Have your community college kiddo talk to the transfer advisor at his community college. Those folks often know where aid is available for transfers from their college. They also know where the CC courses will best transfer towards a four year degree. Totally worth asking.
when you go to a school that doesn’t give out institutional grants (like many many state public schools) - how can you appeal your FA award? they are giving nothing because they have nothing to give.
something to think about as your kids move farther along: there’s the American Opportunity Tax credit (up to $2500 back) if your income is below $180K. Also, room and board can be cut quite a bit by living off campus. (Many freshmen are mandated to live on campus their first year, but once that’s over it can really help).
That is a good point ^^^ made . Also, it just occurred to me that if your son in CC was such a great student in dual enrollment, he should be all over any merit money that the CC has. This is something you and your younger child should be investigating too.
That is, if the CC has any merit money to give out. Our local ones do. No financial aid, however as direct loans cover most of the cost and those with very low incomes qualify for PELL. We Also have state money that is an entitlement.
Since he is in community college and costs are pretty low, I assume he lives at home.
Have him get a job for weekends and breaks and save that money.
If the grandparents want to help, ask the grandparents to contribute to a 529 account now and save that money for next year.
Have him take his student loans for this year and save it.
Do you have any schools in commutable distance where he could finish his degree?
Since you are a single parent with good income but won’t be able to afford to pay your EFC for 9 kids, make sure they attend instate publics in commutable distance or a college that will give them substantial merit based on GPA and test scores.
@mommdc he said he was single income not a single parent.
Perhaps the spouse can get a part time job to help.
We’re single income, my wife stays home and works for free at a much harder job than I have 
We have 3 local schools within driving distance, two are very expensive private schools and the public one is not very reputable for the majors he is looking into. He is working an AmeriCorps job this year that will give him around $3k into a school fund plus some walk-around money. We’ve committed to our kids to pay for their first 2 years of CC but their 4 year school will be theirs on loans…etc so I’m just trying to make sure that I’m doing all that I can for those final years.
Juniors and seniors are limited to $7,500 in Direct Student loans each of the two years.
Any loan amounts beyond that will require parental involvement either by the parents taking out Parent Plus or private loans, or by co-signing private loans in the student’s name…either way parents will be legally responsible for repayment.
Also many 4 year colleges often do not accept all CC credits…students must plan carefully and it’s often best to transfer to a 4-year college that has an articulation agreement with the CC.
Lastly, many schools offer significantly less fin aid for transfers, again requires carefully planning/research.
Good luck.
You’ve given your kids quite a challenge in leaving it up to them to pay for the last two years of college. Unfortunately, the college financial aid system puts the burden to pay on you by making YOUR income and assets what drives the financial aid package. In other words, they cannot get financial aid until the family EFC is paid and the main component of that number is YOUR income.
They are also additionally hampered from getting a lot of the scholarships out there because most of them are for freshmen. Not transfer students.
I don’t see how a kid finishing up first two years of college is going to get the money to go away to school AND pay the tuition, room and board, supplies, books, transportation and other living expenses. You are getting away really cheap paying community college tuition and just paying expenses for kid to commute there, continuing to live at home. Where do you think your kids are going to get the money, for day, Illinois State?
Your state is very expensive In terms of public college costs. Illinois State’s edging close to $30k a year these days and all your son is entitled to get is $6500 in Direct Loans. Where do you think he’s going to get that kind of money? He’s lucky to get a job making $30k clear full time.
You are not being realistic here
Well, my wife did this exact thing 20 years ago, we paid her loans off and have moved on with life. It worked out pretty well. Some rules have changed, but I’m stressing to my kids that if they want to go to college, they need to ensure it is in a field where they can pay their bills and some student loan debt.
Is it not realistic to make sure a kid is serious and going to work hard vs just give them a blank check and say “have fun!”? I think it’s much less realistic to send an 18 year old to a 4-year school that maybe gave them some money to then flounder and have to change directions. Mistakes at $150 a credit hour are MUCH less costly than at $900 a credit, maybe $500 with some scholarship money…especially when they can live at home and not rack up room and board for those first two years.
Most financial experts believe CC is a much better way to go for the reasons above and more.
When I went to the U of Illinois 20 years ago, it was $12k for tuition and room and board. Now, it is $37k for the same degree. If anyone isn’t realistic, it’s the educational system that just loves unlimited government money and loans with zero collateral.
Between my son’s existing scholarships, AmeriCorps, gift from grandparents, and an actual direction thanks to Community College…I’m sure he’s going to be just fine. He may leave school with $20-$40k student loan debt, but the avg starting salary for his field is well more than double that. He is in much better shape than many young people I know who have $100k+ in student loans because they went to all 4 years to a big school to get the exact same degree.
I came here to understand the nuances of FAFSA and if dependent count mattered, now I understand more, thanks.
I’m curious where you think your son is going to come up with the $30k a year all by himself for the last 2 years of his college.
