HELP - Lost with Early Decision Financial Aid Estimates? Should I just drop it all for state school?

Paying for College
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My parents have a pre-tax income of about 92k and an EFC of about 9655. My father owns two small businesses while my mom gets a stable salaried income, so our financial situation is kinda different.

I recently got accepted to Emory EDII. I LOVE this school and I would love to attend, but I don’t want to cripple my parent’s financially. Maybe ED wasn’t the best option for FA reasons.

Can someone help me understand this estimate? I’m a first gen, so I really don’t understand this very well…
$33,472 in grants
$2,500 in work/study
$5,500 in loans ( 22k once I graduate - pretty reasonable )

So that comes up to $41,472 in total FA, leaving my parents with $23368 to spend per year.

Is this financial aid package good?

It doesn’t even seem remotely near my EFC…
IDK, it just sounds like a LOT and I’m afraid it will screw my parents. Or maybe it is a good package lol…

I really don’t trust my parents to be the judge, lol…
My parents assured me that it’s fine since I’m an only child, but my parents are the type who would assure me it’s fine even if it financially cripples them because of how heavily they value education. I made sure to not apply to any of the UC’s or NYU because I knew if I got in they would push me to go there, even if it would financially destroy them.

So yeah, I really don’t know how good this package is. Does it suck? I called the admissions office and they said that if the FA aid package simply wasn’t good enough I would be able to sever the agreement.

I’m also scared of Emory getting more expensive as years pass. What happens if our incomes go up to 100k+?

My other option is UT, which is still a very good school. Before financial aid, UT costs $26,346. I know no one can really predict my financial aid package, but with my EFC of 9655, do you think it will be significantly cheaper for my parents if I attend there? I heard UT is extremely stingy with FA, and I don’t think I would qualify for significant merit aid there… If UT gives like 5k in grants and I go in similar amounts of debt, my parent’s might have to only pay 16k? idk lol

Yeah… Maybe ED wasn’t the smartest, haha… Advice?

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My parents have a pre-tax income of about 92k and an EFC of about 9655. My father owns two small businesses while my mom gets a stable salaried income, so our financial situation is kinda different.


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THAT is the issue. The “pre tax income” is likely one with a LOT of deductions that schools like Emory add back in…and Emory did. Using the info from CSS Profile, Emory has estimated that your family’s real income is higher. And the fact that your parents are fine with paying $24k per year, probably means that their income really is higher.

However…I have no idea how a family of 3 with one in college could possibly have an EFC of under $10k with a $90k AGI…sounds like a mistake. The FAFSA EFC would be closer to $20k.

BTW…that loan amount will likely increase each year…ending up with $27k in loans.

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@mom2collegekids

OH SHOOT, sorry about that. Our AGI is actually $72,166. 92k is gross from CSS. Does the EFC make more sense in that case?
Would you consider Emory’s FA package good/reasonable? It seems that I’m likely to end up with a similar amount of debt at UT… Supposedly with an EFC this high grants aren’t likely

4

Do your parents have any savings for your college education, or would all of this have to come out of current income? Hopefully you can work summers and make a few thousand dollars that way, too.

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@intparent My parent’s have a little bit saved up but it’s not really that substantial so pretty much all of it’s going to come out of current income… I honestly don’t know how that’s going to work considering our current spending habits. What worries me is that whenever I ask them if they can handle the costs or not, they just nonchalantly tell me they’ll work it out somehow… I asked them if they’re going to have to take out Parent PLUS loans and they just say " I don’t know… We’ll have to see". They just tell me “don’t worry about it… just go to Emory!”

My parents bought a new house, a new business and fancy cars and stuff just last year…

My parents gave me the vibe that affording college wouldn’t be a problem for them at all so I was confident when I applied EDII. Now I’m scared that they simply just don’t understand the brunt of college costs and I could literally be screwing them financially right now. I want my parent’s to retire and stuff, you know?

However, I don’t really have faith in UT’s financial aid lol… I feel like Emory and UT will end up being very similarly priced… I know plenty of people with similar incomes that are paying 22k+ for UT with similar debt

6

I don’t think anyone here can say whether your parents can pay for this or not. You have to talk to them. You should be able to add a few thousand dollars a year from summer work, but remember that the cost goes up a little every year, too.

7

The EFC still does not make much sense on 72k. I had the same family AGI last year and our EFC was 17k.

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@CourtneyThurston
I honestly don’'t know… We literally copied exactly what was on the tax foms into FAFSA and we checked it numerous times. I’ll check it again but I’m confident we entered everything right…

@intparent
Alright, so Emory’s package isn’t that great… However, is it reasonable to say that with an EFC of 9655 ( might be wrong ) I probably won’t be getting any substantial grants from UT- Austin?

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you have good instincts regarding the final price comparing Emory and UT. They’ll probably be similar. I would ask the Emory FA folks to tell you what your EFC is that they calculated, and the breakdown (parent/student portion). The aid will go down in the future due to expected student contribution from summer employment, so don’t forget about that. UT likely won’t give you much Institutional aid, just the fed loans.

Also, loans may be capped at Emory since income is <100k. see http://www.studentaid.emory.edu/types/grant-schol/emory-advantage.html. research their FA site and give them a call to talk about it.

