<p>Hanaviolet, the school has defined your need and met it as it has defined it. It’s up to you as to how you come up with the money. You should talk to the fin aid rep and let him know that you are currently unemployed and that when you are employed, you might be able to pay what they feel you can. However, if the home equity is indeed included as part of your assets and that is what is driving up the institutional EFC, this is going to be an ongoing problem with the school. And, yes, they do expect you to sell the house or borrow against it for the amount they assess you for. Or take out PLUS for the $15K. If denied, your son will get an additonal $4K in Stafford loans, still leaving you hanging for the $11k left to pay. You can defer payment of the PLUS but at a hefty price in interest.</p>
<p>Some of these schools that guarantee 100% of need count the fillings in your teeth in terms of assets. Value of cars, 401K monies, everything. Yes, and certainly value of your house, never mind if you cannot sell it except at a fire sale, they want those fire sale proceeds. You might want to revist what you have put down as the value of your home and see if that is even a realistic market value. My neighbor has had her house on the market for 6 months now and hasn’t gotten a nibble. Certainly not the market value that she and the realtor placed on it. </p>
<p>As for your son, the $6K or so in student loans is typical. Is he a transfer student? Stafford max is $5500, combined unsub and sub for freshman, $6500 for sophomores. It goes up each year. Bear in mind that most schools expect your son to assume more and more of the cost each year and that the cost goes up as well. </p>
<p>Does your son have any savings for college? Can he get a job starting right now and start putting some money away? Weekends and after school and maybe two, three jobs in the summer including tutoring, music lessons, bike lessons, pet sitting, swim lessons, baby sitting, house sitting, bus boy, day job. That’s what all of mine have done and they do make a lot of money during the summers. The one heading off to college and his cousin worked a good part of junior and senior year. My son is a life guard at the rec center 10 hours a week and his cousin works 15 hours at least at a nursing home. Both have accumulated nice nest eggs for college and will continue doing so over the summer. My kids have also worked 15 hours a week at college to pay for their share of the expenses.</p>
<p>My college junior picked a school that was over the cost of what we would pay, so he had to come up with the money. He figured he had Stafford loans, his savings, and whatever he could earn working. He also scrimped so that he “beat” the COA figure the college had for him. This year he’s done the same. As a sophomore, he did hit the COA figure because he got a single room and did not get anything to replace an outside one year only scholarship and because college costs went up. He worked extra hours and got a very high paying position second semester, however, and won a research grant at the end of that year, that made this year’s costs below COA for him. He 's in an apartment and his food bill has been halved though the cost for the apt exceeds the dorm rooms. Next year he’ll be living off campus and his room costs will be half of what they are this year. </p>
<p>You’ll also save money not having your son at home. The hot water bill, electric bill (unplug applicances and other electronics he tends to use–savings right there), food bill, car costs will go down. When my college guy is home, the milk bill alone costs me an Andrew Jackson more a week. You’ll get some tax advantage too. </p>
<p>How much can you pay for college? How about your son? He is “loaned up”, I agree. But he needs to put some money in the pot too. He has an unemployed parent, a family with a zero EFC. He’s got to live like a kid in those circumstances. That means working, saving and not a lot of activities that cost money. When you don’t have it, you can’t be spending it, especially if you have plans for it for college, with “it” being money. Maybe you can’t go to the prom if it’s costing you a couple hundred bucks or more. Gotta find a low cost date who’ll split the cost with you, find a used tux that’s cheaper than renting or borrow one, or not wear a tux. It hurts to scrimp, but that’s what it takes. </p>
<p>You have $15K you gotta pay–well, that means DS has to come up with $5K in earnings, you have to come up with $5K out of your budget, maybe from what you save with him at school, cutting out even more stuff, having a couple of yard sales, selling some stuff that might bring some decent money, Then you gotta either borrow $5K from PLUS, HELOC, something. If not get turned down and your son will get another $4K and you gotta come up with another $1K. Maybe family will chip in for the $1K in that case.</p>
<p>My EFC is high enough that we don’t get aid. But we are strapped with an expensive house commitment, family commitments and a whole lot of other things so we are having to do all of those things I am suggesting, as are my kids for college. I just had a yard sale that made $800. My kids and I volunteer at the soup kitchen and food pantry and get the throw away stuff there. I do clean up for all EC and school functions and take home the leftovers. Actually people are very generous to us in terms of insisting I take home food leftovers and giving me bags of used clothes and stuff because I volunteer a lot and let people know that I am in the market for throw aways. My middle school son put together the recycling program at his school as his service project, goes through garbage to get the cans and bottles, takes them home and we take them to the center every week. He keeps half the take and half goes back to Student Council. I do the same at functions when I help out, and recently hauled 300 bottles in a 2 hour thing at school $30 on the spot for nothing! $15 in DS’s pocket. And yet I live in a very upscale neighborhood.</p>