<p>My parents sold money in mexico and we got a large sum of money in. However, we primarily sold the land to clear of some serious accumulating debt and after paying some of it off and paying plenty of taxes to get the money in the U.S....we have none of it left. </p>
<p>here's the problem. When I filed the fafsa my parents had to put down that our adjusted income was around $300,000 because that is what is stated on our taxes when in reality we make around $69,000 on a good year. My efc was 99696 and I know I'm not going to get any financial aid at all or any of the scholarships I applied to because of this. </p>
<p>I've tried emailing the schools I was accepted to explain but am I wasting my time? My parents can't pay for school on their own and I don't know what to do anymore.</p>
<p>You’re definitely not waisting your time by emailing the schools - in fact, that’s pretty much all you can do. Most schools encourage students to contact them if their financial situation has changed. I would think that somebody will recognize your situation and adjust the available financial aid.</p>
<p>I’m in Illinois and I’ve applied to Marquette University, Illinois State and University of Illinois in Chicago. As far as stats go I have a 24 ACT and a 3.5 GPA, top 30 percent of my class… Any good?</p>
<p>None of the schools on your list meet full need. With regard to the instate Illinois schools, most would give you federally funded aid only anyway…and any state grants for which you would be eligible. With an income of $69K per year, you would not get much in state grants…or federally funded grants. </p>
<p>If your family has less debt, do they perhaps have MORE available income to help you with school?</p>
<p>None of the state schools are going to help you even if you were to get some kind of adjustment. Your stats are not high enough for Marquette to help you much. </p>
<p>Are you a minority?</p>
<p>Can you commute to either of the state schools? What is their tuition?</p>
<p>Really? my parents can help pay some, but we cant tackle 24,000 on our own. Most of our income goes to bills and necessities so whatevers left will go to my school. I’m an hour and a half from the closest school and I’m hispanic. </p>
<p>I knew grants and stuff wouldn’t be in the picture so I was hoping the school would help out and the hundreds of scholarships I was hoping to get, but I probably won’t get those either because of this. Seems all my hard work to try and get education went to waste.</p>
<p>Private scholarships are usually hard to get, for small amounts, and only for freshman year…so even if you were able to get some, they would only help a bit for your first year.</p>
<p>For Marquette, an ACT 24 is not very high. The 2 middle quartile range for Marquette is 24-29. That means that an ACT 24 is just above the bottom 25%. So, not likely going to get any merit unless maybe they have some kind of Hispanic scholarship. </p>
<p>Marquette costs about $43k per year. Even if you got a $15k grant (which would be amazing), you’d still have to pay $28k. A typical FA package from Marquette is about a $10k grant, 6000loan, and 2k of work-study if there is a lot of need…but your EFC is too high. Avg student loan debt at graduation is $32k at the school…about $8k per year.<br>
you may have to take a gap year, but even so, I’m not sure that a state school would still give you much aid.</p>
<p>I got a $16,000 grant from Marquette!! But even still it’s is very expensive… Do you think if I got my efc adjusted there i could get get some sort of help before I turn to loans?
They could help out with a few thousand but my dads jobs is unpredictable so he’s worried about the future and stuff so I’m not sure how much we’d be able to pay.
There is a CC close by but it’s been known to not have the greatest academics around do I’m worried how that will affect me transferring in the future.</p>
<p>Chimes,
Are you saying htat you jsut heard inthe last 1/2 hr that you were admitted to Marquette with a scholarship? IF so, make an appt to meet with them to discuss your financial situation.</p>
<p>No ive known for a few weeks now and believe me I’ve been trying. I just wanted to see what my other options were given the circumstances… from why I’ve heard my situation is not very common</p>
<p>No, a regular public one. It was called the Magis Award or something along those lines. I’m hoping to go there since it’s the only school to have awarded me anything and i doubt I’ll get anything from anybody else.</p>
<p>Make sure that you have a school you can afford with the way things are on your FAFSA at this time.</p>
<p>I would also suggest you do contact schools to ask how to request a special circumstances review. You will want to have your parents provide an explanation of their monetary situation … how much was from the sale of land, as well as documentation of all of the expenses that were paid with the proceeds of that sale. They should provide proof, including dates. You may or may not receive an adjustment to income. If you do, the school may put the amount of money excluded from income into assets. These are just two examples of what might … NOT WHAT WILL … be done, depending on the school and the documentation. Schools can (not must) exercise professional judgment in such cases. They cannot adjust the EFC, but they may choose to adjust the components of the elements that affect the EFC.</p>
<p>Even if the EFC ends up being less, there is no guarantee that a lower EFC will result in more aid. But it’s worth a try.</p>