<p>I'm an upcoming freshman for the fall of 2014. My parents filled out with FAFSA with me and our EFC is 32k!! Based on a calculator we did a few months ago it was 20k and that was still pushing it. </p>
<p>We CANNOT afford paying that despite my family making 140k. My parents built a huge house recently, bought new cars, and own their own businesses, and with two other siblings spending 30k a year on school is not possible. </p>
<p>I've applied to three colleges (one is 20k, one is 30k, and the other is 40k). My dream school is the 40k one. </p>
<p>I have 20k in a college fund which I'll use my first year. But after that I don't know what to do after my first year. I'm willing to take on as many student loans as possible. </p>
<p>I'm not sure if I'll get any university or outside scholarships. </p>
<p>With a $140,000 income, an EFC of $32,000 sounds about right…actually it sounds a little low to me.</p>
<p>I hate to sound rough here, but it was a choice to buy a new expensive house and new cars. The financial aid calculators for need based aid do not consider this consumer debt choice.</p>
<p>I hope one of your schools is an instate/affordable option. You will have a $5500 Direct Loan you can take for your freshman year. Get a job ASAP and you should be able to earn at least $2500 before college starts (plan to work full time for the summer…you may have to cobble together a couple of jobs). You have $20,000 in college savings. Use $5000 of that. </p>
<p>You are now up to $13,000. Can your parents pay anything towards college? Can they pay $8000 or so for the year?</p>
<p>Did you apply to any colleges where you will get merit aid? </p>
<p>Every student has a number one college choice. But please don’t think that the “dream school” is the only place you can be happy and thrive as a college student. </p>
<p>The reality is you can only attend college where the bills can be paid.</p>
<p>Did you discuss college financing with your parents BEFORE you applied to college? What did they say?</p>
<p>P.S. other threads indicate you attend a public school in Tennessee, but wondered about chances for two OOS public universities (UMD-CP and NC State). You need to understand that most OOS public universities do NOT offer significant need based institutional aid to out of state students. They just don’t (unless they are UNC-CH or UVA…but I don’t think you are a competitive applicant for those schools).</p>
<p>I hope you have some instate and affordable options on your application list.</p>