<p>My parents made about 63k this year and FAFSA somehow decided that EFC should be around 17k - strange as that figure sounds. So my university is setting EFC at around 16k and gift aid says a big, unattractive, $0.00. This is a big dilemma for my parents, who believe they don't have the money to pay, considering their already bad financial standings and mortgage pressure. </p>
<p>Since university is giving me nothing in terms of grants or similar aid, my parents are now telling me just to sign up for classes and go sit in class until the university figures something out. Meanwhile they want to appeal the decision of EFC to lower it, and if the financial aid office accepts is, I might qualify for more aid. </p>
<p>I don't know if this is the right thing to do. I mean, is it possible to just go and sit in class before paying the fees somehow?</p>
<p>fti … EFCs are typically something like 1/3-1/4 of income so the $17k EFC is not really surprising … and the schools do not typically consider consumer or mortgage debt.</p>
<p>The school would probably not want you just sitting in a class although in most large introductory classes you likely would not be noticed … but you would not be able to hand in homework, do labs, take tests, hand-in papers, etc … so you could not keep up with a class by just sitting in for more than a week or so. </p>
<p>Appealing FA decisions is done all the time … and you should hear back in plenty of time before the school year starts. I’d also suggest having a frank discussion with your parents about what they are willing to pay for school … ultimately this will govern your options.</p>
<p>Sure, it’s possible. There was a girl who pretend to be a student at Stanford for 8 months before she was caught.</p>
<p>However, most colleges don’t let you register for classes if you owe them an outstanding bill. And your financial aid appeal probably won’t blow over too well with the college after you bilked them out of hundreds or thousands of dollars. That sort of thing always rubs those stuffy university chaps the wrong way, in my experience. I would definitely do the appeal before you start violating the school’s rules.</p>
<p>As for your high EFC, I suspect your parents either made a mistake on the form or have significant assets. $17,000 FAFSA EFC doesn’t sound right to me, although I could be wrong.</p>
<p>If your school doesn’t guarantee to meet full need…appealing your financial aid might not net you much more money. How much does your school cost? You would be eligible for a $5500 Stafford loan, plus you could work for the summer…maybe earning a couple thousand more dollars. That would give you about $7000. Is there a public university or community college within commuting distance from your home where you could at least do your first year or two of general education requirements?</p>
<p>If your parent’s income is in the $65,000 a year range, their take home pay isn’t nearly that amount. It might very well be difficult for them to pay $16,000 a year out of pocket especially if they have other debts to pay (the financial aid calculations don’t consider other debt), and have no savings for college purposes.</p>
<p>You need to discuss finances with your parents. No…you can’t just go to classes in the hope that after the fact the college will award you more aid. You need to have a plan for payment BEFORE classes begin.</p>
<p>What is the cost of tuition per semester at this school? It sounds as if you intend to live at home and commute, right? Do they or you have any money set aside for your education and are you working this summer? Do you qualify for any state aid? Sometimes those grants aren’t on the initial offer letter pending state budgets.</p>
<p>Sounds like you’re headed to Berkeley. It does not meet need, caces of getting much more are slim to none. You and your parents need to figure out if you can swing the cost or you can go to a CC for two years and still graduate from Cal.</p>
<p>One of my nieces started college without a full plan for paying everything and when the institution couldn’t/wouldn’t come up with more money ended up dropping out after about six weeks. She spent the next year paying down the loans that she’d taken out for that year because she left too late to get a full refund for tuition, fees, room & board, etc.</p>
<p>Please don’t let this be you! Sit down with your parents and sort out how much money they really do have available, how much debt that they really are willing for you to take on, and how much money you are likely to be able to earn this summer and during the school year. Then find a college/university that won’t cost more than that. If you end up commuting to a community college, don’t feel defeated. Lots of students do that every single year because it is all they can afford.</p>
<p>Blindrome, looking at your other posts, you appear to be a transfer student. Are you a junior? How much do you need after Stafford loans and are your parents willing to do a Plus loan?</p>
<p>I doubt your EFC will be lowered. The school won’t likely care that your parents have a high mortgage or other bills. </p>
<p>The school is not going to “figure something out.” Your parents are wrong about that. They’re not just going to say…hmm, no money? That’s ok, just go for free or give a student a big ole loan. NO. They’re going to bill you for these expenses,and expect the bill to be paid either by you or your parents. They’ll expect your parents to either take out Plus loans or for them to co-sign big loans for you (which is unlikely since you say they have money issues.). </p>
<p>I don’t mean to be harsh, but it sounds like your parents are engaging in wishful thinking because they want to avoid the real issue - that they can’t help you with your costs.</p>
