<p>Hello, I am a high school senior in a bit of a dilemma. A couple weeks ago, I was filling out college applications, and my college advisor told me to fill out the CSS PROFILE on Collegeboard, and FAFSA. I began filling out the FAFSA last year (which I didn't know renewed every year so I have to do it over again) and they told my I had to pay $0 for my education. But now that I'm filling out the CSS with my father, he told me he has over $60,000 in savings, and his retirement plan values at $500,000. What I'm saying is with that kind of money that my father didn't tell me about, I might not get help from the government with paying off my education, and having my family pay for my education is not an option; it's a very long story that I need not get into. So I guess my question is, just in case I don't get help from the government, I need another way to pay off college debt. And if I get a loan, will it be under my father's name? So he would have to pay it off? Or can I receive a loan so once I begin making money after college, I can begin to pay it off? It just sucks because I'm receiving the highest rewarded scholarships from the schools I'm getting accepted to, but they don't cover enough for me to pay off the difference with a part-time job. Suggestions and advice would be greatly appreciated!! </p>
<p>To address the two specific issues–the $60K in savings and the retirement plan, the financial aid formulas do give some allowance and do not hit up parental savings/assets anywhere nearly as hard as income., and qualified retirement plans are not ordinarily counted in assets. The two items are not likely to make a huge difference in aid packages, I dare say.</p>
<p>However, to make it perfectly clear, most schools do not meet full need. The governement does not come close to meeting full need in its college aid funds. With a FAFSA EFC of zero, a student could get up to about $5700 in grants, and borrow about $5500 in loans as a freshman. That’s all that is guaranteed. The rest of any funds has to come from the college itself or the state, if your state has any such funds. The federal amounts are enough to commute to a local state school or Comm college, but are not going to pay for going away to college.</p>
<p>This is a situation many, if not most students find themselves in: not enough money from anywhere to support going away to college. Unless a school that accepts you will meet full need, or close enough so that you and your family can afford it, it’s not an option. </p>
<p>Your parents can take out loans through Parent Direct Loans, (PLUS), yes. If they pass the credit test and agree to do so. Interest rate is up there, about 7% and starts accumulating immediately. With a low or zero EFC, unless your father is willing to spend his savings, which may not be a financially wise move to make, they probably cannot afford to borrow much. And all you are guaranteed to get are the Student Direct Loans, which start at $5500 as a freshman. </p>
<p>I have no idea what your test score, grades, schools you are considering are, what your parents are willing to pay. Those all come into play. I suggest your run your financial numbers through the NPCs of the schools to which you want to apply and see what they estimate as your required payments. Will give you some idea of affordabilyt.</p>
<p>For instance one of my top choices is Dominican University of California. Their tuition per year is $40,600. I was awarded their highest scholarship of $23,000. I don’t know what I’m gonna do about the other 17,600$. And having my family pay isn’t an option. So could I possibly get some sort of financial aid to cover some of the 17,600$, and then get a loan for the rest that I could pay off in later years? I’m quite uneducated in this area, seeing that I’m only 16, so that’s why I’m asking for help here. </p>
<p>Cpto has given you some good advice.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>There is an asset protection allowance for parents. If your parents are married, most of that $60,000 will be in that asset protection allowance, most likely.</p></li>
<li><p>The money IN your dad’s retirement accounts (if they are actual retirement accounts and not regular savings) is not included in the FAFSA formula. However any contributions to pretax retirement accounts for 2014 will be added back as income (for FAFSA and Profile).</p></li>
<li><p>Your FAFSA is not available for completion for the 2015-2016 school year until January 1, 2015. You can’t do that one NOW…it’s not there TO do.</p></li>
<li><p>Your FAFSA EFC is largely dependent on your parent income and assets. That is what determines federally funded Grant aid. So…what IS your parent income for 2014 going to be? </p></li>
