<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I'm currently a junior and I will be applying to colleges this upcoming Fall and then for FAFSA the following January. My mother has been unemployed for about 2-3 months, but she finally got a contract job that she will begin on Monday. Will the fact that she was unemployed for some time help me get some financial aid? Or do you think they will overlook it because:</p>
<p>a. A relatively short amount of time
b. My father was employed all of this year
c. She now does have a job (I'm not sure when the contract ends, seeing as how she just got the job. She may or may not still be employed when I apply for financial aid)
d. We're considered "upper middle class" (although I don't think our household income before tax deductions surpasses 250K)</p>
<p>Will I be eligible for any financial aid at all? My family has never had any money problems like not being able to pay the bills, but college is a lot of money, and I'm really scared about student loans.</p>
<p>Any help is appreciated :)</p>
<p>You probably won’t get financial aid…or much financial aid as that is primarily based on income. Your family income might be a tad lower if your mom didn’t earn any for a couple months. You and your parents can sit down and run a FAFSA calculator right away and get an idea of what your estimated family contribution will be at colleges that need only the FAFSA to give financial aid. Rule of thumb is that it’s 20-30% of annual income. So if your family income is $100,000 your estimated family contribution might be $20-30,000. The gap between that number and the cost of attendance is called “need”. Most colleges do not meet need, that is they will not give you financial aid to fill any gaps.</p>
<p>Now colleges also offer merit based aid which is like discounting the costs. If you want to look for the ‘best deal’ for your parents than look for colleges that offer merit aid. These awards are often called scholarships. Some colleges also offer grant aid. Look for that on the financial aid pages.</p>
<p>Finally, do talk to your parents about how much they feel they can contribute and pay for your college education. This will also help you determine where you might apply.</p>
<p>Oh and by the way, if your family income is really close to $250,000 that puts you at the top of the heap for family income, not in the middle so do work “with” your parents on your college applications.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Family income for the year is the important thing here. Your Mom being unemployed for a short period of time really will not make a difference unless it is also combined with a low family income for the year, or is ongoing and will cause income in the upcoming year to be low. As your dad is employed, your Mom’s employment was short lived, and the total income sounds very high, it is unlikely you will qualify for need based aid.</p>
<p>The main federal grant is the Pell and the maximum for a year is $5500. To receive the maximum requires a 0 EFC. A 0 EFC reflects very low income. The automatic 0 EFC cut off for 2011-2013 is an AGI of $23,000. Someone with an AGI of less than $23,000 who is unemployed would qualify for a 0 EFC and be eligible for the maximum $5500 Pell (this can change, the cut off AGI last year was $32,000). People with higher incomes than that can get the Pell, but income would still be low to qualify.</p>
<p>If your income is anywhere near $250k a year, you will not qualify for need based aid at any school. Even the very generous ones like the Ivies do not offer aid for that high an income. It is important to talk to your parents about what they can and will pay. Then make sure you include schools in your list that are financial safeties that you can afford without financial aid.</p>
<p>The government and colleges expect family college costs to be paid from previous income(savings), current income and both your and your parents future income(loans). Have your parents saved anything? As mentioned, the first thing to find out is how much your parents will contribute each year. How many siblings you have and whether they will be in college at the same time will influence the amount of any need based aid you will get. But as said, anywhere close to 250k income will likely get you little if anything anywhere for need based aid. You are right to be scared about too much loan debt. If it comes to that you need to find less expensive schools. Merit aid will be based largely on GPA and test scores and is more likely at schools where you rank near the top of the school’s admitted freshman.</p>
<p>Thanks to whomever replied to me! I appreciate your time to write out your posts :)</p>
<p>I didn’t think I would qualify for financial aid and I didn’t even think about applying at all until people told me to do it just to see if I could get anything. </p>
<p>Also, I’m an only child, my parents have maybe 50-70K saved, and my household income is probably somewhere between 200-250K, so yeah…it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting much, if any at all. </p>
<p>Hopefully I can get some merit based scholarships. My academics are good (ranked 2 or 3 out of 500 something, good sat score, blah blah blah), but they’re not spectacular, so we’ll see what happens by then</p>
<p>Thanks again</p>
<p>If you want to soften the college costs for your family, do look for schools where you will receive merit aid. I would have to agree with others…with your family income it is highly unlikely you will get need based aid as your family contribution will likely exceed the cost of attending every school in the country.</p>
<p>That being said…there are options for you in terms of merit aid. Look for schools where your stats are at the tippy top of the applicant pool…or where you would receive guaranteed merit aid based on the stats you have (SAT/ACT scores, and GPA).</p>
