<p>I just dont get how the financial aid thing works. If one student is in a family of 4 with married parents and a household income of 70,000 vs. one student in a family of 9 and a household income of 200,000 who will get better financial aid, in general?</p>
<p>In general, no one can tell you that. You can put in the numbers into an EFC calculator, found on many college websites, but that will not tell you who will get the better aid.</p>
<p>And why does it matter? The only thing that really matters is what financial aid you will get, in your personal circumstances.</p>
<p>i have a big family and a household income of approx. 150,000-250,000$. In general am i elligible for above-average or below-average fincancil aid?</p>
<p>That depends on the school. A six-figure income, even on the low end, generally means low financial aid at most schools who, after all, don’t have enough money to give even the poorest Americans sufficient free aid. The number of people in your family is generally irrelevent for this purpose; more important is the number of people who are in college at the same time. For the FAFSA, the EFC (an index that qualifies you for federal aid) is divided by the number of students in college. However, it’s unlikely that you have enough people in your family for it to be possible to get an EFC low enough for the U.S. to give you anything except for loans. </p>
<p>Best bet is probably aid that isn’t need-based but based on things like grades and test scores.</p>
<p>There are many online financial aid calculators you can use to get a guestimate of your family contribution. Just put the numbers in (income, assets…and yes, the number of people in your family). This will give you a rough guess of what colleges might expect your family to MINIMALLY contribute to your college education. </p>
<p>That is the best way to get a guess…</p>
<p>There are more questions that need answers…</p>
<p>Are the family members parents and minor children or does it include grandparents and adult children who aren’t in undergrad?</p>
<p>What kind of schools will you be applying to?</p>
<p>Most schools do not have much aid to give no matter what the income is. </p>
<p>If you’re applying to state schools or privates like NYU that are bad with aid, then don’t expect any help. </p>
<p>You may need to protect yourself and apply to some schools that will give you big merit for your stats. What are your stats?</p>
<p>How much will your parents pay each year? If it’s less than EFC, then that will be a problem no matter where you go.</p>
<p>I think you need to get a clear picture of what your FAFSA EFC will likely be and what your institutional family contribution will likely be.</p>