My son was accepted at USC. As a NM winner, he would have received ½ tuition. That’s it! All of the other costs were on us: ½ tuition +R&B + fees which made our costs about ~$45K at the time. He had UC’s and privates that were offering full rides. Why would we encourage USC?
He knew the math/costs would be ridiculous for our family, as we were paying for his sister at a UC. He knew we would be paying ~full fees for both, and since he had better and cheaper options, he chose “the path of least resistance”.
USC was a choice. You didn’t have to go to USC. You both are paying full fees because you currently don’t qualify for need-based aid (CalGrants) and your test scores weren’t strong enough to qualify for merit dollars.
If both you and your brother filed a FAFSA, you should have received a EFC. Did your parents not receive a copy? The EFC would have listed the minimum payment expected. What did it show?
Home equity counts. And that is what shas surprised people the most for many many years. For California residents (or other pricey real estate markets) that can certainly be the FA game changer. They see it like money in the bank. After doing this for basically ever, that is supposed to change for new students starting in the fall.
Are they living out of a Ford Pinto? I don’t see how that setup is sustainable for any length of time without your parents going bankrupt. You both need to transfer to someplace more affordable. It baffles me that any parent would ever agree to such an arrangement. If you don’t have the best grades, there are still schools that’ll take you. Try a Cal-State school; assuming you live in California. If not…then move back to your home state.
@coolguy40 , there has to more to this, I do not see how anyone could walk into the USC FA office and say we make 200k a year before taxes and have 2 kids who got in and you want us to pay 120K per year. Please explain how that is doable USC? But maybe they went ED and that helped them get in. Again there has to more to this.
USC does not have ED. Having a home with equity (like many do) or any other assets changes everything. There’s a lot of people that are “house rich but cash poor” or other scenarios that would impact FA depending on the school. USC uses much more than income. You’re right, we don’t have all the information. And btw, USC costs more than $60K a year with housing and other costs, so I am not sure of any of this.
When I read this OP…I was guessing that this poster wondered if she and her brother would be eligible for the new need based financial aid initiatives at USC…didn’t they do something for families with incomes below a certain amount…?
The OP has left the room without answering any questions that have been posed.
She claims the family income is “$200,000” a year or so. We don’t know if that is net or gross. We don’t know if the family had 529 accounts for both kids. We don’t know about assets…maybe they have huge savings accounts in non-retirement accounts.
Maybe they are going to inherit a huge amount of money and know this, and feel comfortable taking loans.
Maybe they have other real estate in addition to the primary home.
Lots of maybes…because we just don’t have enough information to know why this is a full pay family with two in college at a school that meets full need. It doesn’t make sense.
So really unless and until the OP clarifies…and maybe answers some of the questions I posed upstream as well as questions by others…we are all just guessing.
For all we know, this is actually financial affordable for the family on paper anyway…or even in reality.
And if you say you did file forms (#4) for the past 2 years, why now ask if you should file them?
In addition to speaking with FA, have you talked to your own parents?
Is another family member involved in paying some of this? Or are your parents taking ridiculously large outside loans?
This isn’t “simple math.” Different resources can trigger different treatment when the school runs its formulas. You may need to learn up on how FA works.
My single mother was making $60k/yr and we had to pay full price because of her parents assets. I ended up having to drop out of SCA due to financial reasons
But isn’t it ultimately your choice to go there? Presumably if you’re good enough to get into USC, you’re good enough to get into UCSD … UCSB, UCLA … being a Cal resident, these schools are way cheaper? Academically and prestige-wise not that far behind?