<p>My parents have high EFC, too. I think around $35K. State universities look increasingly attractive for high EFC folks.<br>
UMass Amherst cost for someone like me (in-state) costs under 17K per year. Plus they have several merit scholarships that can reduce the cost.</p>
<p>Well, strike two... My s's school isn't affiliated with the afford program.... sigh.....</p>
<p>You can only claim to be independent if married, in the service, or over age 24 if I remember correctly. Otherwise, they will look at parental income whether the parents are willing to pay or not.</p>
<p>At the risk of getting a few arrows...</p>
<p>Financial aid is for families that need it. I would think that an upper middle class family would be grateful they can afford to send their children to college and recognize that Fin. Aid is for kids that cannot attend college without it. If you look at some posts on this forum there are families earning 20 K a yr. and less. I know its hard to realize you have to pay the entire amount, thats what happened to us. Wealthy people are fine as are poor and lower middle class. Those in between are challenged but that is how the system works and its FRAUD to falsify data. The government does prosecute parents for this and kids can get penalized too not to mention the message it sends.</p>
<p>There are many good schools that offer merid aid with or without having to complete a FAFSA.</p>
<p>I hate you people, your father makes 4.3X what my mother makes and she supports the same number of people as you.</p>
<p>You are sick, you dont deserve aid, because your father can afford school easily. for you to think you deserve aid is pretty much insane..</p>
<p>UB-Vinny77 </p>
<p>Do not take it to heart.</p>
<p>Sometimes the fin aid section of this site turns into something weird on some of the threads.
It becomes weird and it is downright surreal when you hear of people stating they make 100k and up a year and are trying to figure out the FAFSA and all of that.
It is super weird to read OP's post about his family's EFC being like a heck of a lot more than some folks yearly incomes! And then being all befuddled about fin aid!?
Golly gee, I say sell your house and put your kids in school, man. That would be the easiest way to go if you are wealthy and were unable to manage your finances well enough to save money.
Gosh OP's dad could pay for him to go to Community College or a State School like it was nothing.</p>
<p>Do not take it personal vinny. You never know what is what on the messageboards and things, my man. </p>
<p>You just do not take it to heart.</p>
<p>I have a question
Do parents have to pay any part of the EFC, or can the student be solely responsible for it with loans?</p>
<p>theoretically parents do not "have" to do anything.
My parents didn't pay anything for me to attend school after high school.
However- I couldnt' afford it on my own, so I didn't go.</p>
<p>The EFC is calculated using parent assets and income, with the assumption that the parents are paying for their share -- which in most cases is the bulk of the EFC, unless the student has a lot of savings in his name. The financial aid system will not provide loans to cover EFC -- the loans are cover the part beyond EFC. So the math of a full-need award looks like this:</p>
<p>EFC + loans + work study + grants = Total cost of attendance</p>
<p>EFC is the Expected FAMILY Contribution. The colleges do not care who contributes the money....students or parents...but in the calculation it is determined that your family can pay a certain amount....the EFC. Of course we all know that the EFC is typically higher than we would all like it to be....but that's another thread!!</p>
<p>so if my parents did not agree with the school i was atending and did not want to have any part of my tuition, how do I pay my EFC?</p>
<p>If that is the case and the EFC is too high for you to reasonably earn the money, you will have a problem. Your best bet is to target schools that are likely to give you good merit aid. Depending on your GPA and test scores, you may be able to qualify for full-ride scholarships at some colleges, or at least enough merit money to make the rest affordable to you.</p>
<p>but i thought that after recieving an EFC, that you could get a bank loan?</p>
<p>Please look at my post #29 -- the loans that you will get as part of a financial aid award are for paying the part that comes after EFC - so - let's say it is a public school and the Cost of Attendance is $20,000, and lets say your EFC is $5000. I wrote before that a finacial aid award is structured as follows:</p>
<p>EFC + loans + work study + grants = Total cost of attendance</p>
<p>In dollars, that might look like this:</p>
<p>$5000 EFC + $5000 student loans + $5000 work study + $5000 grants</p>
<p>My example isn't a very good award, because the amount of loans and work study are on the high end... but hey, that's reality. Now you know what a typical, bad award looks like.</p>
<p>Anyway -- you CAN also borrow money from a bank to go to EFC, on top of your subsidized student loans - BUT you have to first find a bank to lend to you -- and in most cases you would have to begin repayment immediately. You will be in school; whatever time you have for part time employment is going to be taken up by your work study job, and you will need the income from the work-study job to meet your school costs.. you have no credit history because you are a kid just coming out of high school. So you are going to have a hard time finding a lender. </p>
<p>What you need to do NOW is figure out a ballpark figure for what your EFC will be, and choose colleges that are more affordable. One way to make colleges affordable is to look for schools that will give you merit aid; the other way is to look for the least expensive publics in your state and plan to work your way through school; a third way is to look at things like military ROTC programs that will help pay the cost of college. Or get creative and figure out some other way to generate money.</p>
<p>thank you for all your help!</p>