He is only entitled to $6500 in loans for junior year and $7500 in senior year. Unless YOU sign for more with him, he’s not likely to get more than that. How much is he going to be able to save to make a dent in those two last years of college that are going to come to about $60k? How much are grandparents gonna give him? Americorp isn’t going to give much more than 5% of that amount as a grant, and he’ll be hard put to save much on what they pay him. My kid did Americorp too. It’s not a moneymaker.
If he borrows the entire $60k with you the co-borrower and right on the front lines for responsibility of repayment, as each installment is paid to the school, interest starts adding up. He may not hit $100k in two years, but he’ll be well over $50k and may even pay back $100k with interest over the lifetime of that loan.
And you are going to co-sign 9x over if you do this with each of them putting you on the hook for nearly a half million dollars. Bear in mind, it’s your loans too. If anything happens to them, you owe that money, not even in death does that obligation part.
If your son got high test scores and great grades in dual enrollment courses, it was possible that he’d have found a school where he might have been able to go tuition free or for a lot less than UI for all four years., or even 2 and Cc. That ship has pretty much sailed for him as a transfer student unless he gets very very lucky instead of just lucky. Not much money for transfer students
However, you might want to look at that route for your other 8 kids. Like right now your junior in high school should be taking a PSAT this month if he hasn’t missed the deadline already , and possibly starting eligibility as a National Merit Finalist which can mean full rides.
I paid for every bit of my education with a full ride stacked on financial aid back in my day. That doesn’t happen much, if ever, any more. Also, my school cost less than $7k full with room and board and. living expenses back in that day. The costs today are over $80k for the same school, more than 10x that amount. It was doable back then in ways that the numbers do not make it so today.
He should look into the Jack Kemp Cooke scholarship for transfer from CC. You need to look at the requirements for the scholarship and then work toward earning it. Get the right letters of recommendation, complete the right volunteer hours, submit the forms on time.
I met a kid at the orientation for my oldest. He was one of 7 kids and his parents paid for year one, but after that each kid was on his own --and they all did it. This was at Wyoming and the instate cost is very low, but they each made a plan. He was in ROTC (and trying to talk my daughter into it, waiving a scholarship $$ at her), a couple of his siblings had been RAs in the dorms, they had jobs, they had some scholarships from the school/state, took the loans.
I think your income is too high to qualify for Pell grants, even with multiple kids in school. Have your kids look for local scholarships --Elks, American Legion, Pepsi, art contests, essay contests, Boy Scouts (if they are), credit unions, your employer. Most are only $500-1000 but every little bit helps. If any of the younger kids are interested in the military,have them look at ROTC or a service academy. If any have good test taking skills, go all out on the PSAT to try to get national merit, or look at schools that give high awards to high scores/gpa. Look at the schools in states that don’t cost much - South Dakota has very low tuition even for OOS. There is a list on this board of public schools that don’t charge more for OOS (I was surprised how many were on there).
You are doing the right thing by asking questions on here. I learned a ton (maybe too late?) about scholarships, tax breaks, ways to work FA. Spend some time on the older threads on the FA and Scholarship section and see how others did it. There may be a school someone mentions that you’ve never considered and that would work for one of your kids.
You might also be able to have several kids living together off campus and save money over individual leases.
Good luck.
It’s $7,500 for both the third and fourth year of undergraduate studies.
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized
OP, I apologized for coming off harsh. I have a lot of kids too, though you beat me in this regard. And we were pretty much a one income family most of the time they were growing up.
My kids could not get financial aid because we made too much money. The system puts it on the parents to pay for college, and in our case, we were running short in meeting our EFC because we did not save enough money, we were living close enough to income that we could not pay college costs out of income current to that time. As I stated, kids can’t take out more than the direct loans, $5500 freshman year to $7500 senior year which wasn’t going to pay for a year of going away to school even back 20 years ago.
So we borrowed with the oldest who got into a Highly selective private college. Reorganized finances, and priorities, And the second one picked a state school, got scholarship money. Others all variations in that theme. Scholarships, financial aid Community college, state schools Americorp , loans, savings, work , Resident advisor, lucrative internship , family help, all cane into the picture… and didn’t at various times during our 20 year journey that just ended this year.
Hopefully, you stick around and browse through the forums that have incredible resources, ideas, information, tips, etc etc A lot of highly informed members here.
Do verify any info you get from here or anywhere from a current, primary source, as sometimes things change or someone gets it wrong.
Good luck and hope to read you around
Sometimes. Sometimes not. It depends on the degree, the scholarship potential and the 4 year school you want to finish at.
My son is applying for next year and got over 15K/year in 4 year renewable scholarships at a couple schools. They offer almost nothing to transfer students. Plus he’s majoring in engineering and two of the schools start with engineering courses right out of the gate freshman year. Due to having to follow the sequence and the pre-req requirements he would not be shaving years off going to a CC first, he would just be lightening his load at the 4 year school. There’s value in that for sure, but if he’s still going to be there for 3 or 4 years, I’d rather it be with a scholarship and all credits over 12 being free and him working harder those years.