Hello, I am wondering how is the financial aid for EFC 0 OOS students at UT Austin? Is it good? My mom makes literally 10K… I wanna know if it would cover me.
Are you instate?
OP is OOS.
Did you run their Net Price Calculator? What’s your home state?
It is extremely unlikely that UT would be affordable for you.
I just ran the NPC for 0 EFC out of state and came up with 46K/year. The only aid was the $6100 Pell grant and out of state tuition is very high (36K). You’re probably better looking at private schools that meet need or in state. Does your state offer any grants?
UT does not need full need through its financial aid for its instate students. OOS not likely to do well. Unless there is merit money. Perhaps Texans can chime in on what UT-Austin has in academic scholarships
UT is a public university, the flagship university in Texas, which means it is designed to serve the people of Texas. As a consequence, it admits almost only students from Texas, with 75% students admitted because they’re top 6% in their class and the remaining 25% for Texas academic admits, athletes, internationals, and OOS students, with priority given to Texas academic admits and athletes; as a result it has very very few spots for OOS and no financial aid for them.
With an EFC zero your best bet is colleges that meet full need even for lower income students - there are fewer than 80 in the country out of 3,700; they are all very to highly selective and almost all are private, except for UNC Chapel Hill and UMichigan.
What are your stats (sat or act score, weighted and Unweighted GPA)? Have you taken any AP, IB, or dual enrollment (PSEO, Running start…) classes?
Yes I have a 3.96 GPA UW, and a 4.14 W (my school only offers 2 APs, but my GPA is gonna go up bc I put in the transcript for my college class I took). My SAT is 1200. I’m also in CBOs to help me access college lol. I have really good extracurriculars and good essays.
You are not in the ballpark for UT. Even if this is a free application, it is a waste of your time. Have you got a realistic list of schools to apply to? Have you shored up your instate options? Anything in commuting distance? Good CCs with 4 yr articulation agreements?
UT is a reach for me and I know that… thank you very much for reiterating that. Anyway, I just hope that my context and the environment of which I grew up and go to school will help me get into UT, being that I achieved a lot in my local context.
Additionally, I know you’re just trying to help by making me see the reality but the way you did was classist. I hate to be that person, but insisting “anything in commuting distance” and “good CCs with 4yr articulation agreements” is disrespectful and ignorant. You are implying that those types of schools are the only ones I aspire to only because of my income level and stats. You don’t know the story behind my stats and the context behind it, but I hope to change some minds with the essays I write because I know my unique perspective is what these colleges want. Thank you 
@ISawKanyeLive You are unlikely to get in and if you do, you won’t be able to afford it. Don’t waste an application on UT.
Nobody is trying to kill your dreams but you have to be realistic too. Most people have financial constraints involved in the college choice and you have to have really deep pockets to afford out of state at places like UT.
Unfortunately, the stats are what speak the loudest in some admissions offices, especially at flagship publics. That’s just how it is and the CC community would tell you the same thing if you were applying to UNC, UF, GaTech, Cal, or UCLA.
Texas is already limiting OOS students to less than 10% of their admissions spots. Those include athletes, legacies, and kids with perfect SAT and perfect GPAs. Where will your spot come from?
But your question was what kind of FA will you get, and the answer is federal aid only, the Pell grant( ~ $6200) and maybe an SEOG grant (about $2000). It will not ‘cover you.’ Even with student loans of $5500, it will not cover you. You won’t be eligible for need based financial aid that is given to Texas residents (a lot of states have programs that only give money to residents).
I was a low income kid, so I know better. The poster you’re referring to isn’t being disrespectful or ignorant. They’re asking if you have your safeties lined up and it’s a question we ask everybody. You can wander through life making uncalled for comments to people based on perceived slights or you can learn to clarify. It would have taken 2 minutes of your time to ask them why they asked the question. And it’s a valid one. Do you have safeties lined up?
Is there a specific reason you want to apply to UT ?
The above posters are trying to tell you that, State Flagships are not the best places for OOS expecting FA. You have much better chance to apply to full needs met schools (private and public like UNC), to get good fin aid.
The reality is that even if UT, an enormous state school that cannot scrutinize each application, does take the time to look at your application as a whole and make exception to your relatively low ( for non auto admits) test score, it isn’t going to give you a dime. Not one thin dime. You just get your federal entitlements, that carry over to any school because it comes from the federal government, not from the school. Run the NPC from the UT website to double check.
UT-Austin has a lower test score average range due to the fact that it auto admits the top 6% of Texas high school students regardless of their test scores. It isn’t likely that they want to be giving one of their much sought after seats to someone who doesn’t help the averages.
If you are that set on UT-Austin and other selective schools where you test scores are not in the upper 75%, that is fine. Apply to them all. Just make sure you have at least one school you know you can afford and will take you on your list and nail it down quickly. Because that’s where you will likely end up going.
Universities might wonder how you and your Mom are living on 10K. Is your Dad providing any income?
You need to understand that your context isn’t going to be seen in a normal application process to highly describable publics. The essay is to help differentiate between the top candidates with the stats. You know Texas, right? It isn’t looking to OOS for kids who have had it tough. They can be found in any public high school.
^ Which does bring up questions as to whether there is a dad in the picture. For FAFSA only schools, Dad doesn’t count though child support to Mom and cash given to you should be reported on the FAFSA. But if you apply to certain private schools. you’ll have to fill out CSS PROFILE that requires both parents’ financial info
Most state schools don’t care much about what you put in your essay. When they get thousands of applications the auto screening on the stats is the big one. It’s when they get down to the nitty gritty of having to weed out some of the high stats kids that stuff like that can come more into play.
We’re a low income household. My son started with a list of 20 schools and is down to only 5 he applied to. Nearly all out of state schools state schools didn’t make it past the NPC scrutiny stage. The only exception (from his list) was Iowa State and Huntsville. Iowa claims an additional 6K in grant money on top of the Pell as well as an 8K merit scholarship (he has a 31 ACT though) We’re still looking at 15K/year. The only reason he’s able to do that is he has a hefty college fund. Otherwise, he would absolutely be living at home and commuting to one of the two local universities in town. The Pell and state grant would totally cover his tuition there. And, there is NOTHING WRONG with going to either of these schools.
If you want more of a shot at swaying people with a story, I’d look at private schools.