<p>So I happen to fall in the very deceptive 125K income bracket. Fafsa/CSS will likely think we're much better off than we are. With a sibling in college, I'm ROUGHLY estimating around a 25K EFC.</p>
<p>Tulane COA: 60K
-EFC: 25K
=Need of 35K</p>
<p>So with the merit aid (+any grants) I imagine our need will be fully met with minimal to no Work Study or Loans. But since merit goes to 1) gap 2)loans/WS 3) grants then 4)EFC, I think we will be stuck with the full 100K EFC. Assuming we can come up with the money (through loans/external scholarships or something, I know loans are capped), is Tulane worth ~100K of debt?</p>
<p>I do know they are incredible for finance and trading, with the energy trading competition, Freeman days, a couple nice banks for OCR, etc.. My alternative would be going to U of Oregon for ~8K/year which would be quite stifling for my hopes of ending up in S&T (trading) in a major city.</p>
<p>IMHO, no school is worth that kind of debt, not even Harvard. But don’t assume the worst, clearly Tulane wants you there since they gave you a very high level scholarship. You might be surprised at how much of the FA package comes back as grants, above and beyond your merit aid. If it doesn’t, then become a Duck. That kind of debt would be far more stifling than what school you attended.</p>
<p>Thanks for responding FC. So, given your knowledge of Tulane FA packages, how would you interpret the information (assuming it is correct) on this page: </p>
<p>No one can give a rough guess or any other kind because the remaining FA is based mostly on your financial circumstances, not your academic merit. How that aid is given to you might be influenced by your academic profile.</p>
<p>So Tulane has a total cost of $60K in round numbers. Let’s say for the sake of this example your EFC is indeed 25K, although that seems high to me for a gross income of $125K and one already in college. That leaves, as you say, the $35K to be awarded in aid. $25K of that is met by the Distinguished Scholar Award, so Tulane would come up with the remaining $10K or close to it. That could be a grant or a combination of grant and loan and maybe work/study, but probably not the last. So while the FA package never contains more merit aid, to answer that question, it can contain grant money that does not have to be repaid. Why is that not the same? Because merit aid is guaranteed for all 4 years, assuming you make the grades, etc. Grant money can change if your family’s financial circumstances change, either direction.</p>
<p>So I am not sure where you come up with $100K in loans. Are you saying that your family cannot pay anything out of the current income, that the entire $25K per year would have to be borrowed? Again, I rather suspect your $25K number is high anyway, but I am no expert in this area. But EFC, whatever the number, is what it seems the family should be able to pay out of current income and assets. While it is often unrealistically high, it shouldn’t be zero either.</p>
<p>So before you paint the worst case scenario and get tense/upset/sad, I strongly suggest your family fill out both the FAFSA and CSS forms (maybe already have with another already in school) and then either wait to see what the Tulane package looks like or set up a time to talk to your financial aid person at Tulane (they are assigned based on last name alphabetically) and get a better understanding how this all works. But that conversation will be meaningless unless they have all your forms.</p>
<p>Financials – If it truly is the case that you and your family cannot contribute even a single penny to your college costs from savings and/or earnings, then you probably will have a tough time even paying for Oregon. Also, did you just realize now that you have zero resources to pay for school and would have to borrow 100% of the cost?</p>
<p>Nobody should go $100k in the hole for any school and TU may be out of reach. But your assumptions seem implausible to me.</p>
<p>Financials - have you run the net price calculator for Tulane? It should give you a fairly good idea of what kind of aid your family would qualify for. The number it gives you should be pretty accurate, if anything will probably lean toward being conservative. This is assuming you have accurate and complete data to put in.</p>
<p>And I think you are correct in assuming that you cannot “stack” your merit on top of FA.</p>
<p>Congrats on the 25K scholarship! That covers almost half the tuition. Your post is a bit puzzling. Are you saying you will have to take out a loan to cover all of your EFC? Are you not able rto cover any of your EFC from current income or savings? </p>
<p>I agree with those who say no school is worth being 100K in debt, but if you truly have no ability to pay for any of your EFC, which per your report will be about 25K/yr, and must take out a loan to cover it all, something doesn’t add up.</p>
<p>And with 2 in college the EFC will be cut in half.</p>
<p>** oops, just saw that northwesty and FC asked the same thing.</p>
<p>no! like everyone else said, no school is worth it. i was in a similar situation, and received roughly the same scholarship you did. although i’m not 100k in debt, it is still a substantial amount and has made my life difficult in the bad economy. it’s like having a monthly mortgage payment without the house or any asset (besides your degree i guess, which you can get for cheaper elsewhere) to show for. i drive an old car that always has problems because i wouldn’t be approved for a car loan without a co-signer (and i don’t want to do that to my parents). it’s good that you are thinking about it. i’ve learned a lot from my mistakes.</p>
