How much financial aid?

Hello, the USC financial aid office is viewing me as independent status this year with EFC = 0 and where I don’t have to submit the CSS profile. I was wondering if anyone has an idea of how much financial aid I will be receiving in dollars or if anyone knows an example of an independent student like me and how much financial aid he/she receives?

Each person’s situation is unique. The financial aid office determines the amount on an individual basis . If you have questions about your options, I suggest writing a letter to your financial aid counselor.at SC and requesting a personalized estimate.

Financial aid phone: 213 740 4444
Information: www.usc.edu/sfs or www.usc.edu/contactfao
Hours: 9-5 PT

If you are an undergrad and you have USC determined 0 EFC, your FA package will likely include: approx $6500 fed student loan (there is a fixed limit, not sure what it is this year), $2-3000 Work Study (you must find the job on campus and work) $5000 Pell Grant, and the rest (up to the total COA) in University Grant. In plain terms, a student with zero EFC gets grant aid (no payback–free money) to pay for attendance (including USC FA estimate costs for room & board) minus any merit $, minus the Fed. loan, and minus the $ you need to work for (work study).

@madbean Not necessarily. Our family’s experience is that they also included unsubsidized loans. Indeed, only NYU offered worse aid. Conversely, LACs offered “grant only” packages. USC meets full demonstrated need but does pile on the loans

@Brexit99 My families experience is closer to what @madbean is stating. We did get a mix of subsidized and unsubsidized loans (max of $6500 sophomore year?), $3500 in work study, and $22,000 in grant aid. This was with an income of $170k and very modest assets but TWO in college. In the two years he’s been at USC he hasn’t been offered other types of loans. I’m confused about your statement that they piled on the loans I guess.

It’s good news, bad news that my daughter is graduating in May (Oberlin). It will be interesting to see how my sons financial aid package will change.

@Brexit99, thanks for your correction. The Fed govt has rigid rules for Student loans and for First-Year Undergraduates, the Annual Student Loan Limit is $5,500—with no more than $3,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans. Those limits rise to $6,500 total, $4,500 sub in the second year, and $7,500, $5,500 in sub loans the last two years. USC’s FA package offers an unsub loan for that extra $2K/year. I believe this is the Fed mandate and applies to all colleges that make use of Fed student loans.

What I was meaning to say was the USC FA package did not include any additional student loans, outside those guidelined Fed loans. In years past, we’ve had some misunderstandings because some parents felt the pressure was put on them to borrow $$ for their family share of the EFC.

However, if a parent cannot afford or chooses not to pay the amount USC or any other college’s FA department tells them is their “contribution,” they have a disappointed kid and bad feelings too. And it’s not so easy to determine in advance since certain conditions (owning several properties, having own business, etc) make a family’s expected payment relatively high. Others, and in particular lower income families, find they do receive a lot of grant aid. Every year, some family’s are also unhappy to find their income went up so their FA goes down. But, conversely, if a family suffers an economic catastrophe (parent loses job, illness), USC’s grant FA goes up, which can feel like a huge blessing.

This is a sensitive topic, especially for upper middle income families. Not many have half a million dollars stashed away to send two kids through college. The best idea is to have student apply to several colleges with the understanding that comparing FA offers and COA is a big part of the final decision.

Thank you for your answers.
Can a USC student receive at least a little bit of grant money if he/she is taking less than 6 units for one semester? I read somewhere that students won’t receive federal aid, but maybe institutional aid for less than 6 units?