<p>hi all, i'm a junior who has been talking to mother about college and the DUES that need to be paid... i am scared about how much my WANT schools will ask of me any estimate numbers?</p>
<p>let's just say... tuition+roomandboard = 45k</p>
<p>i'm an only child with a single mother
dad left in high school, so house is ours (still paying loans off)
mom has 28k gross income...
crappy low paying job..
(but manage to live in nice city...) </p>
<p>also, i don't understand why/when colleges give loans or grants.. someone explain to i the CLUELESS</p>
<p>Heres the 25 word (more) or less version.</p>
<p>Schools will give you some aid (pending) when you apply. Perhaps based on your academics. Then when you do the FAFSA and submit to them, they will again put together a finaid package for you consisting of loans, grants, scholarships, work study etc. YRMV</p>
<p>Oh, and use one of the finaid calculators to plug your numbers into. It will spit out an approximate EFC. Subtract your EFC from the schools COA, and Voila, you get an idea for what you may expect for a school meeting 100% of your need.</p>
<p>When discussing financial aid you also need to think about the type of college you apply to. The colleges listed on the attached site require the Profile which takes into account assets (which targets people with a lot of investments or hard assets such as houses). FAFSA looks at income. If your mom has assets which may be impacted by the Profile then you are better off applying to a FAFSA only school.
<a href="https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet.srv%5B/url%5D">https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet.srv</a></p>
<p>Also go to the homepage of CC and go to the link about financial aid info. You also can get info by checking out the thread that is pinned to the top of this board. In addition, go to the financial aid websites of colleges that interest you.</p>
<p>This is how to find out basic info. Afterward, come back here to get more info about your situation. You need to get a basic overview first, though, before people here can help you.</p>
<p>Also, since financial aid is a major concern for you, the first thing you need to look at when considering colleges is their financial aid pages. You also need to make sure that you have at least one financial safety school -- a college that you know you'll gain admission to, can definitely afford, and would enjoy attending. Do not apply ED anywhere because that would limit your financial options. It would be best if you apply in a way that leads to multiple acceptances so you can compare financial aid offers.</p>
<p>Often students' financial safeties are community colleges that they can commute to. Such colleges may even have excellent merit aid for local students, meaning you may not have to pay anything for your first 2 years of college.</p>
<p>Afterward -- as long as you take the right courses -- you could transfer to a four year public. In my state, the four year public universities have very nice merit scholarships for top in-state community college transfer students.</p>
<p>It also would be well worth the $15 it costs to pay to access the full US News premium college site because you can find out detailed information about the financial aid of all colleges. This includes what percentage of students' need the college covers and how they cover that need (loans, grants, etc.).</p>
<p>There's no reason bothering to apply to colleges where you would have little chance of getting the financial aid that you need. All that leads to is heartbreak.</p>
<p>It will be important to stay on good enough terms with your dad that he's willing to provide the info about his taxes and finances that you'll need to apply for aid. If he refuses to do this, you may have an extremely difficult time getting need-based aid because colleges know that if parents were allowed to duck out of their financial responsibilities for their kids' college, most parents would do this. </p>
<p>If he has no income, he still will have to file the paperwork to prove that. If he has income and doesn't want to give toward your college, the colleges still will be expecting him to pay his share, and will give you aid accordingly.</p>
<p>I also suggest that you go to your GC's office and local libraries to read some of the many excellent books that describe how to get scholarships and financial aid.</p>