<p>did i get a great education at tulane? yes. did i make great friends? yes. did i have the time of my life? yes. would i do it again? yes. but be warned - it makes life pretty hard afterwards. (not to mention i see all the money that sallie mae is ripping me off for…makes me pretty sick).</p>
<p>i suppose you can’t really decide anything until you can evaluate what financial aid you will receive.</p>
<p>Financial Aid will first have you assume the maximum Federal Direct Stafford Loan amount of $5,500.00 for a first year student before examining the possibilities of a grant. Over four years your maximum amount of a Federal Direct Stafford Loan will be $27,000.00. I will assume with an income of $125,000 a year, you will not be eligible for a Perkins Loan. Finally, for what it is worth, I believe an EFC for an annual income of $125,000.00 with a sibling in college will be greater than $25,000.00. Nevertheless, it is my opinion that Tulane’s financial
aid packages are pretty generous. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>Couple of questions/observations UGAdawg: 1) If the maximum Stafford Loan is $5,500 then how can it be $27,000 for 4 years? Does the maximum increase after freshman year?</p>
<p>2) If the gross income is $125,000 then depending on what state (Oregon in this case, but think California) the take home could be more like $60,000. After the mortgage, car, and typical expenses, plus one in school, I have a hard time believing that leaves $25,000 for another in school. I am reasonably certain that when someone says they make $125,000 they mean gross. At least that is how most people convey their income.</p>
<p>FC: $5,500.00: 1st year
6,500.00: 2nd year
7,500.00: 3rd year
7,500.00: 4th year</p>
<p>Also, FAFSA does not care so much about your parents’ monthly living expenses, but they look at your and their adjusted gross income from your and their federal tax returns, your parents’ earned income, and assets other than your home. I believe having a sibling in college is of a great help, I also believe their formula assumes you have been able to save for college based upon such figures. FAFSA clearly does just look at your net monthly income to determine your EFC.</p>
<p>If the family AGI is $125k, then that does SWAG to an EFC of almost $25k with two kids.</p>
<p>But if gross income is $125k, then AGI will be lower. The SWAG on an AGI of $100k with two kids is more like $17k.</p>
<p>It would be unusual that the family and student could not contribute anything at all. But if the actual contribution is zero, you should be thinking more like two years of CC at home followed by two years at your in-state U.</p>
<p>My mistake: FAFSA clearly does NOT just look at your net monthly income to determine your EFC. Again, Tulane is very generous in their financial aid packages from my experience with Tulane. As FC said, do your FAFSA as soon as you can, and wait for your package. Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>I agree OP needs to tell how he got the 25k EFC.
Is it from the Fafsa or NPC? Or roughly what the EFC was for his sibling? That figure should be “roughly” divided in two when both are in college.</p>
<p>You can run the Fafsa Forecaster, for some info. But, it’s important to run the NPC because TU also requires the CSS Profile.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the great replies and discussion. Some additional information:</p>
<p>-1 sibling in college, but it is essentially a full ride through ROTC Air Force (full ride affects efc?)
-Total Gross Income: ~150K
-Haven’t filled out Fafsa for sibling because it was a full ride
-25K EFC was just a guesstimate (old EFC calculator said ~15K, EFC by income bracket chart said ~35K) and I’m sure there’s no real way to figure EFC until all of the documents are in
-Paying for EFC: loans and perhaps home equity credit</p>
<p>Can any Tulane student/alumni/parent share what their Aid Package looked like? I can’t seem to find some good examples online.</p>
<p>Use the Net Price Calculator- someone provided a link, I believe. (It’s not clear if you did this.) This will get you far better info than guessing. You can certainly use last year’s data, at least to get your bearings, rather than wait for 2012 docs to arrive.</p>
<p>But, also be aware that when you just look at Fafsa EFC, the CSS Profile throws in a wrench- it’s a broader exploration of your financial picture; each college applies its own formula to determine what your family should be able to afford.</p>
<p>Where are you going to get those loans, if indeed it comes up to a $100K cost for 4 years? The Stafford is all you are guaranteed to be allowed to take in your own name. Your parents are the ones who will have borrow, not you.</p>
<p>ALso unless your sibling is a twin or a othewise a freshman at the same time as you, there will come the time when you are the only one in college. </p>
<p>But even if you could, borrowing 100K for undergraduate education is foolish. Think about what the monthly payment on that will be, and think about what you can expect to make out of college. I know too many unemployed, underemployed and underpaid young gradautes. The needs continue as you do job searches and have needs for work.</p>