How to pay for college (many financial aid questions)

Paying for College
1

<p>Okay, I'm currently a junior going into my senior year in HS in September 2010, graduating June 2011. My problems arise when thinking of how I will be able to pay for college. Although my dad works two jobs we are buried in debt. His credit score is virtually non-existent due to the fact that bills keep piling and no one is paying, at least not on time. My mom does not work and her credit isn't too fabulous either. So my questions are...</p>

<ul>
<li>will I get decent a financial aid package even though my dad does make decent money from his jobs (in other words does the government consider debt)?</li>
<li>if I get loans as a part of my financial aid package will I need a co-signer?</li>
<li>if I need a cosigner will he/she need to be employed, or can they just have enough money in the bank to fulfill the needs (i.e, a grandparent)?</li>
<li>do state universitys (particularly SUNY's give good financial aid/merit)?</li>
<li>does Villanova (out of state) give good financial need/merit?</li>
</ul>

<p>*****Lastly, if I go to a college such as Stony Brook (public school in state) or Villanova (private school out of state) will I be able to receive scholarship money?
Although I need to take the SATs again my current score is a
660 - math
600 - verbal
560 - writing</p>

<p>I took two subject tests in addition to that (MATH I - 580 :/ and US 570) I am trying to fit in to retake math I because I KNOW I can do much much better i do not know what went wrong on the testing day.</p>

<p>I am an A student with a senior schedule having an abundance of AP courses. I am also apart of a few clubs, including national honor society.</p>

<p>Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and answers to any of my many questions would be great!</p>

<p>:)</p>

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<p>please help any questioned answers help</p>

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<p>FAFSA does not take debt into account.</p>

<p>Even if you have no “need” based on your EFC you will be eligible for Stafford student loans. They do not require a credit check. The maximum Stafford loan fro a freshman is $5500.</p>

<p>If you father applies for a parent PLUS loan and is denied because of bad credit then you are eligible for an additional $4000 in STafford loans in your name.</p>

<p>Private loans in your name will require a cosigner with a good credit rating.</p>

4

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<p>Need based financial aid is based primarily on your family’s income and assets. The financial aid formulas do NOT consider consumer debt in the equation. So…NO the government and schools will not consider your family’s debt when considering your need based financial aid application.</p>

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<p>The Stafford loans do not require a cosigner. If you are low income (it sounds like you are not), you might also receive a Perkins loan. No cosigner on those either. BUT any other loans will either require a cosigner or need to be taken out by your parents or some other adult who can qualify for them.</p>

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<p>It depends on just how much money your grand parent HAS in the bank. The banks just need to know that they will have some place to recover money in the event that the loan payment is NOT paid. In most cases these days, loans require ongoing employment.</p>

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<p>State universities usually do not have the financial resources to meet the full need of their students (Cost of attendance minus family contribution as calculated by the school or FAFSA). Binghamton and Geneseo don’t give merit aid at all, I don’t believe. If you are instate for the SUNY system, the cost is one of the best four year bargains around.</p>

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<p>Villanova is a private school. It doesn’t matter whether you live in or out of state. The school does not guarantee to meet full need for accepted students, and it is a costly school. They do have some merit aid for VERY high stat students who apply there.</p>

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<p>I don’t now how much scholarship money Stony Brook has. Check their website. Villanova has scholarship money for students with stats at the top of their applicant pool. At this point, I would wager that your stats (1260 combined Math/CR SAT) would NOT be in the top of their applicant pool, and neither are your subject tests.</p>

<p>You do sound like you have some wonderful grades. Does your school have Naviance? If so, you might want to look at the scattergrams for the schools you have an interest in…it will give you a sense of your admissions chances. That is important to know too.</p>

5

<p>thank you! are the loans distributed by FAFSA considered private loans?</p>

6

<p>FAFSA does not distribute anything. The FAFSA is a financial aid application form. It collects information and computes an Expected Family Contribution (EFC). This EFC really is used primarily to determine eligibility for federally funded need based aid.</p>

<p>The colleges will disburse your financial aid award. It can included the Stafford and Perkins loans which are federal loans…student signs only…not private loans like through a bank or loan agency.</p>

7

<p>oh wow you clarified a lot!
thanks so much!!</p>

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<p>Since the lesson from your parents should be that too much debt is a BAD thing, you should NOT be looking into following that path with private loans.</p>

<p>You should limit your school choices to schools that will NOT require big debt.</p>

<p>Fed loans are limited for a reason…because new grads can’t afford to pay back big loans.</p>

<p>your limits will be…</p>

<p>frosh: 5500
soph: 6500
Junior: 7500
senior: 7500</p>

<p>660 - math
600 - verbal
560 - writing</p>

<p>Your stats are not high enough for decent merit at schools like Villanova</p>

<p>Villanova</p>

<p>Middle 50% of First-Year Students </p>

<p>SAT Critical Reading: … 580 - 680<br>
SAT Math: … 620 - 710 </p>

<p>At the schools that give good merit scholarships, you need your scores to be well into the top 25% (sometimes as high as the top 5%).</p>

<p>Your stats are average for Villanova, so no incentive for them to give you merit.</p>

<p>To improve your chances for good merit, apply to schools that give big merit AND where your stats would be very high for the school - such as within the top 5 - 10 %.</p>

