How Similar Would FA Offers Be?

Paying for College
1

I only received one financial aid award so far from Loyola Maryland- they do not meet 100% need. I received $6500 in loans (expected and will be taking this amount per year) $4000 in work study (taking) and small federal grants (taking). This school also offered me 27k in merit. After all this, the school also awarded me 10,500 in need based aid per year. My total COA was 15,000 after this. Considering Loyola does not need full need, would it be a safe assumption that my COA from schools that do meet 100% need would be about the same?

EDIT: I just realized I was reading it wrong!! My total aid awarded is 49k after the 6500 in loans and work study. So COA would be 10k. 15k was the amount in plus loans I was eligible for.

2

Can’t assume anything. The federal loans and Pell should be the same at every school, but work study and the federal grant (SEOG?) are determined by the school. The merit and other need based grants from the school are also determined by the school.

You might be able to get a better idea by using the NPC for each school.

3

@twoinanddone it was Federal Supplemental Grant. Basically what I’m asking is assuming this was a full need school and I had not received the merit scholarship, does it mean that they believe the most my family can pay is 10k.

4

What was your FAFSA EFC?

5

Most schools that meet full need use the CSS/Profile to make the determination of what your need is. School A can determine your family can pay $10k, school B can decide your family can afford to pay $20k. Some schools include loans in their packages, others do not.

Even the FSEOG can be different at different schools. The school has a pot of money from the feds, and divides it as it sees fit. Some award to those who file FAFSA first, others to those who need it the most. At a meets full needs school, if you don’t get the SEOG, you should get more of a school grant.

6

@thumper1 10K

7

Then full needs schools should get your COA down to 10k.

However, keep in mind, loans may or may not be part of the deal. Also, work study is not money that is available to pay 1st semester bill, you may not be able to find a job, & you may not be able to earn the full amount.

When comparing offers, compare required GPA to maintain any merit scholarship, & can it be used for study abroad?

8

@alooknac thank you for the advice about work study! I didn’t realize that. My award included federal loans but I plan to take those out anyway.

9

Yes, work study is a need based award. Not everybody gets it, and you have to find a work study position, work and then get regular paychecks during the semester. The maximum amount is set, but depending in your hours and pay, you might earn less than that.

For example you work 10 hrs a week @ 8/hr, that’s $80 a week. If the semester has 15 weeks, you can earn $1,200 a semester, $2,400 a year.

So don’t figure the WS into your net cost, use it to pay for personal expenses while at school, maybe books for second semester if you have enough leftover.

You need to plan to work this summer to save up money for books, travel and such for starting school.

Like others said, try the net price calculators on college websites to see how much aid you might get.

Some are more detailed than others, some that use FAFSA only, wil ask for your FAFSA EFC, for others you might have to enter income and assets, home equity, etc.

For Loyola, you should add all direct billed costs such as tuition, fees, room and board, and subtract all scholarships, grants.

That is your net price. You can compare the net price of all colleges once you have all finaid offers.

Then you will need to figure out how the net price can be paid, with the $5,500 student loan, parent contribution, etc.

10

Schools that meet full need will likely use the Profile. The exceptions are University of Chicago which uses FAGSA and a very short school form…and Princeton which uses the fafsa and their own form which is very similar to,the Profile.

You may find that your family contribution calculation for schools that meet full need are close to your FAFSA EFC…or not.

Have you run net price calculators for your other schools? They will be pretty accurate assuming your parents are married, don’t own a business, and don’t own real estate other than your home.

11

be sure to compare apples to apples when comparing different packages. It’s ok to lump the ‘grants’ and ‘merit scholarships’ together. but don’t include the loans and work-study as part of the package (because this is the portion you are still responsible for paying - called ‘self-help’ . Yes, it’s part of the package, but not the main part). Some schools will also package Perkins loans in, but be careful - some will go all the way up to 10k in loans. a package with all those loans plus work-study is not as good as one without the heavy loan burden.

also, COA (cost of attendance) is the same at a school for everyone. it’s tuition+room+board+misc. usually a big number like 60,000. You’re probably referring to the ‘net price’. i’m basing the following on your 49k and 10k numbers: If Loyola MD’s COA is 59,000 and you got 27k in merit plus 10.5k in FA grants then your ‘net price’ is now 21,500. Then when you apply the loans it comes down to 15,000, and with the ws it is 11,000. As others mentioned, don’t include the ws.

59,000 - 27,000 - 10,500 = 21,500 net price - 6,500 = 15,000 out of pocket

The 21,500 net price would be the main number you want to compare when looking at all your packages. I may have misinterpreted your numbers, but hopefully you can see the flow for the calc.

if you do the same for all your schools you can effectively compare the packages to know how they stack up. There are spreadsheets out there that you can download that help you do this (and many blogs that explain how to compare awards). One spreadsheet i’ve used is from Univ of Vermont. You can find it at the bottom of this page: http://www.uvm.edu/~stdfinsv/?Page=awardcomparison.html

12

Not necessarily true.

  1. Each "meet full need" school may determine EFC its own way, which may be different from the FAFSA EFC.
  2. Each "meet full need" school may expect a student contribution (federal direct loan and/or student work earnings) on top of EFC, so that net price = EFC + ESC = list price - (grants + scholarships).
  3. Merit scholarships may not necessarily reduce net price as much as you expect, particularly if they exceed the school's expected student contribution.

Use the net price calculator on each college’s web site to get estimates if you have not received actual financial aid offers.

13

@ucbalumnus

I would think that $10,000 is a decent enough ballpark. There is no reason to think the family contribution will be less than $10,000…it could very well be more than that.

Use the net price calculator on each college site.