Financial Aid

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
1

<p>Hello all! I am currently a prospective student who will most likely attend UM next year. I have applied to various other colleges such as MSU, UCLA, UCB, Stanford, MIT. I have only heard back from MSU and UM, both of which I've been accepted. On to the point...</p>

<p>So I'm an in-state acceptee who is extremely worried about college payment. My stats are somewhat mediocre (30 ACT, 4.165 GPA (our school gives A+, but does not weigh AP nor honors)) My family is not the richest... I turned in my Fafsa a few days ago and our EFC was 0. Paying for college is a huge factor and worry for me right now. I have a few questions:</p>

<p>Was there a large percentage of In-state acceptees that got full rides?</p>

<p>Where can I find the most scholarships and financial aid?</p>

<p>A quick question as well: I turned in my CSS profile near the end of December (after I got accepted), how bad is that?</p>

<p>Any more help and information on financial aid will help greatly... Thank you all.</p>

2

<p>It’s fine that you turned in the PROFILE in December, they don’t look at it until like February anyways. With your stats, you probably won’t get much, if any scholarships, unless you’re a URM or had really good EC’s/essays. You’ll probably get close to a full ride in financial aid though. I would expect around $5500 in loans, and everything else paid for (including books and living expenses.</p>

3

<p>Apply to more private schools that meet all need! Some schools extended their 1/15 deadlines to 2/1. Private schools will give you so much more money.</p>

4

<p>^ U of M does meet need for in-state students though…</p>

5

<p>Neo, with a 0 EFC, if that is accurate and there are not “assets” they assess on the CSS profile, I expect your need-based package in state will be pretty favorable. You’ll qualify for $5500 from Pell; $5500 stafford loans; probably $2500 work study (but you’ll need to find a job on campus to actually “get” that money) probably $750 Academic Competitive Grant; possibly $1200 Michigan Competitive grant. Then, the school is very likely to give you a “Michigan Grant” for the difference, less whatever they expect you to earn/contribute via the summer, etc.
One thing you WILL want to do is to save $ up on the summer for spending though, because sometimes it takes a while to both get a work study job AND get enough hours in, and your books all need to be bought BEFORE you’re working.</p>

<p>Few can beat the caliber and economy of the Umich degree when their EFC is 0 and they’re In-State.
That said, if you’re worried about the $22,000 in student loan debt you will have upon graduation (which is average, actually), you should know that Michigan State has a program for 0 EFC students where their loan can be turned into grant. Depending on your intended program of study, however, UMich may get you more employment/grad school mileage for the money. That is a decision that low-income students need to make based on their own priorities when they’ve been accepted to both schools.</p>

<p>At any rate, I hope that you relax (just a little) because I am pretty certain that you’re in a more enviable position right now than you realize. The students who have a tough time financing UMich are actually the middle class students who are not eligible for assistance.</p>

6

<p>Thanks to all three of you, kmccrindle in particular. I also come from a pretty bad school, we only get 1 person per year getting a 30+ ACT score per year (and it’s only a 30/31). Anyway, Isn’t the typical COA for UMich closer to 20k-25k? Pell grant and stafford loans and all the other “smaller” financial aid together would still only be about 15k. I’m not exactly sure how this whole financial aid thing works out.</p>

<p>Also, I’m not particularly sure on what you mean by “assets” on CSS Profile. According to the FAFSA website, my EFC is 0 and as for CSS, I’m not exactly sure how my profile works. There’s a couple things I want to note: I had to use the 2009 Tax Records for my CSS profile rather than the 2010 ones (which I used for FAFSA of course). Will that cause a dramatic change to my financial aid?</p>

<p>As for my Major/Career prospect, I plan to go into Engineering and I would most definitely choose UM over MSU in almost all circumstances, it was more of a back-up college, whereas UM is more of my “fit” college.</p>

