<p>Last year, my parents' incomes combined was around $250K. However, this was mostly because my mother was still working and my dad switched jobs (pay from new company + former company's package). Starting October of this year, my mother will be staying at home. Our income for the next several years will be around $125K at the most. We own probably around 1/4 of our million-dollar home.</p>
<p>Will i qualify for financial aid? I know they take your last year's income taxes and determine your financial need. Starting in 2009, our family will not be as "well off" as before. Since i start college in the fall of 2009, will i receive nothing from FAFSA and college need-based fin aid?</p>
<p>Depending on where you're applying you might not get too much financial aid even with the 125K income. But at the richest schools you might get some.</p>
<p>The FA offices at Profile schools will use 2007 taxes and estimates of 2008 taxes to determine aid tentatively, but once they have made a determination you can ask them to reconsider it based on your mother being laid off. It's up to them if they are willing to do that.</p>
<p>Not sure what the situation with FAFSA only schools is. Certainly they will want your actual 2008 income figures. </p>
<p>Most schools don't base judgements on what might happen in the future, so they can't really know for sure (no one can) if your mother will be working again next year or not. They won't make determinations based on what people plan to do, just like they won't reduce your aid if a parent <em>planned</em> on increasing their income the next year. They just deal with the way things actually are for the period with the pertinant data. In that case, you probably would see some increase in aid the following year if your family's income went down... I mean if it went down to the point where you qualified for more aid (depending on the policy at that school.)</p>
<p>For FAFSA your primary home is not included in the financial aid calculation but an income of $125k is still too high for federal grant aid. You would qualify for Stafford student loans as all students qualify for those. Also your parents would qualify for Plus loans. Whether you qualify for institutional grant aid depends on the school. Certainly unlikely at State schools because your FAFSA EFC (Estimated Family Contribution) will probably exceed the schools COA (Cost Of Attendance). For private schools whether you qualify for institutional need based grant aid would depend on the school's policies for financial aid such as how they calculate need, whether they promise to meet full need, and whether they offer non loan aid. These policies will vary from school to school.</p>
<p>Is there any way to find out how much financial aid certain privates will offer you BEFORE you apply? Finaid webpages for individual schools are pretty complicated. </p>
<p>My situation is this - I know right now that i have a really good chance of getting into UC Berkeley. If i get into an Ivy League school but i have to pay 50K per year, i will most definitely choose Berkeley. In other words, I am not willing to pay an extra $30K for a few spots up the "best colleges list". </p>
<p>There would be no point in me applying for a private school if i don't receive any type of fin aid in the end.</p>
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<p>Rent, what are some of the "richest" schools you spoke of? I know that Harvard Yale, Columbia are really good - but i'm not so sure i can get into those first.</p>
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<p>Well, there is pretty good aid at at the top Ivies, so even if you didn't get it for your freshman year (based on 2008 taxes), you'd probably be eligible for it in following years when your family income will be lower.</p>
<p>It's probably worth applying just to see what they would offer you, should you be accepted. I doubt you could get an early read from FA based on projected income for next year, that's just reaching a bit too far into the realm of the hypothetical. Some schools have their own dedicated FA calculator on their websites, or you can use a generic one and get a ballpark figure.</p>
<p>I have to apply because.... they take my stats into consideration?</p>
<p>I've heard mixed things about Ivy League aid - are most of them need based or merit based? It'd be hard for me to qualify for needbased aid, right?</p>
<p>Ivy League aid is mostly, possibly entirely, need based. You might qualify for some aid at really expensive school - probably not a lot though. But if you have good enough Stats to get into an Ivy then you would stand a chance of merit aid at schools that do award merit aid.</p>
<p>Schools the level of Princeton are also fairly likely to listen to stories about changes in family circumstances.
