<p>I believe some schools (Ivies) have a lower end cut-off -- and if you are below 60 or 70K, need is significantly better. Do colleges use cut-offs in income after which there is an abrupt decrease in aid? For example is there a difference between 79,000 and 80,500 AGI or 99,000 and101,000? </p>
<p>Yes. For some schools there is an abrupt cut off. For example, the Calgrant is awarded to students with family income less than $80,000. If the family income is higher, the student is NOT eligible for the Calgrant. Some schools have a no loan policy for students with incomes under a certain amount. If your income exceeds the amount, you could get loans in your package.</p>
<p>Many formulas do phase out the certain grant amounts. PELL,for instance, gives out a max of about $5600 but that is for a zero EFC. If your EFC is near the cut off, you may only get a few hundred or less. It’s not $5600 or bust for that. </p>
<p>Though there are programs and awards that draw a strict line, whether it’s income, grades, test scores, many do not. THough a college might say that families making under $60K get a full award, that doesn’t necessarily mean that at $61K, you get nothing, though, yes there are schools where that is the case. YOu can play around with the NPCs and see how that works. Wash &Lee, for example uses a $70K income limit. What happens at $71K, $80K? Run the formula and see. </p>
<p>It seems that mostly only states do an abrupt cut-off for aid, though some colleges may do so also. Blue and Gold for Calif UCs uses a (stupid) abrupt cut-off (I think it’s $80k no matter how many kids you have in college).</p>
<p>I have no idea how Blue and Gold or the other CA beneifts work, Mom2. How much does a student lose, if he goes over the $80k family income threshold? Is it the whole ball of wax or a small amount? I mean, in PELL at a certain income level that translates to a ~$5K EFC, you get zip in Pell money, but at a few dollars under, you don’t get all that much so going over does not mean the loss of a full Pell award. Though that can happen by missing, say Simplifed Formulas and AutoZero EFC, where the award can go from $5600 to zip by a dollar more in income.</p>
<p>I believe the student is not eligible for Calgrant at all if they go above the income threshold. I believe the same is true for TAP in NY state. It’s not a sliding scale.</p>
<p>Re: Pell, if you’re EFC goes over $5000, you get NO Pell award at all.</p>
<p>I know, Thumper, but what is the loss? With TAP, it’s not an all,nor is it for PELL. Awards decrease until they “fade” into nothing so crossing the line does not mean losing thousands, of dollars. So you lose a hundred or less, not that huge of a deal, whereas getting a lot higher than that is a whole other story. Everyone doesn’t get the same amount for Calgrant, do they? I truly don’t know What would a family just under the $80K income get from Cal? That would be what the family making $81K would lose. Is it substantial or is it about what the income over $80K would be?</p>
<p>Tap and Pell are both give awards to qualified students on a sliding scale. You will get the max at 0 income/EFC and less as your income/EFC increases.</p>
<p>Sybbie…for Tap, once you exceed the income threshold…you don’t get anything…is that correct?</p>
<p>Thumper, that is correct, but the question is how much (or little) does one lose upon exceeding the income threshhold. With Pell, the loss is really under a hundred bucks if your EFC is is one dollar more than the PELL limit. Not a huge loss. But if your income is one dollar more than what the auto Zero EFC is, then it is possible that the one dollar can cost you the Full Pell amount of $5600. But that’s only in those simplified tests that may ignore assets or give you an auto zero EFC. </p>
<p>For TAP, you get nothing once you exceed the eligibility income, but those who make a little under it do not get all that much from TAP. It’s not a big loss to go from barely qualifying to barely not qualifying.</p>
<p>For Blue and Gold, you no longer qualify for the “promise” once your family exceeds $80k. There is no sliding scale. You either qualify for “free tuition” or not. I’m not saying that a UC still won’t give “UC aid” if your EFC is low enough after multiple kids in college, but you don’t have “the promise” of free tuition once you pass that $80k mark.</p>
<p>It’s really ridiculous because a single parent with ONE child who earns $79k gets the promise of free tuition, but the family of 4 with 2 in college that earns $81k…does not get the promise.</p>
<p>Cpt, you essentially lose everything. You go from all tuition covered to nothing promised. (Some schools might continue to help but you are now ineligible for B&G). There is NO sliding scale.</p>
<p>That is what I wanted to know. Crazy that it’s set up that way. TAP is not. You don’t go from all tuition covered to nothing, so the transition by the time you are at thresh hold, to crossing it is just maybe a hundred dollars. A loss, yes, but like PELL, not a huge loss. It’s not all or nothing.</p>
<p>By making it more of a sliding scale at say $50-60k, whatever threshold, by taking the same amount of funds and phasing out the award amount, more families could be helped and the pain of missing the qualifying income figure is not so acute. </p>
<p>B&G should be based on FAFSA regardless of income. If a family makes a $100k but has 3 in undergrad, then each child’s EFC is going to be about $8k…so they should qualify. The crazy thing is each child’s EFC is lower than the EFC of the family of 3 with only 1 in college that earns $79k.</p>
<p>Thanks for your insights everyone! </p>