<p>well this is definitely a dumb question to all of you, but i have no clue whatsoever how the financial aid thing works. i am a middle income family from iowa and most of my dream college choices are the private ones on the east coast. the colleges i am really interested in are nearing the $45,000/yr total and i know that price range is way out of my league. what i am wondering is, how much aid do people get for these colleges? i have read a little bit on school websites and it says that the average aid package is almost the entire price of schooling and i just dont quite understand the whole thing...thanks</p>
<p>The first thing you should do is fill out an EFC calculator. </p>
<p>FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid</p>
<p>You will need some information from your parents to fill this out - such as income, amount of savings, equity in their home (value less mortgage), federal tax paid plus any info about tax deferred or untaxed earnings. </p>
<p>Since you are interested in private schools you should calculate it using the institutional methodology. This will give you an idea about how much your family will be expected to contribute. You financial need is the cost of attendance minus your EFC.</p>
<p>However, not all schools meet 100% of need, so you will then want to check out how well the different schools you are interested in meet need. You really can't go by the school's average aid package, because everyone's EFC is different. You need to find out what percent of need they typically cover. </p>
<p>Hopefully this info will help get you started. Then you can always post again with additional questions.</p>
<p>hey thanks A LOT. ur my favorite kind of poster on forums, to the point and extremely helpful.</p>