<p>I've been accepted to UPenn and received a decent package. My family (meaning me and only me) in this case would have to contribute $12,000 next year. However, my one parent mentioned on a financial aid "estimator form" that they were paying for my older brother's $23,000 grad school year. </p>
<p>Two things:
He recently received some sort of assistant-ship and it will only cost $6800 or so.</p>
<p>After this year my parents will not need to cover anyone's grad school.</p>
<p>No matter how much my "need" changes, I am not receiving anything from my parents. In theory, if they won the lottery tomorrow I would be royalled screwed. So, how much will my expenses increase for next year and the years after? Am I in danger of getting lured in by a (comparatively) easy first year?</p>
<p>Don’t want this to get buried.</p>
<p>Well, assuming they don’t win the lottery and their income and assets stay relatively constant, you may not see much, if any, of an increase. It depends on what your FA package consists of - if there are any freshman only grants they would obviously go away - but Penn also meets 100% of need after EFC (which I assume is $12K this year). Your expected student contribution from earnings may go up, if that’s Penn’s policy, and your Stafford loan eligibility also increases by $1K. It’s unlikely that they’re considering your brother’s grad school tuition in determining EFC since he’s an independent student but you should probably ask Penn’s FA officer about this.</p>
<p>It’s a bit odd that your parents were willing to pay over $20K for your brother’s grad year but won’t pay any of their EFC for your first year of undergrad. How will you come up with $12K in loans when your Stafford loan eligibility is only $5500? Did Penn offer you some type of additional student loans or will your parents cosign loans for you? I thought their policy was no loans, but a fairly high work study amount.</p>
<p>But, if anyone actually knows, how will a difference of 20,000 or so in family expenses change my aid package? Will my “need” decrease by 10,000 / 5,000 / or 1,000?</p>
<p>And “need” is such an irritating word in situations like this.</p>
<p>Is the $20K the difference from your brother’s grad school cost? If so, as I said before, you should confirm with Penn that they actually factored that into their calculation of your EFC for this year. Grad students are often not considered to be a second child in college since they are independent students for FA purposes and family funding is deemed a choice, not a necessity.</p>
<p>What determines “independent” verses “dependent” status for a child, since my brother is still living at home?</p>
<p>To be considered independent:</p>
<h1>Be 24 years of age or older by December 31 of the award year;</h1>
<h1>Be an orphan (both parents deceased), ward of the court, or was a ward of the court until the age of 18;</h1>
<h1>Be a veteran of the Armed Forces of the United States;</h1>
<h1>Be a graduate or professional student;</h1>
<h1>Be a married individual;</h1>
<h1>Have legal dependents other than a spouse;</h1>
<h1>Be a student for whom a financial aid administrator makes a documented determination of independence by reason of other unusual circumstances</h1>
<p>Note the “be a graduate or professional student”
[FAFSA</a> and the Independent Student - FastWeb](<a href=“Federal Financial Aid and the FAFSA Independent Student | Fastweb”>Federal Financial Aid and the FAFSA Independent Student | Fastweb)</p>
<p>I doubt anyone will know whether Penn considered or didn’t consider the fact that your parents reported they were assisting your older brother with his grad school costs. You certainly could call and ask Penn the question. If they did “consider” this, then when your parents are no longer paying UPenn will most likely they will consider those monies available for you. If they didn’t consider it, then your package could stay fairly similar, but this is something you should discuss with UPenn. More troubling is that you will have a gap that will need to be paid. If you take out Stafford loans in your name you will only be able to take out $5500 for your freshman year. So make sure you and your parents are discussing how your college financing is to be handled before you make a commitment to UPenn. If they are flat out telling you (and you believe this to be true) that they will not finance your college you need to make sure you enroll somewhere you can afford.</p>
<p>I’m just going to have to wait until Monday to ask financial aid whether and how they considered the grad school costs. Thank you all for the responses. </p>
<p>Hopefully my package will be fairly consistent. If this is the case, I have 11,000 or so in the bank to pay the balance of the first and second year, and by the third and fourth the Stafford Loan caps will have increased.</p>