<p>My mom recently got a job that pays about 12.5k-13k a year and my father always had a 90k job total parent salary is roughly 103k a year. When my brother applied for the FAFSA back in 2007 (my mother was a housewife at the time), they denied him financial aid because the salary was apparently much for the cutoff and he went to UT Austin with a 3k scholarship and no financial aid and we are paying 18k for his tuition every year. Recently my grandmother came to live with us, thus increasing our number of household members, does this have any change in possibility of me getting any financial aid at all. And also does the fact my parents total income is 103k total make me have a lesser chance? Will i get any amount of money at all? And if i decide to go to UT austin will i get some sort of "discount" because my older brother attends UT austin? Does it also depend on the university? I am planning to apply to USC, University of Chicago, UT Austin, UNC Chapel Hill, Rice, Baylor, Carnegie Mellon, U. of Michigan - ann arbor, Vanderbilt, UC Berkeley, and Duke.</p>
<p>No, you won’t get a “family discount” at UT for having a sibling there. I’ve never heard of colleges doing that. maybe some odd one does. :)</p>
<p>BTW…if you need aid, I wouldn’t bother applying to any of those OOS publics, they don’t give aid to OOS students (exception maybe UNC-CH…but not Berkeley or UMich). If you can’t pay the $50k per year to go there, don’t bother with UCB or UMich.</p>
<p>What are your stats? You might get merit at some other schools…</p>
<p>The schools that are generous and meet 100% of need should give you some aid at that income level if your family does not have a lot of home equity and other assets. Your list has few of these schools though–Duke probably would, Vandy, Chicago, UNC and Rice. What some of them give you, however, could be mostly loans and work study.</p>
<p>Berkeley and Michigan won’t give you any money and at CMU it will depend on your stats.</p>
<p>Given your family’s situation, I would rethink the list, focusing on schools that meet 100% of need with no or limited loans. I’d take off OOS publics that don’t meet need and take a hard look at if your stats will get you merit aid at places like CMU and USC.</p>
<p>Your EFC and your brother’s EFC will be reduced while you are both in school at the same time. The parent part of the EFC is divided between the number of students in college at the same time. Any part of the EFC generated by the student’s own income stays with that student. </p>
<p>You grandparent living with you may have a slight effect on the EFC. Income protection allowances in the EFC formula are based on the number in the household.</p>
<p>Whether the two situations will reduce your EFC enough to make aid a possibility depends on the total EFC and the cost of the school. Just make sure you take into account that the EFC will increase again once your brother graduates and you are the only one in college, as then the whole parent part of the EFC becomes yours.</p>
<p>True…and many don’t realize that. Some think that an EFC is some kind of coupon that states, “This is all that you’ll have to pay; you’ll get free money to pay the rest.”</p>