<p>My ds is hoping to go to a school for it's 6 year pharm D program. It is about $50,000 a year. He is eligible for a merit scholarship but the school wants us to turn in the FAFSA before they send out all award information in March. He also might be eligible for a non-music major music scholarship but that says you get more based on need. If we file the FAFSA, it will show our EFC is $50,000 a year since DH had a good year last year. However, past years' adjusted gross income have been $105,000- $47,000- $103,000- $81,000- $86,000- and $82,000. We have a family of 7. DS will be our first in college. We will have 4 in college when ds is in his 6th year of the program. Will any of this information make any difference to a financial aid officer? Should I mail them a letter stating that our income for 2010 is not what our income usually is? </p>
<p>I am worried they won't give ds a significant amount of merit aid if they see our EFC is $50,000. There is no way we can pay that. We just finished digging out of our hole from 2008 when dh only made $47,000 for the year. Plus ds's college account took a hit and we only have $20,000 in that after the poor performance of the stock market.</p>
<p>It’s unlikely you would be eligible for a special circumstances adjustment based on prior year’s income unless you had something like medical bills or some other catastrophic loss to justify why they should reduce your 2010 income, or if your H had been laid off or become disabled during 2010. None of that seems to be the case and there’s nothing in your post that suggests how/if you know this will be another $47K year or if he may actually have a higher income in 2011 than last year. As you know, every year’s FAFSA is based on the prior year’s income information…if he has a bad year this year, that will be reflected in your EFC for 2012/13. An EFC of $50K does seem high for a family of 7 and an AGI of $105K unless you have significant unprotected assets…have you actually calculated that from the EFC Formula guide? </p>
<p>When your other kids enter college, your firstborn’s EFC will be adjusted. But if he’s beyond his P1 year at that point, he’ll likely be considered an independent grad student and your portion of the EFC will not be a factor anyway (nor will merit aid likely apply). There is very little FA, other than loans, for pharmacy students at the grad level. The bottom line is, if you can’t afford this school without the extra music scholarship, there are many PharmD programs that do not have COAs of $50K…your instate public may be a better choice.</p>
<p>I can’t comment on your family’s specific situation but can tell you about my niece’s experience. She was in a 6 year program and managed to get through with a combination of scholarships, loans and some money from savings/current income. She was a great student and received additional grant money after her first years in the program. She worked summers for Walgreens, where she made decent money, and qualified for scholarship money from them. She graduated about five years ago and went to work for Walgreens, earning a nice signing bonus and a six figure starting salary. She is having no problem paying back her loans.</p>
<p>^Except that 2 year’s ago, they had a similar AGI. For FAFSA, it’s not really going to matter that the income is higher in one year anyway…they need an offset through professional judgement if that’s truly their EFC. That would need to be based on some sort of special circumstances, not just “we can’t afford it”.</p>
<p>It really depends on the school. My older daughters school met 100% of need.
We accepted a good aid package and she began freshman year but that was a few weeks before 9/11, and her fathers job/income was changed. As soon as he recieved his layoff notice , we notified the school but the didn’t/couldn’t adjust the aid until we had documentation in the form of a recent paystub. (he was retained @ lower paygrade).
Then increase in aid was made immediately.</p>
<p>I expect with many families requesting aid, schools are not likely to increase an award unless they have documentation of current not future anticipated need.
Some schools also may not be as fast as my D’s was to adjust aid, so I think it is appropriate to ask finaid what their policy is regarding adjustments- but I haven’t heard of any schools making offers based on median past income.</p>
<p>Let me clarify- the 105,000 was for 2009- 2010 was $199,000. </p>
<p>I don’t know what our EFC would be for $105,000 but I don’t think it would be $50,000 like it is with his unusual $199,000 income for 2010. </p>
<p>I am so confused as to what we should do- fill out the FAFSA or not. I am so worried that they will award his merit aid on an EFC of $50,000 a year. The merit aid is renewable for 4 years.</p>
<p>*I am so confused as to what we should do- fill out the FAFSA or not. I am so worried that they will award his merit aid on an EFC of $50,000 a year. The merit aid is renewable for 4 years. *</p>
<p>If filling out FAFSA is required for merit consideration, then if you don’t fill it out, your son has NO chance of getting the scholarship.</p>
<p>However, I don’t think filling it out removes all chances of getting the scholarship.</p>
<p>If filling out FAFSA is NOT required for merit consideration, then don’t fill it out. </p>
<p>Does this school give a lot of need based aid?</p>
<p>Are you saying that both the regular merit awards and the special music scholarship are need-based? I would take time to run that question by the admissions or FA folks at the school to be sure. In any case, it sounds as if you’ll need to file FAFSA anyway…if only so that he has Stafford eligibility! You really have nothing to lose at this point…either it will make him ineligbile because you didn’t file, or because your EFC exceeds COA, or it won’t matter at all because the regular award is not based on need. If the school is unaffordable, sending him there is probably not a great idea in the first place.</p>
<p>Fill out the FAFSA --if you don’t, you’re unlikely to get even merit aid consideration based on what you’ve listed - a lot of schools handle it this way.</p>
<p>But I’d also run a FAFSA estimate for what you expect your likely income is going to be in future years, and see what your family’s EFC looks like under different scenarios. For example, if your EFC is $15K in a year with $100K income, you’d also want to know how this particular school does at meeting need – if it is a school that promises to meet full need (and there are very few of them) can your family afford to pay the $15K? If they don’t promise to meet full need, do you know how you’ll pay for school? If your family income is lower in the future, you could find that the school doesn’t give you much aid beyond the merit award and any federal loans your son might be eligible for – even though your EFC is $15K that year, it is entirely possible that the school’s offered grant aid and merit scholarship could leave you on the hook for a lot more – maybe $30-35K. I would be nervous about signing up for a six year program with that kind of uncertainty. It would be very helpful if you could email the financial aid office, explain that you’re very concerned for future years because your family income fluctuates greatly, and ask what a typical aid package might look like for a pharmacy student whose EFC is in the $15K range. If they tell you that there would be a big gap under those circumstances, that might be something you’d need to consider pretty strongly.</p>