I’m a senior and I’m a bit worried about the financial aid packages we’ll receive from various colleges. I’ve been looking into merit scholarships because obviously those wouldn’t change based on my parent’s income, and while I don’t think I would mind attending one of those universities, I really, really want to go to a small LAC. But a lot of the ones I’m looking at mostly provide need-based grants. I think we would qualify for some need-based aid (and using extremely general estimates on NPCs seemed to say the same thing), but I’m worried about the packages changing. My dad has had pretty unstable employment since the recession (it’s the nature of his work I think, he’s a recruiter for companies, and positions get eliminated and stuff), and judging from the past 3 years, he’ll probably get laid off at least once or twice while I’m in college. Given our financial situation, I have a few questions:
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How much do financial packages change? For example, how much would $5-10K in income (up or down) affect our EFC? My parents’ income before taxes is about $95K I think and they have very little assets.
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If my dad loses his job and I am enrolled in a college giving me need-based financial aid, would I report it to the FA office right away? How quickly would they be able to help with the change in income? Or would it just be reported yearly?
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Would I be able to discuss what would happen with my FA package if my father becomes unemployed with the FA office once I receive offers and be able to get a fairly good idea of what would happen?
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My dad’s current job is contract to perm, so in the event it doesn’t become permanent (hopefully it will), would we be able to tell the FA office this once I’ve gotten my offers to see if the package could be adjusted?
Sorry if this isn’t enough information or is something that varies too much but anything you could tell me would be helpful.