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<p>Is Stony Brook the only SUNY you’re considering? Are you close enough to commute if you need to? What is your potential major? Many of the SUNY’s do give merit aid but the amounts and qualifications vary by campus. I don’t think Stony Brook has any automatic scholarships and my guess is that you would be close to the lower end of the merit pool, but you can probably find out more on the Stony Brook forum. You would be more competitive for merit money at some of the smaller SUNYs. Aside from merit aid, the SUNY’s generally only have small amounts of institutional money to give and that generally goes to kids with the lowest EFC’s. Most packages include the maximum amount of Stafford loans so you should not count on student loans to cover your EFC with. </p>

<p>You’ll need to estimate your family’s EFC and should do so soon because it will give you an idea of the amounts and types of federal aid you’ll qualify for. You can use the fafsa4caster or college board’s calculator to do so. Also, the HESC website has a TAP estimate feature available:</p>

<p>[Estimate</a> Your TAP Award](<a href=“http://www.hesc.com/content.nsf/SFC/Estimate_Your_TAP_Award]Estimate”>http://www.hesc.com/content.nsf/SFC/Estimate_Your_TAP_Award)</p>

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<p>*Most packages include the maximum amount of Stafford loans so you should not count on student loans to cover your EFC with. *</p>

<p>VERY TRUE!!!</p>

<p>You are in a situation where your stats are good, but your family income and debt will likely hurt you.</p>

<p>Schools aren’t going to care about debt unless it was from medical bills.</p>

<p>You may not qualify for TAP if your income is too high. </p>

<p>You need to carefully come up with a list of workable schools based on your stats and the fact that your family will likely have an unaffordable EFC.</p>

<p>Find out what your EFC will likely be.</p>

<p>FA Calc<br>
[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Expected Family Contribution (EFC) Calculator - Finaid) </p>

<p>Since it sounds like your parents won’t be contributing any money towards your education, your options will be limited to schools that are affordable because you can commute to them or schools that are affordable because your stats are high for the school and they award big merit.</p>

<p>Frankly, I doubt any schools that require subject tests are going to work for you. Instead, work on increasing your SAT. Also, take the ACT.</p>

<p>Your M+CR is 1260. Identify schools that your SAT would be in the top 10% of the school.</p>

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<p>sk8trmom posted this on another thread…it might help you… I removed much of the OOS stuff since it didn’t apply to you</p>

<p>*many SUNY’s don’t publish merit requirements and/or the qualifications vary by cohort but… almost every SUNY that offers merit aid to freshmen (note this does not include Binghamton and Geneseo) …</p>

<p>For example, Fredonia’s instate Presidential is $3k/year, …</p>

<p>UB’s instate merit awards (qualifications vary by applicant pool) range from $3K-full ride, … </p>

<p>Oswego’s Presidential scholarships are $4400/year (with a 94 average/1240 SAT), …</p>

<p>All of these amounts seem relatively low for merit aid until you consider that tuition at any 4 year SUNY is only $4,970 instate/$12,870 OOS (fees vary by campus but are generally around $1K/yr).</p>

<p>Other SUNYs that offer merit aid include:
Cortland - $2500 for min 90 avg/1100 SAT, …</p>

<p>Plattsburg -starts at $1K for instate min 90 avg/1000 SAT …, calculator available on website</p>

<p>ESF (Syracuse) - up to $3K instate … (varies by pool) cutoff is 90 avg/1200 SAT</p>

<p>This is not a comprehensive list…I know that Albany, Brockport, and others offer merit aid and allude to residency being a factor in the amounts but they simply don’t publish details on their websites! *</p>

<p>So, apply to several SUNYs where your stats are high for the school.</p>

<p>To find out the SAT ranges for each school, go to Collegeboard. Your scores should be above the “mid 50” range for each schoo. <a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

<p>For example…at UB</p>

<p>Test Scores Middle 50% ofFirst-Year Students </p>

<p>SAT Critical Reading: 510 - 600
SAT Math: 550 - 650<br>
SAT Writing: - -
ACT Composite: 23 - 28 </p>

<p>Your scores are around the top 25% mark. They may not give much to you.</p>

<p>However, at Cortland…</p>

<p>mid 50 range</p>

<p>SAT Critical Reading: 510 - 590
SAT Math: 480 - 560</p>

<p>Your M+CR score is well into the top 25%, so your chances for bigger merit is much better.</p>

12

<p>Adding to above…</p>

<p>Oswego</p>

<pre><code>Middle 50% of First-Year Students
</code></pre>

<p>SAT Critical Reading: 530 - 590<br>
SAT Math: 520 - 600<br>
SAT Writing: - -
ACT Composite: 21 - 25 </p>

<p>Again, your 1260 M+CR score is within the top 25%</p>

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<p>The cutoff for TAP is $80K of NYS taxable income (not AGI), so many middle class kids do qualify. Awards range from $500-$5K and can’t exceed 100% of tuition.</p>

14

<p>^^^^</p>

<p>Good to know. Since the family has 2 incomes (dad has 2 jobs), I wasn’t sure how much their “middle class income” was. Some who earn $100k say that they’re middle class. </p>

<p>With this student’s good, but not top, stats, and with a likely unaffordable EFC, this student’s best bets are likely going to be NY state schools that will give the biggest merit…so that Stafford, W-S, summer earnings, and maybe TAP can pay for the rest.</p>

<p>If this student doesn’t get most/all of his tuition covered with merit, I don’t see how he can go “away” to school.</p>