<p>of approx $40,000
$9,000 parents pay for
$ 3,000 summer job
$ 3,000 work study
$21,000 grants
$4,000 subsidized loans
already has completed one year of volunteer service for which was received an educational coupon for approx $5,000 to be paid toward loans or tuition. Expecting to do another year of service after graduation unless the program is gutted.</p>
<p>I have a $20k college fund and my parents can pay for about $5k a year. Not sure what we're going to do for the rest, because our EFC will be right around $40k, though it will drop to about half that when my sister enters college in two years. I'm struggling with the decision to take on massive amounts of debt to go where I really want to go or go to UA for free.</p>
<p>emeraldkity4, what's the name of the volunteer program that you get paid for?</p>
<p>Birdof prey,</p>
<p>of your 20,000 college frund, 35% (7,000) is going to be calculated as your student contribution , not counting any monies you earned from working.</p>
<p>Your parents contribution is going to be based on their income/assets not what they beleive they can afford to pay. Since you have a sister already in college, they have a pretyy good idea what thier EFC is going to be. That EFC will be split between you and your sister.</p>
<p>If you are applying ot the ivies, who guarantee to meet 100% of your demonstrated need, you will just have to wait it out so you can compare packages.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.americorps.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.americorps.org/</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.usafreedomcorps.gov/%5B/url%5D">http://www.usafreedomcorps.gov/</a>
and for post college
<a href="http://www.teachforamerica.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.teachforamerica.org/</a></p>
<p>I wasn't completely clear. My sister will be in college the last 2 years of my undergrad education. As far as EFC, I'm estimating based on various EFC calculators we've found online.</p>