<p>Does anyone know of any merit scholarships for returning students? I definitely won't be able to qualify for need-based ones and my high school stats were not good enough by any means for merit money. While my family thankfully is fortunate enough to be able to pay for my out of state tuition for undergrad without having to take out loans, I really do feel terrible for them that Michigan is so expensive. Next year I'll be a sophomore, so are there any purely merit-based scholarships that I can apply for if I do really well my freshman year?</p>
<p>I’d just like to add that you make sure you fill out the fafsa, no matter how well off you are. I’d never qualify for anything need-based, but filling out the fafsa after frosh year got me a substantial award. Just a heads up</p>
<p>Pistons08, thanks for the tip, but is it ok if I didn’t fill out the FAFSA when I was a high school senior because we didn’t (and probably never will, fortunately) qualify for need-based aid? Or will the financial aid office frown upon that? Also, if you don’t mind sharing, was your received financial aid in scholarships/grants or in loans? My parents really don’t want to take out loans.</p>
<p>No I was just like you. I was lazy and I figured I wouldn’t get anything from fafsa so I didn’t fill it out senior year. Last year I did it and I got a scholarship (not a loan), $3500 per year or something. So yeah, that was a nice surprise. I think it was merit based though, not sure just accepted the money</p>
<p>bump. I’d also like to know about merit scholarships for returning students because even though my financial aid was pretty good, I don’t want to put a strain on my mom’s financial situation for next year.</p>
<p>Yeah me too. I get no financial aid and I am taking out $50,000 in private student loans to attend here for two years, and my parents are apparently also taking my loan refunds to repay them for my community college years-- which were already almost entirely paid for anyway by scholarship. SOOO I am on my own here! Any kind of a scholarship would be a godsend but there aren’t many for transfer students so as a returning student next year will be my only chance.</p>
<p>Twisted - Why on earth would you be taking private loans for the full COA instead of filing Fafsa, using your eligibility for stafford, unsub loans, and even the parent Plus loan, all of which have provisions for scaled payback in the case of fiscal hardship? Did you talk to the fin aid office about all of this? Think maybe you should go in for an advice session, b/c you’ve described elsewhere what I think would be qualifying circumstances.</p>
<p>In that regard, anyone attending should fill out both Fafsa and CSS as many of the merit awards are what’s called “need informed.” Hard to award someone assistance who does not ask. The Fafsa and CSS are, in essence, how you ask.</p>
<p>kmccrindle: I did file the FAFSA and profile and didn’t qualify for much of anything. I was offered $6500 in unsubsidized stafford loans, which I took, but then it got split in half and they subsidized the other half after the tuition increase I guess. So I do have that but I just rounded up since the vast majority is in private loans. The interest rate we got is about 6% so it’s not bad but it is variable so I am hoping it won’t get too bad, I didn’t see any other choice. My parents were not willing to take out a PLUS loan, their only contribution is that they are making interest payments on my private loan for this year, which was about $18,000 I think. I also considered northern, whose tuition is half Michigan’s, but when I added up all the expenses it was only like $7,000 difference TOTAL for two years so I figured it was worth it to go to Mich. I went in for an advising session at Financial Aid when I was accepted and they basically shrugged their shoulders and told me to hope for scholarships, and so far I haven’t been able to get any. If there is something you know that I don’t, by all means, please tell me! I was under the impression that when the EFC meets or exceeds the COA and parents are not contributing, the unsub stafford loan and private loans were my only options unless I could earn a scholarship. And, unfortunately, scholarships for incoming transfer students are few and far in between. I wasn’t able to find any to even apply for this semester.</p>
<p>My parents would have preferred I didn’t go to college at all, so I was left to figure all this out by myself. So seriously, if I am doing something wrong I need to know. I may be able to get my parents to revisit how we did things for next year so perhaps I’ll be able to cut back on how much I have in private loans, but they don’t have any money to give me and wont spend anything on me that they can’t afford to double to pay for my sister in four years. This was the only arrangement I could get them to agree to so I could finish my bachelors at all.</p>
<p>From what you’ve posted in other threads I’m quite surprised that your EFC exceeds the cost of attendance.</p>
<p>My EFC is about 25k. My dad runs a one man software development company. I don’t know much about how his tax information played out, that isn’t shared with me. Michigan initially estimated that my EFC was really going to be 14k but it went up after they got my dad’s tax return. We have a lot of financial difficulty anyway because my mom had a hysterectomy in April and my sister attempted suicide in November and was hospitalized, and we only have money when my dad’s program sells, so our income is very inconsistent-- which I guess is how our EFC is so high despite the fact that we rarely have any money for extras. It does well enough to live on for sure and our house is paid off but we don’t have any savings other than maybe a retirement fund I don’t know about, and some months we have more money than others. Our health coverage is also complete crap so that is a financial sinkhole. Maybe that doesn’t make any sense, but that’s as much as I’ve been able to gather. I see my parents bank balances every time I check my own online and know there’s very little there but I can’t really explain it any better than that. My parents don’t share much with me so far as money goes.</p>
<p>The thread where I mentioned my mom emptying her purse to give me the $7 when I moved in-- it is worth mentioning that my mom works as a court transcriptionist and that is the only money she has, my dad spends his income on whatever he spends it on, bills and whatever he needs, and my mom isn’t allowed to have anything that she didn’t make herself. So that may clear up some confusion, I don’t know.</p>
<p>My dad wrote a special circumstances letter about my mother’s surgery and my sister’s hospitalization-- my parents had to take out a loan for the latter that they will be paying off until they die, but they apparently didn’t take it into account because my FA didn’t change.</p>
<p>I know all that sounds very convoluted but that’s because it appears that way to me as well. That’s all I know.</p>
<p>Twisted, that certainly explains why you have the loans you do. I suspect that what is contributing to your ineligibility for aid is the “house paid off” aspect in addition to sole prop or S-corp filings, wherein all company revenue is considered avail. revenue for the proprietor. I personally know how difficult it is for a business person to predict future revenue in some types of business so I can appreciate why savings for your education were minimal and how it is possible to “look” like your family has the money when in fact you don’t. </p>
<p>I don’t know of any thing else you could have done but know that there is a possibility that next year’s package may be better if your father’s revenue drops.</p>
<p>My comment about the private loan was out of concern that you might not have the same repayment benefits from the direct lending program operated at U of Mich (with an underlying assumption that you did not have such a high EFC). The direct lending, however, once you’ve maxed the subsidized and unsubsidized, would require your parents to be the principal applicants. The benefit is the recent legislation that allows the repayment to be extended or forebearance to be given according to salary. So if you get out of school and don’t find a high-paying job, the loans in YOUR name can have payments pro-rated while you get your bearings…Likewise, the PLUS for parents accounts for same, eg. if your father had a bad yr, repayment amt. can be adjusted accordingly.</p>
<p>So, that was the only basis for my comment. Sorry it was not especially helpful. I posted because often students are unaware of the pros and cons of the private/direct.</p>
<p>Best wishes,
K</p>
<p>Yeah, I try to take solace knowing that the Michigan equestrian team uses my dad’s program. 
</p>
<p>The last two years, the first two years my dad had left his regular job at Etamic to devote more time to his company (and actually before our house was paid off), our EFC was 36k, which was consistent with what it was when he was still working at both jobs. So I practically did backflips when it went down to 25k, but it didn’t do me much good in the end.</p>