<p>I was accepted to a great school, but at this price my father has refused to help pay for my education. </p>
<p>On my bill I already have $2,500 in work study, and $6,000 in federal loans, but the school is still expecting to pay $23,829. </p>
<p>My father's EFC was $11,300. </p>
<p>I am at a total loss of what to do or say to my father to convince him that there is still a possibility of me attending this school. Or should I just give up and go to community college instead?</p>
<p>didn't you realize this gap existed when you got the financial aid package ~2 months ago???
You're essentially asking your dad to pay 2x his efc. that is difficult for many(most) people. Where did you expect this money to come from.</p>
<p>I have to say that I am with sueinphilly on this one. Your father's EFC is $11,300 but the school has gapped you by another $12,529. You do not want to be dealing with people who treat students this way. You need to find a school that you and your family can afford.</p>
<p>You have two options:</p>
<p>Take next year off from school and do something interesting while you apply to a new set of colleges/universities that will be within your budget.</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>Find a school for this fall (or for second semester) that will be within your budget. That could be your local community college. You also could take a look at the NACAC list of availability:</p>
<p>Pommes, you're trying to squeeze water out of stone. If the EFC and college's expectations for your family are so out of synch, it is not the school for you. This is not a case of a family who has the money and does not want to spend it. It is not just unreasonable to expect your father to come up with that much money, it would be dangerous for him to do so.</p>
<p>Community college is one option; another would be a 4 year local state school. You may want to go part time this year, and earn some money and save. If you want to apply as a first year student again next year, make sure you know what the number of credits you can earn before you are considered a transfer student. It is more difficult to get financial aid as a transfer student. Look at some of the threads on generous/full ride colleges. Get ready to talk to your former GC and teachers to do this again next year; this time paying heed to schools that will not gap you. I've known some kids who have gone through this same thing, and they learned a lot from it, reaping benefits the second time around. I have always felt that if I could do a repeat, it would be a better job having learned from the mistakes, but in our case the options were acceptable and preferable to redoing the apps. Good luck to you, and I am sorry that the school you picked gapped you so badly.</p>
<p>As others have noted might consider a CC or state school. Since you might be first year keep in mind the first and second year out is often generally prep, and as such as long as the school is credible doesn't matter all that much where its done.
Could be a good idea to take the school your finances can support at this time. When the financial situation improves you can transfer into the prestige school-which remains an option. That said the school in question that did gap you, and so they may either be inefficient or have other agendas so might be wise take a much closer look at their situation.
And really if you're going to have to borrow, its better to focus on the level which is the most expensive (god knows) and usually more relevant to professional success. And for most people that's the grad or professional degree.
So perhaps don't think of other schools as giving up (including the CC's)... in many cases and for many people these institutions are the most cost efficient means to the same ultimate end. And because of the insane escalations in college costs and debt these type of schools will be much more appealing to a new faction of the population, and to meet that new demand these schools will be under some pressure to provide enhanced curriculum.</p>
<p>pommes, you live in California -- a state with more excellent public schools than any other in this country! You don't need to go to a private college with inadequate aid. Check out the UCs (if it's not too late for next fall) your Cal State and CCs with the idea of a transfer to a UC. </p>
<p>But don't despair. Honestly, Californians have so many fantastic options. Cheer up & look for a school your family can afford. They're out there. And they're excellent.</p>
<p>There's absolutely nothing wrong with community college for 2 years to save money. No great school would gap that much. Realize that the truly GREAT schools are ones that promise 100% of need!</p>
<p>Actually there are some conditions which make CC's a very good value for the preliminary courses. Preeminent amongst these that the faculty at CC's is often hired with the specific understanding that they are there to be teaching faculty.
In that regard these profs are often very dedicated to the concept of teaching despite their occasional disheveled look from heavy course loads. And CC's don't usually have the ability to hand off the intro courses to the grad assistants. Grad assistants (the exploited sharecroppers of academia) are good people but essentially what you get in that situation is students teaching students.</p>
<p>Pommes, I would be interested in which college "this really great" school is. It is not a very great school if its offer to a student whose family EFC is $11,300 is comprised of work study and loans. They are not giving you a dime, and expecting you and your family to stretch themselves financially to a point that could be damaging.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your advice. My father and I sent our deposit to UVa in hopes of finding financing solutions, but it just isn't possible so instead I'm going to go to a CC and transfer to Berkeley (my original top choice).</p>
<p>Pommes, out of state public universities very rarely cover EFC for out of staters. The money goes to in state kids first, as a general rule. I am sorry this did not work out for you. I truly think it would be a bad thing to have your father and you to take out loans in the amounts that UVA is suggesting to cover their costs. The UVA adcom participates on CC. You might want to address the situation to him. He has made statements of how UVA is targeting some low income out of state kids and has some fin aid options for them. He just might be able to help you out. A long shot, but maybe.</p>
<p>It's good to see that you have made a decision your family can live with, pommesfrites. From what I have gathered from this website, students in CA can get a great start at a CC & if they keep top grades, they end up with a topnotch degree for a fraction of the cost to others. If Berkeley was your first choice, you will in all probability end up there, after all. Sound like maybe things have worked out this way for a reason. Best of luck!</p>
<p>I am actually a CC to UCB transfer, and if I could do one thing over again it would be to save as much money as I possible could during my time at CC. For some reason, largely due to my own ignorance of the finaid system, I put off working and am now exploring every possibility on how to raise money (including selling my car, etc).</p>
<p>My advice would be to work as much as possible, while still maintaining as close to a 4.0 as possible to mitigate the costs of college as best you can.</p>