<p>Thumper1, my family does not have money problems, yes, but we are in no way able to be able to contribute more than the cost of the cost of college per year. You are extremely mistaken. 250K/year lifestyle is middle class with some perks like a decent neighborhood or a nice vacation every few years; it is by no means an income that automatically qualifies having to shell out $50K/year on school.</p>
<p>That income is in the top 1.8% of the country.</p>
<p>You are very fortunate to be part of a family that makes an income that is higher than almost everyone in the country. You just don’t realize it, because it is probably “normal” for your area. Frankly, I could easily pay $50k/year for college if we made that much … but that is because I am looking at it from the perspective of someone who doesn’t make nearly that much & thinks our income is very good. Because I don’t make that much, I don’t live that lifestyle. It really is all in what you know, what you spend … but I only say that to help you understand that you are indeed very fortunate. </p>
<p>You are also fortunate that your parents have saved money to assist with your college costs. I would think they can afford your state flagship. If you want to attend a school that costs more, they may not be willing or able to pay that much … in which case, you would be wise to find schools where you are relatively certain you would receive merit to bring costs down. Please have a conversation with your parents to find out exactly how much they plan to spend on college each year.</p>
<p>I wasnt posting what I think. I was posting the facts about need based aid and your family income. Tiger, it really doesn’t matter what <em>I</em> think. With an income in the $200,000 per year range, ALL colleges will compute your family contribution to be in the $50,000 per year plus range for college.</p>
<p>Re: your eligibility for need based aid using FAFSA only calculations… You will not be eligible for any need based aid using FAFSA numbers.</p>
<p>You will be able to take out an usubsidized Stafford loan.</p>
<p>If you are truly concerned about money for college, get a summer/school year job! You can also work while at college. Not only will you have some extra cash, you may gain insights about all sorts of things.</p>
<p>
A $250k annual income is by no means middle class. It probably seems that way to you because it is the norm for you and you are used to it and are surrounded by others that are used to it, but it is far far above a normal middle class income.</p>
<p>
Well, as far as schools are concerned, it is an income that automatically qualifies yo to have to “shell out” whatever your chosen school costs. The FAFSA EFC for a $250k income (and no assets) would be almost 70,000, too high for any need based aid. Even the most generous ivies have a cut off of around $180k income. As others have said, you need to have the big discussion with your parents about how much they will pay.</p>
<p>You will be eligible for unsubsidized loans ($5500 the first year).</p>
<p>Tiger you may live in an expensive part of the country. I know that in NYC for example, $250,000 doesn’t go as far as it does in other places. But, believe me, very few people make anywhere near that money. In all but the most expensive places, half of that salary would still be a lot of money - enough to live nicely if not extravagantly. Thing is, my husband and I make less than half, and we still probably won’t qualify for need-based aid.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to make you feel bad - it’s great that your family has those resources. You just need to have a perspective on what an average salary is in this country. There will probably be kids at college who would raise their eyebrows at the characterization of $250,000 as just “middle class with some decent perks”.</p>
<p>I wasn’t aware that other people consider this a large sum of money because for where I live, this isn’t that much compared to what some others have. I’ve never really considered myself privileged either because my parents earn more money before tax deducts than my house costs and we don’t spend much on anything either.</p>
<p>The comments on this post opened my eyes to what the “average” American’s state of life is, and I apologize for being ignorant to this.</p>
<p>Tiger, what most “other people” think about this does not matter a whit. It’s how the financial aid process that works that matters. Please take a few minutes and run your parents financials through FAFSA and other calculators and you will get a true sampling of what your family is expected to contribute towards your college.</p>
<p>A school like Harvard, will take about 10%$ of your family income and you would be eligible for some aid. Our family is at your income level and we are eligible for nothing even with two kids in college at the same time. Had both of our kids gone to the most expensive private schools this past year and gotten no merit scholarships, then they might have been eligible for a little bit of those Stafford loans, which nearly every and any student can take, to be subsidized while in college and get them with a lower interest rate.</p>
<p>Because your family has invested in things like a home and its upkeep that make it difficult to downsize, especially with younger siblings at home, it is easily possible that they do not have “loose money” to put towards college expenses. So you and your parents need to sit down and figure out how much can be put towards your college. The way expenses are expected to be met is from past, present and future earnings. Your savings, your parents savings, what you and your parents can pull from earnings during your college years and what you and your parents can reasonably borrow.</p>
<p>My kids had some savings for college, so 1/5 of that, we figured should go to college. We had some, not nearly what we should have, in savings that we could put towards the cost as well. We had to tighten the budget to come up with what we could squeeze out of the paychecks, and my kids work during college and the summers for their share. They and you can take out $5500 in Staffords freshman year and we figure we can take out about double that in PLUS. Anything extra reduces what we have to borrow.</p>