<p>Perkins loans are awarded by the colleges, on a first come first served basis to students the college deems low income in their student population…and this does vary by college. So a student can get awarded a Perkins at one college, but not another.</p>
<p>The Pell Grant is based on the FAFSA EFC. If that EFC is less than $5000, a student is entitled to a portion of the Pell Grant. To get the full Pell amount, the EFC would need to be $0. Every student who is entitled to the Pell receives it.</p>
<p>Boston University does NOT guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students…and they don’t! It is nearly $60,000 a year to attend BU. </p>
<p>Halfemotypockets, your old loan information is…well…old. The ONLY guaranteed federal loan a student can take in their name only is the Direct Loan. That is it. $5500 for freshman year. The Perkins is NOT guaranteed, and neither is the amount. Even IF this student receives a Perkins loan…it could be $1000 or it could be $3000. No guarantee. </p>
<p>BU is a Profile school and will consider income and assets from both parents via the Profile, and non-custodial parent Profile.</p>
<p>thanks @thumper1 …NU is probably my top choice as of right now. It may be fiscally unreasonable, but what do you think my grant/admission chances are? I posted my stats on this thread earlier</p>
<p>I think your >1400 CR/Math SAT score will bode you well in acceptance. But I’m not an adcom, and I really don’t do chances very well!</p>
<p>In terms of merit aid at NEU…it’s a definite maybe. But not $50,000 worth of merit aid. Perhaps a combination of need based and merit…if they allow that. Some schools reduce need if you get merit aid.</p>
<p>ETA…we know a student who got one of NEU’s most generous merit offers. It was full tuition. The family had to pay room, board, books, personal expenses. This was well in excess of $12,000 a year.</p>
<p>Thank you, and they do take a very holistic approach when reviewing apps so hopefully my ECs stack up. I mean, I should probably have a good shot of at least getting accepted before worrying about merit aid.</p>
<p>Have you run your stepdad and mom’s numbers (tax for AGI and assets at hand as an est) through an estimated EFC calculator? That will give you an idea of whether you would be eligible for aid at the FAFSA only schools. How your father’s income will be treated at schools that expect him to pay as well, is hard to say. </p>
<p>None of the schools on your list guarantee to meet full need. Yes, you have the stats for acceptance to them, but no guarantee to get the cost down to what is affordable. Yes, PLUS would be available for any of your parents (mom, dad, stepdad) to take out loans. But would they? Could they, reasonable? They would have to qualify. I believe the state of CT offers loans too, for instate colleges, and you could look at the terms of those loan vs PLUS. </p>
<p>Check out SUNY Buffalo. With your stats , you stand a chance for some nice awards–don’t know what Stony Brook has in scholarship money. Temple is a good school to check out in that they do have the HOnors program there and some nice scholarships available. Look at the sticky at the top of the forum for some schools that have hefty awards. No problem including some lottery ticket schools on your list and see how things transpire, but make sure you have a sure things on there too,.</p>
<p>I have run those numbers through the EFC, and it is almost always zero. However, a Pell Grant is only so much, and a Stafford loan won’t be enough for most of my top schools. I definitely plan to apply to multiple schools where it’s pretty much guaranteed that I’ll get a bunch of merit. I am still holding on to the hope that I’ll be able to go to some of these schools that I’ve visited and really like</p>
<p>Do some of your top schools require PROFILE? Look for schools to add to your list that do not require NCP statements in that category, such as Vanderbilt, if that is the case. Run the NPCs the best you can, adding dad’s income and assets to Mom and dad’s and seeing what you get, that give you a conservative estimate on what you get since some allowances are made for two households, but the calculators really do not address this situation well. . You want conservative ests as a result. The problem with a lot of the schools that use FAFSA only is that they do not tend to be schools that meet large percentages of need, on average. You can have a zero EFC, and still not get the money from the college to meet need, because the vast majority of schools gap rather than meet that need.</p>
<p>BU and Northeastern are Profile schools. Stonybrook, and Rutgers and UConn are all public universities. I believe the OP is from CT, so her costs for Stonybrook and Rutgers would be OOS costs. I think she noted upstream someplace that her cost to attend Stonybrook was similar to the cost of instate UConn. </p>
<p>Her issue with the OOS publics…and the privates on her list…these schools do NOT guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students…and they do not. The net price calculator amounts, regardless of how done, will not yield an accurate number at the schools because the parents are divorced. Whatever amount she gets from the NPCs should be viewed as a minimum estimate of her net costs.</p>
<p>And I apologize if this student is a guy…I’ve used “she” in my response.</p>
<p>Colleges are not financial lending institutions. In the very vast majority of cases, they do not give loans EVER. Some schools do have institutional loans, but not the ones on your list. </p>
<p>If your family income (mom and step dad) is $40,000 a year, I’m not sure you would qualify for the maximum Pell Grant. That goes to families with an EFC of $0. </p>