<p>I’m somewhat relaxed, but still quite terrified. I’ve looked up Asian scholarships and Engineering scholarships, and they seem quite decent, although most of their deadlines have already pasted. Could anyone give me what are the typical “chances” of receiving outside scholarships? It seems like thousands of people apply for a $2000 scholarship but only a few receive it. It doesn’t look very promising (although I’m trying nonetheless).</p>

<p>Also, I believe I’ll be able to make enough money for my books, though I would like to ask what is the average cost on books/school supplies per year or semester?</p>

<p>Thank you all for your feedback, I’m quite new to this college thing (as I’m sure almost everyone here is…).</p>

<p>P.S. : I figured I should add a few more details; my parents are divorced, and I live with my father. I am a first generation Chinese-American prospective UM student. I have no clue on how that affects my FinAid (if any), but I hope it does, for the better.</p>

7

<p>Just a tip about books…make sure you check amazon before buying them in the bookstore, they’re usually a lot cheaper on amazon. Also, for a lot of classes, the older editions of books are almost exactly the same as the required edition, and just as good. I got my chem 130 book and calc II book for $15 and $7 online including shipping because I went with the older editions. They were over $100 each at the bookstore.</p>

8

<p>Good tip on books. Will the book list indicate, or will the profs answer, which editions of the books are fine to use?</p>

9

<p>Neo, by “CSS assets” I was referring to things such as the amount of equity your parents might have in terms of a home value or retirement savings, etc. The university uses those to make sure, for example, that you’re not living in a million dollar home with a second income property, an investment fund with hundreds of thousands, and yet have little actual income that year – so that way they can confirm how much of their own “institutional” money to grant you. </p>

<p>With a true zero EFC and no substantial assets (they only count a very small portion of equity or retirement, for example), you are quite likely to receive the difference, and yes, as much as $10,000, in the form of a “Michigan Grant” – which means it’s money the university is giving you from its own pocket. Since statistically, they typically meet about 90% of need, though, count on maybe needing to come up with a thousand or two from summer work if you are able.</p>

<p>In your case, with the desire for engineering, I would definitely lean toward UM and not be overly concerned about having the average college debt when you’re done because the employment rate from that program is high, as is your future earning capacity. </p>

<p>Re: Using 2009 tax – no problem for CSS, that’s what they tell you to do; for FAFSA you can update with the new tax return once you have it. It does affect your “federal” EFC – but if the numbers are the same in 2010, then there will be no change. If you dad made a lot more money or had a big bonus, then there could be a change.</p>

<p>Lastly, do not rule out the possibility of a scholarship – they are not all statistic-specific, and my own son won one with similar stats to yours (and a lower GPA, but from a very very good school and with a few distinctions). In state, there are the Michigan Tradition and Michigan Experience awards, each worth $10,000 a year for 4 years (or 9 terms for engineering.) The specific schools (eg. COE or LSA) have been known to notify some winners later than admission notification, eg. late February. So there is time yet for more good news.</p>

<p>Also, re books, we always budget $600 a term, but our son never seems to spend that much because like yosup, he shops at amazon and half.com, plus some of his classes are performance or production based so he doesn’t always need a text book per se. He does spend more on software, but you can get very sweet student software deals at the computer showcase. I believe in ENG you only purchase MATLAB once in your first year.</p>

10

<p>Yeah a lot of professors are nice about older editions of books, and tell you up front that it’s okay. Or you could always try emailing them and asking. And yeah, you can find software pretty cheap at the showcase…but as an engineer, the only thing i had to buy was Microsoft office. Everything else I needed, like MAPLE or MATLAB could be accessed by remotely logging into CAEN or just using a campus computer.</p>

11

<p>Thanks again kmc, and to answer that question about CSS assets, we don’t have any investment whatsoever and I believe our home equity is actually less than the amount we owe… The economy is quite terrible nowadays.</p>

<p>Also, I believe my father made less this year; yay for being poor! </p>

<p>Thanks again for comforting me in this college stress, it’s been a scary and stressful year so far. I think I’ll work hard on finding some scholarships and hope the best with UM! I am very excited nowadays for my upcoming year.</p>