<p>Our income is around 300k and we thought that we didn't qualify but there seems to be some high income families that do receive financial aid.
I know that it doesn't seem like we especially need it but my family and I would really like to avoid the 100k+ debt over my head as well as over the heads of my 2 sisters so any help would really be appreciated.
Thank you! </p>
<p>You could fill them out, but your chances of need based aid are quite minimal. You would be better off looking into merit aid, which does not take finances into account. The best merit scholarships are generally offered by the colleges themselves; you can generally find info on merit scholarships on the financial aid pages of the college websites. You can also get an idea of what percent of students get merit aid and the average amounts by looking at the Common Data Set for each college (Google “common data set <college name=”">" to easily find most of them.</college></p>
<p>Thanks! Is it worth filling out though?</p>
<p>Why would you want to give your financial information when you have no chance of getting FA? </p>
<p>There is absolutely no chance? </p>
<p>You might try running the FAFSA calculator, and also the net price calculators for schools you and your siblings are interested in. They would give you an idea if you are a candidate for any need based aid without the actual hassle of filling out the forms. But my advice is to focus most of your time and attention on merit scholarships. And also, as far as I know, graduate school plans/expenses play no role in undergrad need based financial aid (it would not be considered as a reason to give your family more need based aid). </p>
<p>I guess one question others might be able to answer is whether the OP should fill out the FAFSA to get Federal Loans. Not sure if they would qualify for subsidized, but maybe unsubsidized would be available? I am not sure of the rules on this, but others might be.</p>
<p>You mention taking on $100K in debt for your undergrad. Do not do this. If you have to attend an in-state college to keep costs down, do it. Or look for schools where your stats will get you good merit aid. I would hope with $300K of income your parents also have some college savings and would help out with college costs as well.</p>
<p>Be aware that some school mandate that you submit the FASFA in order to receive merit aid. Even if you know that you will get no need based aid, you may have to do the FASFA each year in order to get and keep merit aid. So while there may be no chance of getting FA, you might end up losing the opportunity to receive merit aid if you do not fill out the FASFA. Check for the rules with each school about this issue.</p>
<p>thank you guys so much! I will be looking at the rules tonight. </p>
<p>You should definitely fill it out if you need loans (how will you borrow $100,000 really? do your parents plan to cosign for that?) for college, so that you can have the Federal Direct Loan at least, and access to the Parent Plus Loans.</p>
<p>Some higher income families do receive some aid from the most generous colleges and it also depends very much on how many are in college that year–but still that income is very high even for that.</p>
<p>Are you a senior?</p>
<p>“my family and I would really like to avoid the 100k+ debt over my head as well as over the heads of my 2 sisters so any help would really be appreciated.”</p>
<p>Sorry but even borrowing half that much is bad. The though of borrowing a one hundred thousand is insane. I hope your parents won’t cosign those crazy loans.</p>
<p>how much will your parents pay each year? Work with THAT budget. </p>
<p>If you’re not a senior, then apply to schools where your stats will give you enough merit. </p>
<p>"Business. As of now, the schools that I am applying to are:
Babson College (safety-good entrepreneurial program)
Boston College (good business program)
Emory University
Carnegie Mellon
New York University
Reed College (safety)
University of Notre Dame
University of Southern California
Wake Forest University (safety?)</p>
<p>GPA (9-12): 3.6
GPA (10-12): 3.78
SATI: 2220 (Superscore: 2310)
SATII: Math: 800
Chemistry: 790</p>
<p>I took the most difficult classes in high school, if seeing all of the classes would be useful, let me know!
12 APs by the time I graduate
Out of 1,190 high schools in America, high school is in top 50
"</p>
<p>Reed is NOT a safety for anyone. And neither is Wake.</p>
<p>You only applied to pricey schools when your parents won’t pay for them? Sounds like your parents will pay a hundred thousand per child, so the other hundred thousand the child is supposed to borrow? I know that they want you to avoid that, but they didn’t make you apply to any affordable schools. Or do you have some other schools that you applied to that are REAL safeties???</p>
<p>If find it strange that someone who wants to be a business major thinks it’s a good strategy to apply only to schools that will likely leave him with a $100k debt. </p>
<p>Hmmmmm…not getting off on the best foot business-wise.</p>
<p>Sad because with your stats, you could have gotten good merit awards at some schools</p>
<p>What about living at home and going to a local state school for the first year or two? You can then perhaps transfer (or you might find you are happy and stay put). As a parent, I know that until we started reading things on the national merit thread we really did not understand the entire ‘game’ of looking for schools with good merit aid. We also did not understand how the a family’s EFC is often much higher than the were anticipating and feeling able to pay.
