This year, I received the Financial Aid Offer of $7,500 in loans based on EFC of $10,600 (COA: $62,000). Last year I received $5,500 in loan based on EFC of $52,000 (COA: $58,000). The change in the EFC is mostly due to separation of the parents. (Parents live in separate states.) Shouldn’t the Aid amount increase more in light of the significant drop in the EFC? This is a FAFSA only school. Any ideas?
It depends completely on the school. Our son’s EFC went from very high where he got no aid to zero when we opened a new business. The only aid he got was a Pell Grant. It’s completely up to the school. Good luck.
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Are you receiving any grants in addition to the loans?
Are you talking about the direct subsidized loans everyone gets for doing a FAFSA?
It’s $5500 first year, $6500 second, and $7500 in years three and four for $27k total.
What kind of school? Public OOS or private ?
Most publics don’t meet need for OOS kids. Many privates don’t use fafsa but css. Efc doesn’t necessarily impact aid.
But this to me sounds like the automatic loans even the affluent have access to.
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No, Just loans.
I did NOT know about the following:
- There are direct subsidized loans everyone gets for doing a FAFSA, and
- Efc doesn’t necessarily impact aid.
Thank you for informing me as you are the first person who told me this. Do you have some documents and/or perhaps a website where I can read about these?
In any case, for direct subsidized loans, I only got $3500 for the first year and $5500 for the second year. So less than what you state.
And this is a state school (public).
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You were offered $7,500 this year because you are now junior or senior standing (if not, you may have checked the wrong box for year in school on your FAFSA, in which case your school will reduce the loan offer by $1,000 when they realize that you reported your year in school incorrectly).
Here is a good link with an explanation about financial aid: Financial Aid 101. It’s from one particular school, but it has good information. This is pretty good, too: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/an-ultimate-guide-to-understanding-college-financial-aid.
What articles about financial aid typically don’t tell you is how financial aid is determined. First, the family’s financial information is collected on the FAFSA. A number called an EFC is generated, and it’s used to award financial aid. If low enough, the EFC qualifies a student for a federal Pell grant and possibly a federal grant called SEOG. Work study might be awarded, but schools have a limited amount of work study funding, so a student may qualify for work study (FWS) at one school but not at another; in any case, it’s not guaranteed money but rather an opportunity to work in a job and possibly earn up to the amount of the award (job and hours worked not guaranteed). The final piece is loans … these are awarded based on year in school, and part or none of the amount may be subsidized, depending on financial need.
Here’s the formula: Cost of Attendance - EFC -Pell Grant if eligible - SEOG if eligible - institutional scholarships if any are awarded - outside scholarships if any = Need.
At this point, schools will determine whether the Need amount meets criteria for any institutional grants; it sounds like your EFC is too high. If there are institutional grants awarded, they are deducted from the Need amount & Remaining Need is calculated.
Remaining Need - FWS if any = Need for Awarding Subsidized Loans. If that amount is greater than or equal to $3,500 the full $3,500 subsidized loan eligibility is awarded. If not, but the Need for Awarding Subsidized Loans is greater than 0, a subsidized loan is awarded in that amount.
Finally, Need for Awarding Subsidized Loans - Subsidized loan if any = Remaining Eligibility for Unsubsidized Loan. The amount awarded is the annual loan maximum amount for year in school ($5500/6500/7500) - Subsidized loan if any.
Hope that helps clarify the process. Many, many students are eligible for loans only. This is because very few schools meet students’ full financial need.
Hopefully I didn’t screw up anything in my long winded response!
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Every eligible student is able to take the federal direct loans in the amounts of $5,500/first year, $6,500/second year, $7,500/third and fourth years, but having any of that subsidized is determined by financial need.
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State public universities are funded by taxpayers of that state. What that means is that there isn’t a whole lot of money, received from the state. If you were at a private university, your funding might be different. Because you’re at a public university, that relies on the taxpayers to pay the bills, that money is going to be tight, limited, and hard to get.
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That’s a very detailed explanation. I really appreciate that!!
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The only aid we’ve received are the federal loans, but some were subsidized when we had 3 in college at once, I’ll take anything.
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I guess I was naïve to think that the aid amount would be proportionate to the unmet demonstrated need (i.e. just COA-EFC in my case). Last year (22-23), the demonstrated need was $6,000. This year (23-24), the demonstrated need is $51,400. Last year, the aid amount covered ~92% of the need. This year, the aid amount only covers ~15% of the need.
You go to an OOS public. Only guarantee two meet 100% of need - uva and unc. And they don’t use the fafsa to get an efc. They use the css profile.
If you need money you need to find a public school with merit aid or a private that meets need.
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The problem is that you didn’t realize that this school doesn’t meet need. When you enrolled, the aid seemed fine for your financial situation. Unfortunately, when your financial situation changed, your aid did not … had your financial situation last year been the way it is now, you would have realized that the school doesn’t have the resources to provide much in the way of financial aid for OOS students.
The question now is whether your family is able to continue to pay for you to attend this school given the fact that aid is not going to increase. If they can, you’re all set. If not, you need to find a school you can afford. That’s probably not what you want, but many, many students have to change schools due to finances. Have an honest conversation with your parents & go from there. Best wishes.
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