<p>Even though every case is different... how much need-based aid should I expect to receive from USC, if I get in? (and how much of it would be through loans)</p>
<p>Household income: ~$20,000 / year, no major assets
Family: single mom, me, + 1 younger sister
SAT: 2100 - 2200 range
GPA: 3.6 / 4.1</p>
<p>Any range would be helpful to know, based on what USC usually does. They have such a huge endowment that I would expect great financial aid.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>USC also uses the CSS/Profile and their own formula to determine your need, so if you have assets not considered by the FAFSA (such as home equity), you may have a different expected family contribution than the one generated by the FAFSA. Your package MIGHT include (freshman year) your EFC as determined by USC to be paid by cash, $3,500 subs Stafford, $2,000 unsubs Stafford, $2,000 - $3,000 in work/study, an expectation of $3,000 or so in summer earnings, federal grants, state grant (if CA resident) and University grants.</p>
<p>USC guarantees to meet 100% of USC-determined need, but again, USC will determine your need using the CSS/Profile and their own formula so it may differ from the FAFSA result.</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>so should I expect around $6,000 in total loans per year?</p>
<p>Stafford loan limits are:</p>
<p>Freshman year: $3,500 subs + $2,000 unsubs
Sophomore year: $4,500 subs + $2,000 unsubs
Junior and senior year: $5,500 subs + $2,000 unsubs (each year)
<a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/studentloans.jsp[/url]”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/studentloans.jsp</a></p>
<p>If you need loans for your EFC, or if you are unable to make the expected summer earnings or work/study and need to replace those with loans, that would be in addition to the above amounts.</p>
<p>mmm. ok, dont quote me on this but i think youll probably get an efc in the range of
2500-4500, meaning ~41k in grants, 5.5k in loans, 2.5k in work study.</p>
<p>my financial situation is pretty similar to yours except we have 3 college kids in the equation (dont know if that mattered??) </p>
<p>gl</p>
<p>
Yes, that very likely had an effect on your aid. The EFC is a total figure for all undergraduate children in the family. Families with more than one undergraduate often are expected to contribute much less than their total EFC at each university. When one or more of your siblings graduate, your EFC at USC may increase. (You may want to discuss this with USC financial aid so you know what to expect.) There were two posters on the “Financial Aid Beware” thread who were unaware of this and were taken by suprise when their financial aid was less after their siblings graduated.</p>
<p>Another note for flyingllama: The FAFSA will only ask for your custodial parent’s information, but the CSS/Profile requires both parent’s information.</p>
<p>thanks alamemom for the heads up.</p>
<p>so, our income is 27-28k/yr with 3 kids in college (no big asset/house); our efc is 4500.</p>
<p>based off of this, (for flyingllama) i would say that with one kid in college, your efc would be alot more than $4500?</p>
<p>so should i expect mines to be 4500x3 next year (2 sibs graduate)? that would be insanely crazy, as 13.5k is half our income…
and put us under the poverty line.
i spoke to the finan aid counselors at orientation, but the lady just said that she doesn’t really know what would happen next year. argh, ■■■.</p>
<p>It is frustrating that with college (and it is the same with nearly all colleges) no one can tell you exactly how much it will cost until months and months after you apply. Then each year you re-apply for aid and hope it will be enough. That is more stress than we need!</p>
<p>I really think it is unlikely that your EFC would increase that much, but it probably will increase some when your siblings graduate. I recommend the book “Paying for College Without Going Broke.” It helps you present your finances in the way that maximizes your financial aid eligibility and fills you in on all the details - like the sibling-EFC policy - so they don’t come as a surprise. It would be a great idea to pick one up and read it cover-to-cover and then have your parents do the same before the end of this year so you are ready to file your financial aid applications next year.</p>
<p>Our family has found USC to be very good with financial aid and responsive to our requests for review, and I hope it works out the same for yours.</p>
<p>Good luck</p>
<p>EFC is the family contribution. Which includes you. Now with twin sons in college let me tell you how it worked for me</p>
<p>My EFC is about 22K a year. Now that family EFC is divided between both sons. So son 1 has an EFC of 11K on his fafsa to USC and son 2 has an EFC of 11K to his college.</p>
<p>USC for the first two years met full EFC of everything except the 11K and with only minimal loans of 2.5K a year. This year, his junior year, they really increased his loans to the full stafford limit of 7.5K and reduced the grant portion by an equal amount. Not so good but still technically met full need and I pay 11K to keep him there.</p>
<p>Hope that helps</p>
<p>@drizzit: if possible, can you please tell us your income; im interested in knowing the income/assets of someone with a 22k efc. </p>
<p>if its divided between the kids (in my case, 3 of them), then my overall efc would be 13.5k.
I would think someone with an efc of 13.5k would at least earn (household) middle income (>55k)</p>
<p>@alamemom:thanks!! and i will be sure to check out that book.</p>
<p>For my son, our EFC according to FAFSA is $14,500. Our income is $75,000 and son’s is $4,000.</p>
<p>my understanding is that FAFSA should be about 20% - 25% of annual income as a rough estimate.</p>
<p>Family income was about 116K</p>
<p>The college board has a calculator that will estimate your FAFSA EFC. It is fairly accurate, at least in our case it was. The calculator was $500 off for us. It will also give you an estimate using the Institutional Method, though that seemed less accurate. Institutional Method is usually used by private schools and takes into account home equity, investments, etc. </p>
<p>finaid.com also has a calculator but I found it less accurate than the college board.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone</p>
<p>I’ll definitely apply to USC and GWU and just see what they offer. I’ll also apply to at least 8 schools which offer no-loan policies for those within my income bracket.</p>
<p>@ msheft and drizzit: thanks for sharing, and wow, you guys are rich :)</p>
<p>I just checked out the collegeboard EFC calculator,
and got:</p>
<p>EFC= $1000 for next year (when my 2 siblings graduate; 2 in family, 1 in college) for the federal method, and 0 for the institutional method. However, it also returned EFC=0 for 4 in family, 1 in college, so ??)</p>
<p>and EFC= $200 for this year (4 in family, 3 in college) for the federal method, and 0 for the institutional method.</p>
<p>AND for the finaid.com calculator, i got EFC=0 for any of my combinations.</p>
<p>So how should i take in this information?; my USC EFC is already $4000 higher than the calculators.</p>
<p>expect loans between 9500-15k to be honest.</p>
<p>zircushio, you received $15,000 in **need-based **loans as part of your financial aid package? The maximum Stafford for a junior is $5,500 subs + $2,000 unsubs for a total of $7,500. Are you including in your $15,000 additional loans to help with your USC-determined EFC? Or are there other need-based loans in your package? I know you have been waiting and waiting for your financial aid info - did it work out so that you can attend USC? (Hope so!)</p>
<p>The original question was about what to expect in terms of need-based aid. USC offers additional non-need-based loans up to the full cost of attendance to help with the USC-determined EFC if students and parents want them. So depending on an individual’s USC-determined EFC, the loan total could be as much as $53,000. But those loans would not technically be need-based aid.</p>
<p>USC gave me 9500 in stafford (both unsub, sub and perkins [which technically isnt a stafford but i included it in what USC game]) however 9500 only covers for like 50% of my cost and my EFC was 0 and my CSS efc was 0 as i do not own any homes or business. if i take out 9500 i still need book, food, and some housing money. thats where i need an addition 5k to cover that, but i dont know where to find that 5k. private loans keep rejecting me because i don’t have a rich credit history (i only have one credit card…which i thought was a wise move, which i pay ontime everytime.)</p>
<p>and alamemom, what non-need based loans are you talking about?</p>