swimcatsmom and 'rentof2 give very well based information, IMO.</p>
<p>blueducky, you can try to determine it by using the aid calculators at Finaid or the Collegeboard websites. Use the "institutional methodology" (as opposed to federal methodology.) But since they're generic calculators they can't account for the specific policies at any given school. You can get a ballpark figure, though, and then like danas did, you can go investigate the specific school's policy outlines on their websites. You can't be thinking these schools should set aside the time to give people (thousands of people, if they opened that door!) an early read on their potential financial aid just so that student can decide whether or not it's worth the effort to apply.</p>
<p>You'll have to decide whether or not it's worth it based on the information you can gather. That's what everyone else does.</p>
<p>There are 2 main financial aid application processes. FAFSA and CSS. Also some schools have their own forms.</p>
<p>FAFSA is the application for federal aid and is also used for institutional aid by some schools. Federal aid is awarded based on your EFC. The EFC is calculated using the income and asset information you enter into FAFSA. The EFC is sent to the school. Roughly speaking the school's COA (Cost Of Attendance) less your EFC is your 'need'. So if your school's COA is $20k and your EFC is 30k then your EFC is higher than the COA so you have no 'need'. If your EFC was 12,000 then your 'need' would be $8k (20k - 12k) so a financial aid award would be based on the need of $8k. An EFC over 4042 does not qualify for any federal grant aid such as Pell, ACG, SEOG so federal aid would be limited to loans and work study. Not all school promise to meet all need. </p>
<p>Many schools (mainly private ones) also use CSS/profile for their own institutional aid. This asks for a lot more information than FAFSA and each school can use the information in the way they see fit. For instance school A may use your full home equity in the calculation, school B may cap the value of your home equity at a certain multiple of income, school C may ignore home equity. Schools A, B and C may all cost say $50,000 but A may calculate your need as 0, B may calculate it as $5000, C may calculate it as $10,000. A schools formula for calculating need is not generally very transparent or available to the public so it is not really possible for you to determine what your CSS EFC is. They have thousands of applicants so generally do not tell you what they will offer you until they have accepted you.</p>
<p>There is the federal methodology that gives you a pretty accurate FAFSA EFC. There is also an institutional methodology that gives you an idea of what your CSS EFC might be but, as I mentioned before, every CSS school uses the information entered differently.</p>
<p>I work at the University of Chicago, more middle of the road in regards to elite school endowment per student. I've met many students from California for whom the U of C was cheaper than Berkeley or UCLA, but I think these were lower income kids.</p>
<p>The first year, you may have to pay full price at the top private colleges but I believe you pay less the second year. Someone here, said she is paying 10% of the COA at Harvard with similar income. So just apply, you never know. Sometimes it's cheaper than UCB and UCLA.</p>
<p>Yea, but I don't even think i can get into Harvard and Yale level schools. I think i have a 50-50 with lower ivies and other top 20 schools. I just don't know if these schools are as generous with finaid as Harvard or Princeton.</p>
<p>I have done that, i'm just saying with these elite schools, nobody can be really sure about getting in. As for financial aid, they all say the same things, just get in first and they'll work out a workable finaid package.</p>
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i'm just saying with these elite schools, nobody can be really sure about getting in
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You are right. </p>
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As for financial aid, they all say the same things, just get in first and they'll work out a workable finaid package.
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Yep. And they decide what your need is. </p>
<p>Best thing is to apply to the schools you are interested in but make sure you include schools that are financial safeties for you - that is schools you can afford if the financial aid offered at the more expensive schools does not make them affordable for you.</p>
<p>It sounds like you really aren't that interested. If you were you would be detemined to submit the strongest application you could and then hope the finances worked out. You'd have UCB or some other great CA public as another option all lined up.</p>
<p>But if the motivation isn't there to apply and just see how it works out, then don't. UCB is a wonderful school. There are a number of terrific publics in CA. Why are you fretting about this? I don't get it. Just apply to an Ivy or don't apply. No one will make you go if you don't like the financial aid. If it just seems like too much trouble to even apply without a guarantee... well, you're asking for something that no other student gets either. Just do it or don't do it.</p>