<p>Is it like free money that colleges or govs give away for the needy people? And if I am like an upper middle class whose parents make like 100,000 a year, can I sign up for the need base aids??</p>
<p>Or is financial aid like student loan??? </p>
<p>What is the definition??? Help me..</p>
<p>Financial aid is based on the income and assets of both your parents and you for the year prior to your need for the aid. So for students needing aid for the 2009-2010 school year, the 2008 income will be used. Assets (bank accounts, CDs etc) are counted as of the date of the filing of the application.</p>
<p>There are several types of aid.</p>
<p>First...there is need based aid that is based on your family's ability to pay. Depending on your college, you will submit the FAFSA (to almost all schools), the Profile (to some) and possibly a college form (for others). The SCHOOL will then use a formula to determine your financial aid award. There are certain EFC (expected family contribution) cutoffs and criteria for some of the federal grants, and loans. Some schools that award their own money...institutional aid...require the CSS Profile which is a more detailed accounting of your finances.</p>
<p>You also might be eligible for merit aid which is based on your academic achievement. Some schools have merit awards that also consider need. Some merit awards are based on academics solely.</p>
<p>In the end...if you receive financial aid, you can get free money (grants, scholarships), loans, work study. These are all components of financial aid. Some students get all of these, and some students only get some.</p>
<p>If your parents make $100,000 a year, that is only one piece of information used. Do they have any savings, investments, college savings, etc? These count as well to some degree.</p>
<p>There are a small number of schools with VERY generous need based financial aid packages for families with incomes in the $100,000 range. BUT...they are highly competitive and accept about 10% of applicants. The first hurdle is to gain acceptance.</p>
<p>There are a number of EFC calculators out there and you can do them plugging in the numbers from your family. You should compute both the federal methodology (FM) and the institutional methodology (IM) when doing this.</p>
<p>MOST IMPORTANT...you should sit down with your parents AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and discuss college and costs. You need to know from them what they are able and willing to contribute annually to your college costs. Without that information, you really can't proceed forward. What good does it do to find out how much a college "might" give you, if your family is not able or willing to make up the difference?</p>
<p>Everyone can apply for financial aid. Whether you get it depends on whether the school determines that you have need or not. Need will depend on several factors; family and student income and assets; COA (Cost Of Attendance) at the school; The school's financial aid policies - whether they promise to meet full need (as determined by them) or not, whether they meet need with or without loans etc. </p>
<p>For federal aid you will likely not qualify for any grant (money that does not have to be repaid) money with a parental income of $100k. You can use an EFC calculator like the one here
FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid
to calculate your EFC (Estimated Family Contribution) based on your family make up, income, and assets. Roughly speaking, schools that use FAFSA only will use the FAFSA EFC to determine your need by deducting the EFC from their COA. An income of $100k with no major assets would probably give you an EFC of @ $24,000. So for a school with a COA of $24,000 or less you would have no 'need'. For a school with a COA higher than the EFC - say $30,000 - you would have @ 'need' of $6,000. </p>
<p>Federal grant money requires a very low EFC - less than 4042 for 2008-2009. Federal Student aid consists mainly of:
Grants (do not have to be repaid)
Pell:The maximum for 2008-2009 was $4731 (supposed to increase in 2009-2010). Is EFC based. For 2008-2009 it required an EFC between 0-4041. 0 EFC got the maximum grant then the amount of grant goes down as the EFC goes up, phasing out at 4042.
SEOG: Usually awarded to the neediest students. Schools set their own criteria. (unlike the Pell where if you qualify by EFC you get it). At my daughter's school it requires a 0 EFC and early FAFSA submission. The maximum varies by school. (schools are given a limited amount of SEOG dollars to award so decide how to best allocate the money. Some students meeting the school's criteria may not get it if funds are depleted). The max by federal rules is $4,000 but schools set their own max depending on how many students they may need to award it to. The max at my daughter's school is $2,000.
ACG:Freshmen/Sophomores only. $750 freshman/$1300 Sophomore. Requires Pell eligibility and certain academic requirements - rigorous HS curriculum, certain HS GPA. Cannot have graduated HS before (I think) 2005.
SMART:3rd and 4th year students only. maximum = $4,000. Requires pell eligibility, certain majors, and a mimimum GPA.
TEACH:For teachers training to teach in certain needed subjects and requires a time commitment teaching in needy districts. If the time commitment is not met the grant reverts to an unsubsidized loan with interest dating back to the disbursment of the loan (ugh). I think there is a GPA requirement.</p>
<p>LOANS
PERKINS:Subsidized loan. Neediest students. $4,000 maximum. Limited funding. 5% interest rate. Govt pays the interest until after graduation or dropping below half time plus for a 9 month grace period. Some posters reported their schools not getting much Perkins funding this year.
STAFFORD:Combination of subsidized and/or unsubsidized. For a freshman the maximum is $5,500 of which a maximum may be subsidized if there is 'need'. Subsidized 6% this year, dropping each year for the next several years, 6 month grace period. Unsubsidized 6.8%. Interest starts from day 1 but repayment of interest and principal may be deferred until after graduation - interest is capitalized.</p>
<p>WORK STUDY You get a job on campus (or certain off campus community jobs - my daughter works in a Govt lab) and are paid an hourly salary. The benefit of a WS job is that the earnings are not held against you by FAFSA the next year.</p>
<p>There are also parent loans (Plus loans). Some States have grant programs - usually for students staying in state. Schools that promise to meet full need may have their own grant money.</p>
<p>Finaid.org is an excellent source of information on the various federal aid programs.</p>
<p>Above are 2008-2009 figures. They may change for 2009-2010.</p>
<p>if you parents make 100K a year and cant afford a education for their children, they are horrible at their finances and living way beyond their means.</p>
<p>Umm Dr. Horse I wouldn't make those comments if you do not know the OPs situation.</p>
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if you parents make 100K a year and cant afford a education for their children, they are horrible at their finances and living way beyond their means.
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<p>I'm sorry, but this is just not uniformly true. Yes, $100K is a very very solvent income. But that does not mean that the family has the cash flow to easily afford college. Perhaps their income JUST climbed to that amount and used to be much lower. Perhaps there are 4 or 5 kids in the family. I could go on and on. </p>
<p>Also, families make choices where to allocate their incomes. It's not our place to say that someone who chooses to make a house payment and a car payment is "horrible at finances" when in many markets (California for example) homes are quite costly.</p>
<p>Unless you have scholarships that add up to the cost of attendance (COA), you will at least be eligible to borrow $5500 in an unsubsidized Stafford loan freshman year. This is considered financial aid ... if you have a lower estimated cost of attendance (EFC) than your COA, you will be able to borrow up to $3500 in subsidized loan for a mix of $5500 in sub/unsub. You may also qualify for work study. Depending on your financial situation and the individual school, you could possibly qualify for a Perkins loan. Some schools have institutional grants for students at your income level, depending on the details of your financial situation. You will most likely NOT receive SEOG, Pell, ACG (although it's not impossible - I have seen some tax write offs that do make someone at this income level eligible - it's just not the norm at all).</p>