Some schools only give need based or merit aid of their own up to tuition, expecting the family to cover room, board, books, travel, personal expenses. So you might still need to take out loans to cover those items in the COA.
@immomtoone , the link i included above is probably the best resource for you to use. When D got her package the NOLA was not specifically mentioned. It might be that the FA would have been adjusted later, but Tulane did not meet the full tuition amount without loans. Our net price (excluding all self-help) was 17.5k and room and board (portion of COA excluded from NOLA) was less than 14k, so the package didn’t include NOLA as they described it.
I actually just looked at the link again and they state that merit (including merit from Tulane) may impact eligibility. This is probably what happened with our daughter since she had a merit scholarship from Tulane in addition to the need-based aid.
Don’t get me wrong, the package was very nice. Just not quite as solid as other schools. Note that we did talk to the FA folks about the package and were simply told ‘this is your package’ with no real explanations and no willingness to review in order to increase the amount of grants. D is attending elsewhere.
Just sharing our specifics, and I hope it’s helpful.
quotes from the link listed above:
@lz57c4 interesting about the financial aid not really reviewing/giving explanations. I’ve emailed our rep and she’s been responsive but not giving much more than I already know.
Indeed, it seems that the financial aid covers tuition but the loans cover most of everything else, and then there’s our self help part.
Plus, as the Perkins loan is ending, there is no way I could swing that amount.
Question about the FAFSA and the amount they estimate you can pay (I forget what that is called. EFC??) How much more than this amount do schools typically expect you to cover? Is this number really accurate?!
The FAFSA EFC is only accurate to determine your federal aid and loans. Most schools do NOT agree to meet your need to go to college and there is what they call a ‘gap’. You can fill this gap with savings, current income, or borrowing, but the schools probably won’t meet it will their own aid. Most schools just don’t have the money to give out to all the students who need it.
Even if the Perkins loans were continuing, it’s a lot of money to borrow. Most people advise to not borrow more than $30k or so for undergrad, which is the Stafford loans. Some people can’t afford to go to college on that and borrow more. The stories you hear of students graduating and being unable to pay their loans are usually those who borrowed more than $30k. My kids will have borrowed half that, and it will still be a struggle to pay that while trying to establish a career.
The FAFSA EFC only tells you if you qualify for a Pell grant. I don’t think it’s good for much else.
How much can you afford per year without borrowing? Your net cost seems to be ~$20k/year for direct costs. Your daughter will be borrowing $11k/year (the $5500 federal student loan and $5500 Perkins). That’s $44k total over 4 years.
You have to pay ~$9k/year + travel, books, and insurance. If the Perkins loan is discontinued, your balance will be $15k/year. That’s another ~$40-55k. Can you pay that?
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Question about the FAFSA and the amount they estimate you can pay (I forget what that is called. EFC??) How much more than this amount do schools typically expect you to cover? Is this number really accurate?!
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EFC is a joke. The Feds have no control over what colleges actually expect you to pay. The Feds have no “power” in that regard. The Feds can’t tell colleges, “uh, our FAFSA calculations indicate that this family should only pay X,” because the colleges can’t magically come up with money they don’t have.
@immomtoone , as these guys have said, the EFC is just a number; it’s not something to count on. That being said, it’s a great way to compare the financial friendliness of schools. Once you know your EFC and you start running net price calculators (NPCs) for various schools, you will notice trends and you’ll understand what the schools are doing. Some like, Harvard and Princeton, even though they use their own methodology will be pretty close to your EFC, then you have other ‘no loan’ schools that will likely be a bit higher. then you have the ‘100% need met but with loans’ and they’ll be higher still. Then you have the rest and they can be all over the place. Tulane falls in that last category.
be aware that schools that meet <100% of need (for example, Tulane meets 96%) may look great, but they will fall way short of meeting your need. Part of the reason is that they rely heavily on loans to fill in that percentage. As you can imagine, schools in the 70-80% range are even worse. collegedata.com is a great resource for researching this stuff. look at the ‘money matters’ tab to see data. you can also do searches to see lists of schools that meet your criteria too.
If you haven’t done so, I recommend you run the NPC for all the schools you’re considering (and more) to get a feel for the differences. As I recall, Tulane’s NPC was not very accurate, probably estimated about 10k higher than our package actually was. Other NPCs have actually been pretty accurate, especially the ones that result in a lower net price.