, and get my heart set on one, and then be crushed when the reality of affordability hit me in the face.

17

Yes, the #1 source of financial aid is the school itself. Therefore, with an EFC 0, you need to target schools that will give you as 100% financial aid you need.

Asking relatives to co-sign for huge amounts of money - keeping in mind they’ll need to start paying immediately andboth you you will be chained to this until it’s paid off, so, no mortgage for a house, no loan for a car for the both of you… until this is paid off, ie., at best when you’re in your 40’s - is really crummy. I know you did it because you don’t realize what it means for your relative, but don’t do this to him/her.

Pitt WILL NOT be affordable. You will NOT be able to attend. Mourn now and get moving so that you don’t end up in community college. If you stay fixated on Pitt, you’ll be stuck. Your deadline is fast approaching - ten days!

Today’s the last day you can register as a late registration test scores. Register for the SAT 1 and for the ACT (they’re not on the same date). With just a few more points you could get full tuition scholarships at several universities.

For now, you MUST apply to Rutgers, Rutgers Honors (although you’re about 50 points too low, they may take into account your school and family context), TCNJ - ASAP and by December 1st.
Then, for your stats, I’d recommend you apply to Muhlenberg, Hamilton, Colby (you get an automatic full tuition scholarship and may get a full ride due to their new financial aid policy), Connecticut College, Trinity College (CT), St Lawrence.
If you have family in NYC you could apply to Baruch Honors (Nov 30 deadline I think) and Macaulay (Dec 1st), CCNY Honors and Macaulay, Fordham.

18

It’s time to grow up and face reality. Crushing debt for an out of state school is beyond ridiculous. It could affect you and your cosigner for the rest of your lives and delay / impede marriage, kids, home purchase and retirement.

19

There is some sage advice on this thread - do not miss the application deadlines, and the additional test dates could help you with affordable options.

The reason there is a limit to what a student can borrow as UG is that with or w/o finishing their degree, it is so the student loan is not so crushing. As it is now, many students defer their loans and end up paying a lot of interest that accumulates over the years when they are paying minimal payments.

What do you want to study?

Once you apply to the affordable schools, you can see what your options may be.

20

According the OP to this thread…the sole support for five people is her mother’s SSI. Where in the world would she drum up the money for room and board costs?

This student needs to look for in state public options to which she can commute.

A full tuition scholarship will only be helpful if she is able to fund all remaining costs with her direct Loan and Pell Grant.

She needs to have some really affordable options just in case these others don’t pan out.

There are other public universities in NJ, plus community colleges scattered around. Again I ask…where can she commute? Because her Pell and Direct Loan could likely cover the costs of tuition and fees at other publics on NJ that are less costly than TCNJ and Rutgers.