<li><p>The on,y loans you can get in your on name guaranteed are the Direct Loans. You can get $5500 for your freshman year.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If you are low income, you might also get a Perkins loan but that is not guaranteed.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Any loans above the Direct and Perkins totals will require a cosigner…typically that is your parents. But if your EFC is $0, really…your parents are not in a position to cosign a loan with you.</p></li>
<li><p>To have. $0 EFC per FAFSA, you would have to be a very low income family…very low. Are you?</p></li>
<li><p>As noted, the Pell Grant is $5730, and the Direct Loan is $5500.</p></li>
<li><p>What state are you in? Some states have grants for low income students. California has the Calgrants and NY has TAP. There are others too. </p></li>
<li><p>What colleges are you targeting? What is your GPA, and what is your ACT or SAT score?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thumper1 My family’s income is pretty low. I have a family of six, my mom doesn’t work, and my dad’s gross income per year is 40,000$. Since he’s self employed, the net income is 31,000. I think that’s low. I’m aiming for schools all over the scale, I have safe and reach schools. I’ve already been accepted to one of my top choices. My GPA is 3.71, and I got a 27 on the ACT. I live in California. </p>
<p>You live in CA so you are Calgrant eligible. I believe that at the UCs you would need to take the Direct Loan, and have about $2500 in job earnings (which might be awarded in work study).</p>
<p>But as you know, your ACT score isn’t very high, so merit aid is unlikely at many schools.</p>
<p>Your parents really cannot cosign a loan.</p>
<p>Many students in your shoes commute to a community college to save money for the first two years. I believe your Calgrant would cover those costs. </p>
<p>My ACT score is higher than the average score for most of the schools I applied to. Merit based scholarships never crossed my mind since I knew I would never be eligible. So if I had the Cal grant, direct student loan, and a 23,000$ scholarship, it wouldn’t cover 40,000 dollars? That’s not including federal aid, if eligible. </p>
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<p>On a net income of $31,000, your parents cannot pay for college for you unless they have some college savings put aside. There is no long story at all. They do not have sufficient income to pay college costs, and support a family of six.</p>
<p>Was there ever an expectation on your part that your parents would fund college?</p>
<p>And we’re you aware of the max Pell Grant amounts and Direct Loan amounts before you applied?</p>
<p>Did you know about the Calgrant?</p>
<p>So because they can’t pay for it is there any hope of eligibility through the FAFSA to pay $0 for my education? </p>
<p>I think I addressed that. </p>
<p>The max guaranteed money from the federal government for students with $0 EFC is $5730 in Pell Grant and $5500 in Direct Loans.</p>
<p>The Calgrant will pay for a good amount of your costs at some of the UCs, but you will still need to take the $5500 Direct Loan and then earn about $2500 in addition per year.</p>
<p>The Pell Grant is awarded based on your FAFSA EFC. The Direct Loan is available to anyone who files a FAFSA.</p>
<p>The Calgrant is available to students whose family AGI is less than $80,000.</p>
<p>FAFSA does NOT give you money. It is a financial aid application form.</p>
<p>If you are completing the Profile, you are looking at private colleges with huge price tags. Your 27 ACT likely does not make you competitve for admissions to the most generous colleges. I’m not sure if you would be accepted to these meet full need for all schools with that ACT score. I could be wrong.</p>
<p>If you are asking if your costs will be $0…total Grant aid…no loans and no job. The short answer is NO…unless you attend a community college where the costs will be met with your need based aid.</p>
<p>What schools are you targeting? </p>
<p>I applied to 4 UCs, 4 CSUs (because I was granted a fee waiver) and a few private schools on the Common App. I can’t attend community college, so either way I’ll have to pay something as you said, correct? Btw thank you for this information. I really needed it. My parents didn’t go to school in America so they have no clue how to handle this. And wait, so what does the FAFSA do? Does it just let colleges and the government know my financial status? </p>
<p>Why can’t you attend community college?</p>
<p>It’s a family expectation to attend a university. I’ll be letting everyone down if I don’t. That’s why I’m worried about all this stupid financial crap. </p>
