<p>I agree with Sfgiants and for UCLAri, sorry i posted my comment but i deleted it to stop conflict, but i'll say it here lol, i said something along the lines of "generosity is in the eye of the beholder" haha</p>
<p>USC factors in room and board into the fin aid package. So this year I need to pay $2000 for USC (tuition bill) and $7000 for my apartment. I've posted my fin aid package in an earlier thread but here it is again for your convenience. </p>
<p>Soph Year 2006-2007
Estimated Cost of Attendance 46966
Work Study: 2750
Fed. Perkins Loan: 500
Sub. Fed Stafford Loan: 3500
Grant: 32000
Fin Aid Eligibity: 38750
EFC: 7378 </p>
<p>Freshman Year: 2005-2006
The estimated cost of attendance is $ 44, 722
$2,500 Work study
$1,380 Perkins
$2,625 Subsidized Stafford
$28,518 Grant
Fafsa efc: $7140</p>
<p>my family's combined income is around $150k and we own a house (completely free and clear). do i have any chance of getting financial aid?</p>
<p>pretty sure you don't. our income is about 85k and we don't qualify for anything. although my dad was recently medically retired from an injury received as a police officer, so i'm hoping that will give us some financial leverage. my dad is fine by the way.</p>
<p>sunnydaysee, i calculated your first year's financial aid package and it appears that USC didnt meet 100% of need lol as they only met up to 42,163, what happened to the other 2,000? According to my estimate, they only met 94% of your need, you can totally sue for false advertisement :)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I have an EFC of less than 4,000. If I get accepted will they give me 35,000+ grant ?, that sounds waaayy too good to be true sfgiants...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Pretty close to my case but my grant is 31K... I guess 35K is too much to expect? They turned my EFC of 3k (from one of the websites) to 8K which was a little bit tough...</p>
<p>THEY get to decide your EFC, not you or any other website they tell you to fill out. They tell you your EFC is such such and they'll make up for the rest. My state school cost me more with scholarship and grants so I was pretty happy with this.</p>
<p>Compare it to other schools and you'll realize USC's pretty damn generous (except i guess some ivy leagues) compare it to NYU especially, they bombard you with Parent PLUS loans. I got more money from USC than my bro got from Cornell as well.</p>
<p>thanks uyulove!. I know USC is very generous with aid, but some people here made it out to be as if they'd literally showered you with extra cash everywhere, it just seemed wayy too good to be true...</p>
<p>I'm interested in knowing how they determine your EFC though. Do they just raise it from your fafsa/css EFC ?. I'm filing the FAFSA and CSS profile obviously, but I'm just wondering how they get to adjust your EFC themselves, do they have one of those FA profiles themselves ...? Going from an EFC of 3k to 8k like in your case is to me a little too extreme...</p>
<p>well considering the FAFSA does not include home equity and the CSS profile does, they probably take a number between the 2</p>
<p>
[quote]
Freshman Year: 2005-2006
The estimated cost of attendance is $ 44, 722
$2,500 Work study
$1,380 Perkins
$2,625 Subsidized Stafford
$28,518 Grant
Fafsa efc: $7140
[/quote]
</p>
<p>oops, forgot about Perkins.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I know USC is very generous with aid, but some people here made it out to be as if they'd literally showered you with extra cash everywhere, it just seemed wayy too good to be true...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>To be fair, I wasn't that far off. I was mainly trying to respond to brash statements earlier in the thread. When making my point, I wanted to back my statements up with information. If that mislead anyone, I do apologize and it wasn't my intention. Anyway, I think we agree that USC is no slouch when it comes to finaid and there really is no reason bicker about it.</p>
<p>ohh sfgiants, don't worry, it was my bad. I should have worded it better. I thank you for all your information and your opinions. i didn't mean it to sound bad or as if you didn't know what you were talking about... thanks for clearing up my doubt though (about home equity)...</p>
<p>My family is pretty broke on the home-equity area as well(something happened to our other house and the insurance didn't pay squat, so we had to "restart" with the "house-thingie"). I think we only have about a year's worth of HE or something like that... I just hope If i get in, that they won't raise it up THAT much and I can get a good FA package. USC is definitely my dream school big time, but without FA there's not going to be USC-fun for me.</p>
<p>ok, so personally everyone seems like they're saying that i'm going to get a rough deal.
i'm in the upper middle class range and our efc is pretty high. even though usc is my dream school, i still want to go to grad school & don't want to take out a lot of loans for undergrad, especially when i'm not going to be in a ridiculously high-paying career path [psychologist]. my parents have already told me that they're unable to pay all $47,000.
i'm officially worried...</p>
<p>My fafsa EFC is around 12500k and reading this thread just gives me hope that I'll get a pretty sweet deal. Thanks!</p>
<p>i totally freaked out when i saw that number "around 12500k." k means one thousand, so your efc would be $12,500,000. if that's your efc, then i think you're required to pay extra money to usc haha.</p>
<p>haha wow i'm dumb... yea i meant 12500 :)</p>
<p>not to worry annn, my friend once thought k was the european symbol for dollars.</p>
<p>Kinibee,
ALL schools who receive federal funding are required to follow certain guideliens in awarding need-based FAid. While USC is generous to many, they are still required to look at EFC as calculated by FAFSA. Unfortunately, for those of us who don't have much/any need as determined by FAFSA, merit aid & loans are how most of us get any discount off the full price of schools (or of course attending less expensive Us or Us where there is some sort of discount due to residency, etc.)</p>
<p>With regard to FAid based on need, most schools (I'm pretty sure USC is among them) will determine how they award their aid package at least partly based on how much they want the particular student. The more they want you, the higher the grant & lower the loan/work-study portion (all other things being equal). Having an EFC that is really low doesn't guarantee that any school will meet your need with anything other than a loan, which of course needs to be repaid.</p>
<p>do you guys know if the USC FA for transfers is like the previously stated by sfgiants? or will they lower my FA package considerably just for being and OOS transfer ? and give me a ton of loans instead of grants/scholarships ?</p>
<p>USC is a private school & doesn't give any particular financial advantage to CA residents over non-residents. UCs & Cal State schools DO favor their in-state residents, financially.</p>
<p>I was very surprised when we attending a USC meeting on financial aid during the Meet USC event. They said that USC does not loan money--anything they determine you can not pay, they will GRANT the difference. I think most other schools LOAN you the money, expecting you to pay it back. The financial aid office met with us, due to extenuating personal circumstances, and was able to rework our aid offer when the initial offer was too low. I can't say enough good things about that office, and their willingness to listen and make things work for us. USC is also very generous with the Presidential and Trustee merit scholarships which are not dependent on need. You will meet many students who turn down slots at Ivy League schools to take advantage of these merit scholarships.</p>