<p>My family lives in a very wealthy neighborhood (average income is 100k ish), but my father was unemployed for a good length of time in the past 2 years, and our gross income looks impressive and a lot numbers wise, but it's extremely low income relative to where I live, and we are barely able to afford living here.</p>
<p>However, a lot of schools are giving me no financial aid (including fafsa) expected contribution was 0555.</p>
<p>Is there anything I can do? I was considering contacting music department heads to see if I can get any music scholarship as I am a great player, and is there anyway to contact fafsa or the schools I want to go to for more money after explaining to them my situation?</p>
<p>Any help would be appreciated since I'm only my own for paying for college, and I'm sort of forced to go to a JC as of now.</p>
<p>First of all, the FAFSA doesn’t “give” any financial aid. It’s an application form that school use to (primarily) determine eligibility for need based federally funded aid. </p>
<p>With an EFC of $555…you should be eligible for about $4500 in Pell grant money, and $5500 in Stafford loans for your freshman year. You might also get work study, and perhaps a Perkins loan. You might also be eligible for state aid for low income students (based on the FAFSA EFC). Check that.</p>
<p>If your schools are not giving you more aid, there could be a couple of reasons. First…most schools do not guarantee to meet your full need. Many schools give only federally funded need based aid. They don’t have the financial resources to give additional institutional money to students.</p>
<p>Second…your schools might also be using the CSS Profile or a school financial aid form. These forms consider additional assets that the FAFSA does not consider (e.g. home equity, business expenses from the self employed). Is anyone in your family self employed? What kind of equity do you have in your home? Do you have significant family assets (savings, additional real estate, etc)?</p>
<p>I’m confused…you say that your family income looks “impressive” but your FAFSA EFC was only $555…that would indicate a very low family income.</p>
<p>With the EFC you have reported, you are eligible for about $5000 in PELL grant and subsidization of part of your Stafford loans. That is what the federal government would give you. In addition, if your state has low income grants and loans, such as NY’s TAP, you would likely get some of that. The rest is up to the schools to which you applied.</p>
<p>All the EFC does is guarantee you the government money. As a general rule, the more generous schools tend to want another financial aid form, usually PROFILE and they do their own calculations for need. It seems to me that you may not have applied to schools that guarantee to meet need, nor do they tend to meet much of a student’s need at all. That usually points to out of state public schools? What schools are on your list, and what have they offered in terms of aid? </p>
<p>FAFSA is the name of the form and calculator of your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and does not give anyone any money. You need to talk to the financial aid departments of the schools where you applied. At very least, you would get the PELL and the Staffords from those schools. You can also ask about any other sources of money they might have, given your low family EFC. Yes , you can also contact the departments.</p>
<p>However, with a family EFC of that size, and you being the one who has to pay for the college, the gap is awfully large if you are looking at going away to school. For most situations, the PELL and the Staffords will cover most if not all of your expenses for a local college if you commute.That does not necessarily mean a junior or community college, though some of those can often provide what a student needs at low cost and convenience. Depending on where you live, there may be some low sticker price privates, or state schools that have 4 year programs. You might start out commuting and in future years, find off campus accomodations. </p>
<p>Where do you live? What instrument do you play? Have you discussed future music training with your music teachers at school? They may have some suggestions for you. With a little more information, perhaps someone can give you some more ideas.</p>
<p>Thanks for both of the responses. More knowledge the better!</p>
<p>I know that for some schools like illinois urbana champaign, I’m going to do a special case form and see if that helps in getting some money in anyway because their engineering program looks attractive. The other schools, I’m planning to contact their financial aid department.</p>
<p>I’m also planning to contact all the music departments of the school I want to go to and see I can get anything from there. I am a clarinet player, and a very good player.</p>
<p>OK…with a $5555 EFC, you would NOT be eligible for a Pell grant at all, I don’t believe. But even that EFC indicates a relatively low income. </p>
<p>Some schools will give you a small amount of merit aid if you agree to play in their ensembles and they NEED your instrument. You should ask…but it’s not going to likely be enough to fill the gap in the aid you apparently are receiving.</p>
<p>What kinds of aid have you gotten? You say you’ve gotten “no” financial aid. By completing the FAFSA, you would have gotten the Stafford loans.</p>
<p>Are you willing to tell the schools? If so, someone here might be able to give you some information about how those schools meet financial need…or not.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What IS your special circumstance? In most cases, special circumstances relate to high unreimbursed medical expenses, or sudden LOSS of employment leaving the family without income currently (not two years ago). That doesn’t sound like your situation. You say in your original post that your family has “impressive gross income”. What does this mean? What is the difference between their impressive gross income and their adjusted gross income? AGI is what is used in the financial aid formulas. The exception would be for Profile schools which sometimes add back in business expenses for the self employed.</p>
<p>My father didn’t get a job until few months ago since his unemployment awhile ago. Would that help in any way? That was the special circumstance.</p>
<p>I’m going to check up my FAFSA again fro my AGI, and check my scholarships again to go in detail what they are.</p>
<p>I heard that schools that have a good music program can give full rides to players. I know some people who have auditioned and gotten full rides, so I was wondering if the schools I want to go to have the ability to offer that.</p>
<p>In one post you said you got NO financial aid. Now you are mentioning scholarships. Which is it? Merit scholarships are a good thing and are a form of financial aid (although NOT need based).</p>
<p>List your schools and what it would cost to go there. List what awards you have gotten and subract from that figure. That is what you currently have unfunded. </p>
<p>That your EFC is $5555, puts you out of PELL level. That means that the only money guaranteed are the STafford loans, $5500 for freshman year unless your parents are turned down for PLUS in which case you can borrow another $4000. That and whatever else each school wants to give you.</p>
<p>You certainly can contact the schools and ask if there are any specialty scholarships available and look at FASTWEB and local opportunities too. However, I recommend you get a financial back up plan, in case what you have available is all you are going to get. Discuss with your parents what they can help pay. Also look for some local state schools and low tuition options.</p>
<p>The income that generated your EFC is that for 2010. If your father is now employed and in better financial shape right now than he was for all of 2010 is not going to help you in terms of special circumstances. My understanding is that special circumstances due to unemployment are used when a family with a certain EFC due to prior year employment is current unemployed so that the current income has dropped unexpectedly. In such cases, the financial aid counselor can make judgment adjustments to the EFC.</p>
<p>Cpt, OP corrected his post, he has EFC of 55,555. Combine that with his parents being unable to help, IMHO, unless he gets into an IVY (where his family income might get aid), he must look for low cost schools. Unless he lives near a low cost public U, as he said, he may have to start at JC.</p>
<p>This is the only correction I see…post number 4. Is there ANOTHER correction also. The original post said 555 was the efc…he corrected it to $5555.</p>
<p>CPTs info is accurate. This student needs to have some affordable options on the table. If he already has those, he’s all set. If not, he needs to figure something out that is affordable. Someone will have to pay his bills.</p>
<p>Either way, without parental contribution via loan or payment, or if the OP does not have the money or cannot get enough scholarship money from his schools, a state school within commuting distance is something to consider,</p>
<p>You asked about music scholarships and full rides. Some music depts give full rides but the big scholarships are for the music majors and at most (if not all) schools the scholarship audition dates have passed. Depending on your schools some may still give smaller scholarships to non-majors for being in marching band or pep band. Although some schools no longer give scholarships for that but rather a stipend.</p>