10

I’m 95% confident you didn’t enter everything right. My family had no assets to bump our EFC like that. Yours is a solid 8-10k too low. You probably forgot a 0 somewhere.

11

Use the DRT. Then you’ll be sure that your numbers are accurate. The last thing you want is an aid package based n a mistake, resulting in your having to pay something back. Your EFC does seem too low for the AGI reported, unless there are 7 kids or something. We just don’t know without all the numbers.

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One thing you may not realize . . . your FAFSA EFC does {b}NOT** determine your cost of attendance. It’s just one piece of a formula that’s used to determine your eligibility for federal aid, such as Pell grants (for low income families) and subsidized loans (also for low income families). It does not, in any way, shape, or form, indicate what your actual cost of attendance will be.

The best way for most families to figure out what a particular college or university will cost is to run the net price calculator (NPC) for that school. Have you done that? Unfortunately, NPC results can be way off for a family that owns a business . . . but they’ll still give you some indication of what your lowest possible cost would be , even though your actual cost will likely be higher.

If you haven’t already run the NPC for UT, do it now . . . but understand that your actual cost may be higher than the estimate.

At this point, since you have a financial aid offer in hand, I agree with the suggestion above that you contact the financial aid office at Emory and ask them to explain, in detail, how they calculated their aid award. Understanding the award may help you decide if you want to accept it.

I think it’s commendable to you don’t want to overburden your parents, but if they’re spending money on a new house and fancy cars . . . well, at some point you just have to trust that they know what they’re doing. And if they don’t, then it’s on them and not on you.

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ok…I’m going to be frank…


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My parents bought a new house, a new business and fancy cars and stuff just last year...

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With 2 businesses and a supposedly $72k AGI, and parents who are saying that they can pay the cost… Well, I suspect parents are really earning a lot more than they are reporting… People with little savings and a $72k AGI where one parent is self-employed…usually cannot spend $24k+ per year on college…that’s $2k per month for 48 straight months.

But…your parents know what’s what…so if they say that they can pay…well, believe them. I sure do.

14

We had a similar income and a bigger family size and similar EFC. I think if both parents work the EFC formula gives an extra employment expense deduction versus only one parent working.

Anyways Emory is not only looking at FAFSA I imagine. I agree, run net price calculators.

I don’t think you will get much aid from a state school with your income unkess you qualify for a state grant. That’s only a few thousand and the student loan. UT could cost almost as much as Emory.

Run the net price calculators and report back what they say.

15

@mommdc
@dodgersmom
@mom2collegekids

So I put in the UT NPC from VSA. All it asked for was my parents AGI ( $72,166 ) and the income tax they reported on FAFSA ($3181) so it probably isn’t piercingly accurate…

We are predicted to get $1250 in grants ( doesn’t say State/Federal ). I would get $3500 in loans. So UT’s cost is $21,420. A little bit cheaper than Emory I guess.

…Why is our income tax so low lol… It’s the same # we put for the CSS profile for Emory and came from the forms.

The net price calculator really wasn’t that accurate for Emory lol. I was predicted to get 41k in grants and I got 33k instead.

So:
Emory vs UT
$23,368 vs $ 21,420
$5500 loans vs $3500 loans
$2500 work study vs no work study

How reliable can I say UT’s NPC is? I feel like once I put in the business and asset information I would lose the grants and it would turn into loans…

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Your income tax is low (probably) because you have a lot of itemized deductions you can take.

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So I tried the NPC for a lot of Emory’s peer schools : ( E.G Georgetown, Duke, Boston. College, Northwestern, Rice ) and the predicted package ended up being extremely similar to Emorys. Vanderbilt and Columbia’s was quite a bit cheaper though. So emorys npc was actually very inaccurate while the others were more on point.

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Again, business income skews your results, so don’t judgment Emory too harshly.

With regard to your NPC results for UT, they’re probably fairly accurate, since, unless I’m mistaken, UT uses only the FAFSA (and not the CSS Profile) in determining aid eligibility.

But you’re talking about a ~$2,000/year difference, plus loans . . . for what is presumably a far superior educational experience at Emory.

And now I’m going to say something that others on this forum will probably take issue with, but here goes:

It doesn’t matter. Your ED agreement with Emory requires you to withdraw your applications to all other private colleges and universities, and, if you don’t, both Emory and any other schools that admit you would be within their rights to rescind their offers. To the best of my knowledge, however, the agreement is unenforceable as to UT. If you accept Emory’s offer and change your mind later (after seeing your UT financial aid package), what’s going to happen? Emory may be unhappy, but it can’t compel UT to rescind your offer of admission.

19

The small grant from UT is probably a state grant. You can also still take the $5,500 student loan.
Were you offered any scholarships?

You will have to talk to your parents if Emory will be feasible for 4 years. If their income changes upwards the net price is also going to change. Plus tuition increases.

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@mommdc
@dodgersmom
So, I guess that since Emory will be so similarly priced, it makes more sense to attend Emory.

The only issue that I am worried about is our new business/new income. When we did CSS/FAFSA the business was brand new so we couldn’t account for new income form the business. I don’t expect like EXTREME increases in income, but an AGI of 80k+ seems very plausible. Could this drastically affect Emorys FA package? As long as Emory stays under like 26k for my parents and I graduate with a reasonable (20-25k) in debt, I think we will be satisfied.