Finally, is it too late for rolling admissions deadlines and possible merit aid for this student?</p>
<p>It is too late for merit at most schools that this student would likely consider. He’s got his sites set high, so likely commuting to a local school or grabbing last minute merit would not work for him.</p>
<p>However, IF HE"S a NMF, then there are good schools that WILL still award him merit.</p>
<p>Since it looks like his parents WILL pay $25k per year, then with a $5500 student loan, there are still some OOS publics that would work. </p>
<p>This sort of thing happens when a student is poorly advised. He’s at a top HS, that may mean very good advising BASED ON STATS…but completely ignoring financial situation…since schools don’t deal with that. The GC probably just blindly said, “aid is out there,” without considering that this child has $300k parents who won’t pay full-boat.</p>
<p>I hesitate to ask this…but what is wrong with an INSTATE public university option? That could very well be affordable without ANY loans at all.</p>
<p>^^
I agree, but I wonder if the better instate publics have deadlines that have passed.</p>
<p>Though any income is not too high for FAFSA and CSS, it is highly unlikely, you will get any finanical aid. There are, however, possible scenarios where having applied might be useful.</p>
<p>You might want access to the Direct Loans that you pretty much automatically qualify for as a student. The interest rate is about 3. something % and the amount for freshmen is $5500. That with jobs can take a $10K burden off parents each and is part of what a lot of famiies consider a sharing of the cost. Also, ironically, the parent loans are something that benefit those with high incomes, in that they are better able to pay them back and are, in effect, taking a 4 year cost hit and spreading it over 10-25 years. We took out loans (PKUS) each year for our first son , and started paying them back immediately, so we had 6 years of loan payments left when he finished. Not easy, never easy to pay back, but it took a huge cost that was hard to swallow even with some savings and tightening of the belt, and allowed us to spread it over time. The whole college payment premise does have the elements of past, present and future earnings, and when carefully undertaken and planned can make the payment of college less painful. </p>
<p>Also, if you have sibliings that may be in college at the same time as you, some colleges want that aid app on file if you are to get consideration for aid later. If you do have that possibilities, ask the colleges directly if they have penalties for not applying as a freshman. Some do except change in circumstances but require onerous proof thereof if you had not at least filled out a FAFSA that year. No reason to send FAFSA info anywhere, but to have the PINS for parent and student ready to go, and FAFSA SARs on record could help out later in such cases.</p>
<p>Then there are some merit awards that require a FAFSA screening even if income is not considered or lightly considered. FAFSA does more than give an EFC–it screens for eligibility for federal aid. State programs may require it and other groups so they don’t have to go through that screening themselves on part of each candidate.</p>
<p>While you are chatting with the financial aid offices, ask if they will consider you for aid in the future if your family would suffer a severe financial reversal. Some won’t if you neglect to apply for the freshman year.</p>
<p>Your grades and test scores are good enough to net you significant merit-based aid. Go read the threads on that topic at the top of this forum. If you find something you like, and the deadline is passed, pick up the phone and call and ask. And/or consider a Gap Year so that you can get those applications out on time.</p>
<p>“Our income is around 300k and we thought that we didn’t qualify but there seems to be some high income families that do receive financial aid.”</p>
<p>There are few instances where a family with that income would get aid. The family would have to have 2+ in college at the same time AND those students would be attending a HYPS school. HYPS schools give super aid.</p>
<p>From your list, you didn’t apply to any super-aid schools. Those schools will likely assume that your parents can pay at least $100k per year towards college costs…so likely full pay with TWO in college.</p>
<p>I am not a FA guru, but what school gives FA to any family with income of 300K? Last I heard, Harvard’s cut off was 180 or 200K.</p>
<p>oldfort…</p>
<p>There could be circumstances where the family has 3 kids in college and/or maybe the family has lots of unpaid medical debt. Then a school like H might give “some” aid.</p>
<p>That $180-200k cutoff is for one in college.</p>