<p>You need a back up plan. If possible, you need to commute to your local university. Hopefully by then, your family can get its finances in better order so that they can help pay for college.</p>
<p>“sounds like”? He said they suggested that he sneak into classes and pretend to be a student while they have it out with the financial aid office. That’s not “wishful thinking”; that’s cuckoo for cocoa puffs!</p>
<p>mom2…work study is a limited funds award. At this late date, most schools have awarded their work study monies. These monies are not unlimited…schools have a certain amount of work study money to award…once it’s gone…it’s gone.</p>
<p>I suspect the don’t is really can’t. And you did not figure this out by now? You are a transfer student, and did not sit down and discuss the financial aspects of things when you applied? Everyone is at fault here. But just going to clases is NOT going to work. I suggest you call financial aid and ask what they advise a transfer student whose parents cannot afford the EFC. I would suggest you say can’t and not won’t. </p>
<p>Time to hustle, to work, to figure out a plan on how you will get yourself through college. You may have to change your plans. It can be done. I was the oldest of four, and my parents never paid a dime of my education. And I was also not eligible for financial aid. Explore loans, transfer scholarships, merit aid. Find out if you can defer your matriculation for a year while you work. If you want this you can do this. But it won’t be given to you. Good luck. Adversity can change you for the better.</p>
<p>Thanks for reply guys. I’m transferring to UC Berkeley which costs around 26k if I decide to live on campus. </p>
<p>The idea of just going to sit in class was not to do it illegally, of course! It was that perhaps the university will not have a certain deadline for when the fees need to be paid. This way my parents could handle it with loans or other means - should the university find other ways - when the appeal process and everything is complete at a later time, maybe during the Fall semester or even later.</p>
<p>To answer mom2collegekids’ question, I’m eligible for $9,208.00 Students Loan And Work. It leaves around 16k to be paid by my parents. There is also this idea in the air that if my parents can manage to buy a house near Berkeley this summer, I won’t have to live on campus, saving 12-13k. It sounds sweet, but it’s a big if.</p>
<p>Here’s an idea. Look into the Berkeley Student Cooperative. I know nothing about it except what I found on the internet but it looks like it costs $3330 for room and board per semester but you have to do some work to live there. I have no idea if they still have openings.</p>
<p>I don’t know how close the coop is to school and whether you would have added transportation expenses but that would cut your parents contribution from $17K to $10K which is a lot more doable.</p>
<p>Total tuition and fees is around $10K. I guess payments would be around $1K each. You would have to come up with a semester at the coop ($3300) and books upfront, which you could do with your loan $.</p>
<p>Spending $, travel and such would come from a part-time job.</p>
<p>Actually, a correction to my prior post. You would probably need to pay the first semester at the coop and the August 15th payment (maybe even the Sept 15th payment) before loans disbursed. If you have a credit card, you could put textbooks on that until your loan check comes in, then you could pay it off. So that means you would need at least $4500 and maybe $5500 before your loan check comes in. (The tuition figure is 2009-2010. I’m not sure how much higher it’ll be next year.) That’s where your summer earnings have to go. Maybe you and your parents could split that in half. You would have $3K more in payments for the first semester. Then, before your second semester check disburses, you would need $3300 for second semester coop and maybe another $1K-$2K in tuition payments. You would need to use part of your loan for that and see if your parents make the payments. </p>
<p>How much of your financial aid is loan and how much is employment? I’m thinking it might be easiest if, after first semester, you save your loan refund $ for the next semester’s coop fee since that probably has to be paid up front. Use work-study during the year to pay for personal expenses. Use your summer earnings toward books and tuition and and see if your parents can foot the rest of the monthly tuition payments.</p>
<p>Blindrome wrote “It leaves around 16k to be paid by my parents.”</p>
<p>Geesh. Time to get a summer job. A very industrious kid can make between 3K - 6K over the summer. If needed, work 60+ hours a week. And don’t tell me you can’t get a job because I know the smart “hungry” kids ARE landing summer jobs. We already know you are smart (transferring to Berkeley) - but are you hungry? All I hear from you in this thread is that the 16K is your “parent’s” responsibility. Bzzt. Nope. They have no obligation to pay it.</p>
<p>This big bill was coming due for a couple of years now in terms of transfer costs - you needed to have had these talks with your parents over the last few years and have made plans and taken action. Now you get to do it in 3 month’s time - I suggest 60+ hour a week summer work followed by a LOT of working during the school year above and beyond the workstudy office.</p>
<p>My dad worked FULLTIME when he went to college–and he had a wife and a little baby (me!) at the time. I recently met a young man who worked FULLTIME while going to college. It happens more often than you might realize. It is not optimal, but the smart and hungry ones do it all the time.</p>