Totally confused after I thought we had it all figured out.
NJ resident - My child applied to numerous schools in NJ/PA/CT
I am a single self-employed mother of one. I file below 20K which is what my small business makes and had made, I get assistance from family. My ecc was 60.
My child was accepted into 9 schools so far, the maximum merit scholarship was 20k, almost all schools were 50k schools.
These schools were suggested to me based on his low sat and good GPA plus all his clubs/activities/essay I think helped.
It was my understanding from my college planner that I would be receiving a “TON” of aid. SO far only 2 colleges have responded with a pell grant for $6k. One state school in PA just offered $11k (Its a 30k per year school) but upon closer inspection I see its really JUST the Pell grant. and the offered two stafford loans…SO does that mean he is eligible for the stafford and then what about the final 19k? We would have to essentially take loans for 25k per year?
One parent friend of mine said initially this is what some schools do, offer the least, then you can call and attempt to inquire about more.
A couple other NJ schools have asked for additional financial information to assist in the financial aid package, I am hoping these may be more generous.
I understand these “planners” are not always so great, and she was…honestly all she did was get the ball rolling and assist in telling me what his within reach and reach schools as well as other information.
I figured out the rest. What other state/federal aid am I not getting? Why are these first two offers so low?
All the Dept. of Ed. is able to offer a student with a 60 EFC based off the FAFSA is close to the maximum Pell grant and the $5500 stafford loan. The rest will either have to be made up of merit money for the student’s stats, or a Parent PLUS loan/private loan if you are not able to pay the remaining amount for tuition and fees. I believe there is also the NJ TAG grant, but I do not know much about the qualifications for that funding, others here may know more. Otherwise, you will need to look for less costly schools in your price range if you can’t make it work at any of those 9 schools.
The Pell grant and the Stafford loan will be available at nearly all schools for the same amount; if a school offers you just those funds, they are basically offering you no aid.
You may also be eligible for the Perkins Loan (subsidized loan – which means that the government pays the interest until some time after graduation) as well as the FSEOG (which is another grant similar to the Pell Grant), but not all schools participate in these programs and (unlike the Pell grant and Stafford Loan) they can run out of money which means that the school doesn’t necessarily award it for everyone
As far as [New Jersey TAG](https://www.hesaa.org/tagestimator/current/) there is a calculator that may help you estimate how much you are eligible for through that program; it might also be a good idea to run the net price calculator at a state university in New Jersey to see waht kind of financial aid may be available.
Your college planner may be exaggerating how much financial aid is really out there; with an income of $20,000 you qualify for a lot of aid but most schools do not claim or attempt to meet full need. There are some generous schools out there but it’s unrealistic to expect a ton of need-based aid from an out of state public university; their priority is for their own residents. There are some exceptions especially with merit aid (financial aid based on your student’s GPA, test scores, and other personal attributes) though. There’s a good thread here about full-tuition and full-ride scholarships offered by good schools [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html%5Dhere%5B/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html]here[/url] as well.
I feel like we have to rework our entire plan at this point. So by you saying they are not offering any aid since this is (Pell +Stafford) the basic standard, what other aid is typically allotted besides the merit aid? Is this internal aid that the schools have? The university in PA is a state school, many of the rest are private. Thank you so much to all who have answered- i am distraught. for example if we chose a 50k school that offered 20k in merit that leaves 30k - or 25k after a pell grant. Would he then have to take a stafford loan and I a personal loan to bridge the gap. I could with family help pay 10k a year twds a school. If the stafford is a LOAN why does the school determine what you can get? as per my example in the first question -
$30k state school
No merit $$
$5k Pell
$6 Stafford (----is this just the standard basic how is this determined? Is it ever more?
still leaves 19k.
These are just 2 schools so far…but not off to a good start.
Some private schools have their own endowments they can pull institutional need based aid from. It all just depends on the resources and policies of specific schools.
The federal department of education determines the amount of the Stafford loans. It is the same for every student across the country depending on their grade level.
What is your instate NJ option? There should be something affordable in that mix. Is there any school to which he could commute? The $5600 Pell (about what he would get with a $60’EFC) plus the $5500 Direct Loan could pay tuition instate.
I’m not sure why your college planner suggested your kiddo apply to OOS public universities. In most cases, the merit aid goes to top instate candidates…as it is the state’s mission to provide aid at instate publics to its resident taxpayers, not OOS students.
And usually merit aid is based on both GPA and SAT score. Not one or the other.
Dod your son apply to any of the public universities in NJ? Would any of them come close to being affordable?
You are right that schools offer need-based aid out of their own coffers – institutional aid. Most schools that do this also use a form in addition to the FAFSA called the CSS Profile. Because each school is different, you can’t really predict; it sounds like you picked two ‘bad’ schools in terms of institutional aid. Out of state public school are normally not very generous anyway so it’s not surprising that you didn’t get much aid from them. I think you should really consider at least one New Jersey college just because you may be eligible for New Jersey state grants.