<p>You need to dig in and understand this better. You aren’t reading/listening to the posts that have already been made trying to explain what the various sources of income are… you seem to just want someone to tell you if you can afford it or not.</p>
<p>FAFSA just helps determine if you are eligible for the federal aid discussed in the above posts. It isn’t available until January 1 for next year. You should read up on the Calgrant, too.</p>
<p>Why “can’t” you attend community college? Many, many students in a tough financial situation attend community colleges for 2 years, then go on to finish at a 4 year state university.</p>
<p>Yes. The FAFSA is a financial aid application form. Your family completes it, and it generates a student aid report which includes an EFC. That EFC is primarily used to determine eligibility for federally funded need based aid. </p>
<p>You submit the FAFSA to the colleges, and the colleges use that information to craft your financial aid award. The FAFSA for 2015-2016 is not available until January 1, 2015.</p>
<p>If your school uses the Profile, the same applies…but the information on the Profile is more extensive. Schools that use the Profile use it to determine eligibility for institutional need based aid…money that is awarded by the colleges.</p>
<p>But here is the rub. MOST colleges do NOT guarantee to meet full need…and they don’t. This means your FAFSA EFC is the minimum you will be exoected to pay to attend college.</p>
<p>I don’t know which UCs you applied to…and I don’t know the Calgrant things for each school. But there are no “free rides” really. You will be exoected to take out the Direct Loan, and have a job so you can contribute $2500 or so annually. </p>
<p>I’m hoping Ucbalumnus sees this thread. He has quite the info about California public university costs. </p>
<p>Without knowing the privates you are applying to, it is impossible to,say what you will be paying.</p>
<p>There are net price calculators on the college websites, but with your dad being self employed, they might not be accurate. But you can try them…it will give you a ballpark anyway.</p>
<p>ETA…you say you cannot go to a community college? Well then, is there a UC or Cal State that you can commute to?</p>
<p>So it is a family expectation to go to a university. What was the family expectation on how the cost would be covered? Did you and your parents understand that free rides are unusual?</p>
<p>Also, what is your intended major? Will your future income be sufficient to support yourself and pay off debt?</p>
<p>DId you run the NPC for Dominican College? That will give you some idea of what they may expect you to pay. Though your FAFSA EFC is zero, what any given college that uses its own calculator, such as the PROFILE or some additional quesitons or just have its own expected student contribution, or doesn’t meet EFC which is the way it is with most colleges, can be up in the air. The NPC is the best estimate, though the fact that your dad is self employed could be an issue with PROFILE schools. They may value the business as an asset and add back deductions and depreciations as income. When you complete the FAFSA, by the way, make sure you add back any contribution your dad made to his retirement account in 2014. There will be a place indicating to do so. </p>
<p>If you indeed have a zero EFC, in addition to the $23K Dominican gave you in merit, you will get $5700 from the federal government and you may borrow $5500 as a freshman from Direct Loans. That will reduce that $17,600 left to pay to $6400. Unless the school comes up with more financial aid and they might, with grants, additional loans and possibly work study, you have to come up with that amount yourself. If you have savings, work the summer and the school year, with just a little help from your parents, you could bridge that gap. </p>
<p>If you don’t get enough to cover your costs, you will have to do as most students do–find an affordable local school, use the PELL and loans to commute there and find a part time job to meet your expenses. </p>
<p>It’s unusual to get a school to cover all of your costs including living expenses. You and your parents are usually required to come up with at least some of that money. Even getting entire tuition covered is a big deal.</p>
<p>I understand it completely. Free rides are almost impossible to get a hold on. I’ve been through some of this with my college advisor, but my father thinks he knows everything about the college process; frankly, he doesn’t. I don’t know what’s going through his mind on how my college will be paid for. It sucks because I’m going in blind. </p>
<p>@intparent Before I posted this, I knew nothing about grants and how loans worked. That’s why I posted here in this forum, to get suggestions and advice. I read up on the Cal grant, and it said it needs the FAFSA and my GPA, is that correct? </p>