I saw most of school financial aids leave a gap between a Cost of Attendance and Estimated Family Contribution from FAFSA. Is a school supposed to offer the financial aid to cover a gap between the COA and EFC if the school accepts the student? If no, what should the parents or student do? Thank you for your answer.
Supposed to? No. Some schools state they will meet need which will mostly bridge that gap, but most schools don’t have the deep pockets to do that.
Pick a school at which you can get merit aid or can afford outright. The ultimate fall back is start at a Community College and save during that time to afford the transfer to a four year.
There are a lot of considerations…starting with whether the school meets full need, or not.
FAFSA is used to qualify for federal financial aid. That’s it…pell grant, student loans, federal work study, etc. EFC is really a misnomer, an unfortunate one that creates much confusion.
Most schools that do not meet full need only require the FAFSA…and they generally don’t come close to one’s EFC…because they don’t have the resources to do that for every student. Some FAFSA only schools will meet full need for a proportion of students who they really want to attend.
Virtually all schools that meet full need require CSS Profile and they use the info from that to calculate a family’s expected contribution. CSS Profile requires much more financial information than FAFSA, and in the case of divorced parents, non-custodial parent financials as well.
Many families are faced with an FA gap every year. That’s why applying to an affordable safety is a must.
Families with a gap can have the student attend a less expensive college, including community college, or fund the gap in a myriad of ways…by increasing income such as getting a second (or third) job, parents taking out loans, or reallocating current expenditures, for example not contributing to parents’ retirement funds. Every family’s situation is unique so it’s difficult for posters to make recommendations.
Does your student have an affordable option?
A college can offer whatever financial aid it wants. Whether or not it covers the gap between CoA and EFC depends on the college. Note also that many colleges that do promise to cover the gap between CoA and EFC (“meet full need”) calculate their own version of EFC which may be different from the FAFSA EFC (and the EFCs that other colleges calculate).
Parents and students of current juniors should be running college net price calculators for each college under consideration to get financial aid estimates. If need-based financial aid is not enough for affordability, the student needs to seek merit scholarships and/or choose colleges where list price CoA is affordable.
This is why Net Price Calculators were mandated on college web sites. Run the NPC on each school’s web site to get an idea of what you will really have to pay.
The %age of colleges that guarantee to meet full need for all is relatively small when given the several thousand colleges there are.
Colleges are not obligated to meet your full need and the vast majority do leave a gap.
The net price calculators should be viewed as an estimate only.
@compiler your kid has already been accepted…what colleges are you talking about.
“If no, what should the parents or student do?”
If a school is not affordable, then you pick a different school. Some kids do two years at a community college near their home (so that they can save money by living with one or both parents), and then transfer to an in-state public university for two years to get their bachelor’s degree.
There are at least two types of “not affordable”. One type is where a school does not meet your “need” as calculated by the FAFSA. Another type is where the family’s ability to pay as computed by the FAFSA is not consistent with the family’s ability to pay as felt by the family. Both are common.
Fortunately there are a lot of very good universities and colleges.
Occasionally some time around about March or April a student will find that they do not have any affordable acceptances at all. In these cases they can either take a gap year and apply to more affordable schools the following year, or start at community college with the intention of transferring either after one year or after two years.
What is the actual scenario here?
@compiler on another thread you mention OOS public universities. Please understand…UVA and UNC-CH are the only two public universities that guarantee to meet full need for out of state students.
If you are talking about any other public universities, they have OOS costs for a reason. They expect OOS students to pay the differential between in and out of state costs to attend.
You have 14 days to wrap your head around costs for your rising freshman college student (unless this kids school has moved the acceptance deadline to June as some have).Do you have any affordable options on the acceptance list…or do all require Parent Plus Loans to attend.
Can you indicate: your EFC, net cost* at each school where your child was admitted, and your child’s stats?
*(Tuition, fees, room board) - (grants, scholarship) = net cost
It seems we are waiting for OP to come back to the thread, as many have said the clock is ticking and hopefully there is a backup plan. Did OP kid apply to their state flagship?
The OP will probably make ANOTHER thread to seek out the answer he wants: full ride after being accepted.
He’s not willing to say costs or which university. “Pittling” around, at this late date, hoping someone gives him the answer he wants, will probably put his kid at risk for attending any university.
He tried to game the system by initially not asking for aid and needing it. Got into the schools, then filled out a FAFSA and CSS, but now sees costs, and doesn’t like that he HAS TO PAY. Welcome to the real world.
What a piece of work!