The school does not really determine what you get for the Stafford Loan, at least not the way you are describing. You can get the same Stafford loan amount at any school; the amounts are set by federal law – for dependent students, the amounts are $5500 for freshmen, $6500 for sophomores, and $7500 a year each for juniors and seniors. The total amount of the Stafford loan is unaffected by your need; even Bill Gates’s kids can borrow $5500 for their first year of college.
There are only two caveats; you can’t get federal aid in excess of the cost of attendance (this isn’t going to be a problem for you), and the subsidized portion of the Stafford loan is available only to families with financial need. (“Subsidized” just means that the government pays the interest on the loan until some time after the student graduates, so it doesn’t keep growing while the student is in college.)
The loan that the college has more discretion on is the Perkins loan; not all colleges choose to participate in this program, and the ones that do only receive a fixed amount of money that they have to divvy up to all the people they want to give it to. The Perkins loan is also entirely subsidized which is why it is attractive.
He did apply to just one NJ public school, and 5 private NJ schools. He was accepted into 3 private so far, I am awaiting acceptance on the rest. A couple have inquired further into my financials so I am hopeful. I just feel so sorry for him that he has all these acceptances that are not within reach. I did not apply to Rutgers due to his SAT score (perhaps should have) and some of the others were very low ranked and low graduation rate, I was advised not to apply. I appreciate the information. I am starting to get a clearer picture of it all.
“You are right that schools offer need-based aid out of their own coffers – institutional aid. Most schools that do this also use a form in addition to the FAFSA called the CSS Profile. Because each school is different, you can’t really predict; it sounds like you picked two ‘bad’ schools in terms of institutional aid. Out of state public school are normally not very generous anyway so it’s not surprising that you didn’t get much aid from them. I think you should really consider at least one New Jersey college just because you may be eligible for New Jersey state grants.”
Yes definitely I agree. Thank you and thank you for the link.
Try to be optimistic about his college choices. If he goes to a NJ public university, so be it. There is something to be said about graduating with little debt. He might just shine there. And he can seek out the opportunities his college offers.
CSS Profile - would I have received this by now? I can review each school and see which participates in Perkins as well. It seems like now I am going backwards in my research - I had planned to narrow down the schools based on the financial need that was offered after the FAFSA. Thank you all so much for you insights.
You do not receive the CSS Profile…you submit it to the colleges if they require it as part of their financial aid process. It is a financial aid application form required by some colleges.
Do any of your son’s colleges require submission of the Profile? If so…you may have missed the deadlines if you haven’t already submitted it. Check NOW!
Sounds like you should read the financial aid FAQ, you can find it in one if the threads pinned to the top of the forum.
When you pick colleges, you have to pick based on a) where you can get accepted and b) where you can get enough aid to attend. Since many schools you can get in don’t ’ meet full need’, it takes a lot of work to find the right ones where you are a desirable enough student AND they have funds to give. Getting high test scores can be critical to this.
If income is low enough, you will get from everywhere
Federal pell grant up to 5,770
Federal direct loan 5,500
You may get
Federal work study ( which is basically a p/t job)
SEOG sometimes, not usually a small amount if available
Perkins Ioan sometimes, not usually a small amt if available
Then there is any state grant for you own state at instate schools
After that there is aid from college institutional funds, grants based on need or merit aid. If you are not at a meets full need school, there are only 60 and they are very selective, then you will likely be gapped and you need to find the funds yourself to fill the gap between the fed funds and the COA. That is why a lot of people go to public schools.
There are also outside scholarships from private organizations, usually you start applying fall of sr year.
It is my understanding that state schools in PA don’t really give funds to Oos students. The state schools that do are listed in the automatic scholarships thread, see the pinned threads at top of forum.
If you want help with looking for last minute schools or maybe you will have to consider a gap year, give more info where he applied, gpa and test scores.
I feel for you - it’s a difficult situation for both of you. Just remind him that he did his part of the job - he got in, which he should be proud of, even if the schools turn out not to be affordable.
It actually sounds like the person who did not do their job is your college planner, who totally dropped the ball on helping you to identify affordable schools. You may still do okay, though - that NJ public may end up being a perfect fit!
But, if not, the solution is not to take out massive loans! Your son can get a job for a year, retake the SAT (or ACT), and apply to several very carefully selected and affordable schools for the following year. And that work experience will make him an even stronger candidate for college. Hang in there . . . I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you both.
^ If your son does take that gap year to work do NOT let him take any classes to “keep his skills fresh”. Many schools will then consider him a transfer which would remove him from freshman scholarships which is where most of the money is.
@dodgersmom yes-I do not want to put the blame on someone else b/c I should’ve done more research past the admissions stage, I just believed her that the aid would be there, otherwise our entire strategy would have been different. I think her planning ended at the admissions stage.I have hope and am happy to have this blog as a resource. Thank you for the kind words of encouragement.
