My Financial Aid: Hopefully a work in progress

<p>6000 Loans
3000 Work Study
20228 Grants (Including Maximum Federal Pell Grant)
~$15,533 Estimated Gap</p>

<p>I have an EFC of $0. No assets, nothing at all. Family Income: ~$22,500. Supports a family of 5.</p>

<p>Wow, so I'm expected to take out $21,533 in loans per semester? That's about $172,264 in loans for 4 years!! That's not normal, is it?? Well even if it is, I'd never be able to pay much of it back. We barely get enough to get by, I really hope this isn't true!</p>

<p>I'm so angry. I feel like I'm being rejected. In fact, why is the school need-blind? They're still pretty much indirectly rejecting students based on need.</p>

<p>The only thing that keeps me in hopes (little as they may be) is this notice:</p>

<p>"Listed below are awards for the award period selected. Please note that this summary might not reflect your official award. Your official financial aid award is shown only on your most recent financial aid award notice."</p>

<p>Are you in-state? With that family income, I'm VERY surprised they're not covering you, or at the very least giving much more grants. If you're out of state, then I'm really sorry, but Michigan doesn't give much out of state aid (and this is the perfect example since you're 100% qualified for need based aid). If you're out of state, look for something in state that you can hopefully afford after financial aid. If you're in state, maybe consider a year or two at a community college and then transfer? I know it's less than ideal, but that might be your best option :-/ </p>

<p>In your situation, it wouldn't be out of the question to contact them and see if they'd reevaluate your situation. Otherwise, apply for scholarships and hopefully you can raise the money. Best of luck. </p>

<p>Also, how did you calculate 21k loans per semester? I think you meant per year instead, which would cut your calculated debt in half, but still leave with a very high amount.</p>

<p>that sucks. I think we all expected a "gap" from out of state, but come on - $21k? Is there any way that a responsible person at U of M would explain that the Michigan Education is worth going $80,000 in debt for?</p>

<p>CR - He's clearly out of state if you look at the numbers...and he's getting the $21k figure because he's correctly adding his fin aid loans to his gap. State schools are unfortunately not always as generous for OOS as upper tier privates such as HYPS. On one hand, he is a strong candidate to have received a $20,000 Michigan grant. On the other, it's too bad it's not enough but UM did meet him half way. We should start a thread of these examples so that OOS like Kaydog aren't so devastated every spring. But then it would be a shame to discourage the rare few who end up, as one poster did, with the equivalent of full need met. At that point, my suspicion is that it is tied to the admit level recommendation from the totality of the applicant review- eg. Highest Admit Rec = highest aid.
At any rate, good luck to all with alternate options or creative financing.
-K</p>

<p>"Also, how did you calculate 21k loans per semester? I think you meant per year instead, which would cut your calculated debt in half, but still leave with a very high amount."</p>

<p>No I meant 21k loans per semester because I'm going to school there fall/winter, and spring/summer term... right? So I multiplied by two and came up with those numbers.</p>

<p>*"that sucks. I think we all expected a "gap" from out of state, but come on - $21k? Is there any way that a responsible person at U of M would explain that the Michigan Education is worth going $80,000 in debt for?" *</p>

<p>RIGHT?! It's like what's the point of them increasing their acceptance rate if they KNOW that no one in their right mind would take that type of package. I doubt many places would even give me the 15,000 in loans. I'll be paying all of that off by the time I'm 60. I'm going to call and flip out if they don't tell me its a mistake or not my total package.</p>

<p>Point of clarification for DRMAN - the loan/gap of $21k ($6k in federal loan plus $15k remaining need) is per year, not semester. Total loan would be ONLY $80,000. </p>

<p>KMC- U of M didn't "meet him halfway". THe $20k grant included the max Pell Grant. So the package was maximum amount of federal loans, maximum work study, and maximum government grants. School reduced artificially OOS high tuition by roughly $15k. EFC is zero, so why even bother?</p>

<p>MY GOD, it sucks to be poor!! and thanks for clearing up that semester thing kaydog.</p>