Is this a bad FA package?

Paying for College
1

So I got my FA Package for the UC I am going to attend:

Institutional Grant: $7,400
Stafford Loans: $5500
Perkins Loan: $1300
Work Study: $2800
Parent PLUS Loan: $15100

Sorry but nearly $21,900 in loans for freshman year sounds ridiculous. Especially for someone whose AGI is 94,000 with no assets (only a take home pay of ~$70,000). Should I appeal and say that our AGI is no where near what we take home?

Before anyone says if I have other options: the other UC’s aren’t offering a better package and even one of the Cal States was worse.

2

What is the COA? How much do you/your parents have in college savings? How much can be taken from current income (yours and your parents) to pay for college expenses?

Take home pay of $70k with an AGI of $94k sounds completely reasonable and not out of the ordinary.

3

@MiddKid86 The COA is $32k. I said in the OP that we do not have any assets. Not sure I would say $4,000-$5,000 sounds reasonable but not $15,000+ for them. I’m ok with taking out the $6,800 in loans for myself. But the direct PLUS loan is ridiculous. and what if they can’t offer me the work study? It’s all conditional.

4

Sounds like you can’t afford this school based on the FA package that has been offered. Did you run the NPC before applying? If you did, was the result significantly different than the offered FA?

5

This is really all loans of some kind…except for the institutional grant. The work study money will not come to you until you earn it.

It does not sound like this is an affordable option.

6

While OP may still have loans, s/he needs to look at a UC where s/he can commute from home

7

I can’t believe you got the Pell, perkins and work study with an AGI of $94k, so I’d say it is a very good package about the best you can expect in need based aid.

Can you afford this school with just loans? No.

8

^There is no Pell grant. There’s an institutional grant though.

9

Each school decides how they are going to use their Perkins loan money

10

What is your EFC?

It sounds like your EFC is about $15k. If so, then likely the NPC showed that. Did you run the NPC when you applied?

<<<
Should I appeal and say that our AGI is no where near what we take home?
<<<

that is true for everyone. With an AGI of $94k, then EFC is going to be AT LEAST $15k (maybe higher!).

It’s not the UC’s fault that you have an unaffordable EFC. Unless a UC gives you a large merit award (in lieu of the grant and sub loans), they’re not going to give you aid that reduces the family’s EFC.

Did you get accepted to a UC or CSU that you can commute to? If so, that will be your affordable choice.

I’m from Calif and frankly, it’s not unusual for students who don’t qualify for a Cal Grant to have an unaffordable EFC so they have to commute to their local UC or local CSU.

Did you apply to ANY safeties?? if so, which school is THAT?? (this has to be a school that is affordable, otherwise it’s not a safety.)

11

I don’t know why any of this is a surprise to you. you’ve known since mid Feb that your EFC was around $15k. Your thread makes it sound like this is all a surprise to you. You’ve known for awhile that schools would expect your parents to pay about $15k per year.

The UC is putting your parents EFC in a Plus loan form for convenience. How much will they pay each year without taking out a loan? What are your parents saying?

How much will your parents pay EACH YEAR for a UC (without taking out a loan)???

did you discuss how much they’ll pay each year BEFORE applying to colleges??? If not, why not? and if so, how much did they say that they would pay? and how did that square with what the NPCs said?

12

You need to do some figuring…

How much will your parents pay EACH year (without taking the Plus Loan)?

how much can you earn/save over the summer??

How much can you trim from the COA? (by buying used books, by doing a triple dorm, etc.)

What is the cost breakdown of the UC that you want?

13

Right.

Your parents can pay your family contribution from past earnings (savings) current income, and future income (loans).

Have your parents told you whether they can assume some of the costs from savings or current income? Or is it all loans?

14

<<
Sorry but nearly $21,900 in loans for freshman year sounds ridiculous.


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Of course it sounds ridiculous. It is ridiculous. Some is yours, and about $15k is your parents.

Your parents have an EFC of $15k per year. If you’re saying that they can’t pay much/anything out of current income and they must borrow their entire EFC, then this school (and similar) is not affordable.

Talk to your parents. What are they saying? If they’re saying that they can pay $10k per year out of income, then if they have to borrow $5k per year, then that is their decision to make as to whether that’s affordable considering whether they have other kids, etc.

Frankly, if your parents can pay $10k per year, then the other $5k could probably be “covered” by choosing less expensive housing, working full time over the summer and saving that money, buying used books, etc.

I’m guessing that this UC is Davis. If so, then hopefully your travel expenses won’t be very high since you’re already from Northern Calif.

…on campus…off campus…commute
Tuition and fees $13,896 $13,896 $13,896
Room and board $14,218 $8,201 $4,643
Books and supplies $1,560 $1,560 $1,560
Estimated personal expenses $1,522 $1,928 $2,011
Transportation expenses $620 $1,358 $1,640
Estimated Total $31,816 $26,943 $23,750

looks like if you live off campus, you can save about $6k per year.

15

With an off-campus cost of attendance budget they will probably just reduce his institutional grant by the $6000 so he won’t be saving any money. Also $8200 is pretty low for room and board in California.

16

@mom2collegekids they are fine with taking out the loan but I know they’ll be in over their heads. Is it possible for them to only take out some of the $15k from the PLUS loan? Like maybe just $11k?

17

NorCal, they can take out loans on,y in the amount they actually need. They do not need to take the full amount offered in loans IF they have some other way to cover the costs.

18

@thumper1 They definitely wouldn’t need to take out the full. I mean I just need to cover the Tuition + Room and Board in grants/loans. My parents can surely pay the personal expenses I mean they keep me alive already lol

19

They don’t have to borrow the whole amount. They can pay what they want and borrow the rest. are you saying that they only can pay $4k per year out of current income? That’s about $400 a month. Additionally, they will have the Plus Loans.

Do they have any younger kids to put thru college? If so, my concern is that they’ll soon "do the math " and realize that they can’t sustain this and make you come home.

20

@mom2collegekids no it’s just me