<p>If a school does not meet full need (if they are said to meet approximately 80% of need) and if a child has an auto zero EFC and the school is for example 40,000, does it mean an auto zero student would pay 20% of 40K to that school (FAFSA-only school), such as about $8,000? And the rest would be covered by grants and/or loans? </p>
<p>Is there a limit to how much of that amount could be loans? And if qualified for merit aid, too, would that go towards the $8,000 or towards the grants/loans portion?</p>
<p>I know that finaid is not precise and different schools would need to be compared once the packages come in. Just want to be clear if I understand what it means for a basic FAFSA schools formula.</p>
<p>Not necessarily…that 80% is generally an average so some receive less, some could receive more…</p>
<p>There is a limit to student loans. The federal direct loans are I believe $5500 for freshman. That is the maximum a student can take out from the federal government however, if parents apply and are rejected for a PLUS (parent loan) the student can take out additional loans - can’t remember the amount but I think it’s around $4000. Some schools can offer Perkins, but it’s discretionary how those are distributed. </p>
<p>As far as outside scholarships and how that is applied…that is a question that needs to be asked each college. My older son’s college removed his work study even though we were paying more than our EFC at the time. My second son we were paying the EFC and they let it stack (cutting into our EFC alittle bit) I think because his scholarships were solely merit based and he wasn’t awarded work/study.</p>
<p>When a school says it meets 80% of need on average, that does not mean that every student will have 80% of his need met … it’s an average, and some will receive more, some less. There is really no way to know for sure how much you will get from the school, although you can call and talk to the financial aid folks to get an idea. I worked at a state U, and we had a policy of covering the average cost of tuition for all students below a certain EFC through a combination of their EFC+grants (including government grants, like Pell). School scholarships would decrease school need-based grants, to spread the money out as far as it could go. If a 0 EFC student wanted to stay on campus, the family would be responsible for paying for housing … students could borrow loans, and families would have to pay the rest. If a student took a load of classes that cost more than the average tuition, he would also have to find a way to pay for that.</p>
<p>There is a limit of $5500 in Stafford loans that can be awarded to a freshman, and some schools have Perkins loans (a federal loan) to award to the neediest students. So a freshman could get a package that includes more than $5500 in loans. Schools do not include non-guaranteed student loans in their packages. However, since many schools do not cover full need, a federal parent PLUS loan is often included in the package as an option for parents who cannot cover the cost out of savings and income. Parents do have to qualify for these loans (or get a cosigner).</p>
<p>Merit aid policies vary by school. They can reduce aid from the school, but they generally do not hurt a 0 EFC student … although a student’s award package will be reduced if outside scholarships bring the total aid package to more than the cost of attendance.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, merit aid goes toward meeting need, and not toward your family contribution. A freshman can only get 5500 in federal loans. Some schools add loans of their own, but I haven’t seen a package that requires a student to take more than 7500 in loans. The student will almost certainly have $2K of work study also.</p>
<p>So… if the school really did decide to meet 80% of your student’s need the package would probably look something like this:</p>
<p>Family contribution $8K
Work study $2K
Loans $7K
Grants/scholarships $23K</p>
<p>So really, even though they claim to be meeting 80% of need, they are actually only giving gift aid for about 58% of need.</p>
<p>The $23K would include any merit your student qualified for. If your student qualified for more than $23K in merit aid, that would reduce the student’s loans, but you’d still (most likely) be expected to make the $8K family contribution.</p>
<p>However if a school does not meet full need, and they meet an <em>average</em> of 80% of need, that says pretty much <em>nothing</em> about how much of your student’s need they will meet. It’s easy to meet 80% or even 100% of need for a family whose need is only $10-15K (with just loans, work-study and possibly a pell grant), and that looks good in their average, but doesn’t help you much.</p>
<p>Is admission need-blind? If not that average may be biased by the school accepting mostly families with minimal need.</p>
<p>*If a school does not meet full need (if they are said to meet approximately 80% of need) and if a child has an auto zero EFC and the school is for example 40,000, does it mean an auto zero student would pay 20% of 40K to that school (FAFSA-only school), such as about $8,000? And the rest would be covered by grants and/or loans? </p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Absolutely not. </p>
<p>Those % mean very little to any ONE person unless the percent is 100%. </p>
<p>Also, if the school is a state public, then the % is especially meaningless to an OOS student because the “average” was computed using mostly instate students whose cost is a lot less and need is more easily met. OOS students with low EFCs attending those schools would find that little of their need would be met.</p>
<p>I would guess that a 0 EFC student attending a FAFSA-only school that boasts meeting 80% of students’ need is NOT going to get 80% of need met unless the aid has some very large merit stacked in there as well and/or the student is highly desired and got a preferential pkg.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that many students with highish EFCs can have their “need” met 100% (or very close to it) with just a 5500 student loan and maybe some work-study, so those students’ pkgs are skewing the results for the others. </p>
<p>What school are you wondering about? With a $40k COA…that sounds like it might be an OOS public.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the helpful responses. School is a private, New School/Lang. Student will live at home, so no housing costs. I rounded the numbers for simplicity sake, but basically I believe the tuition is $37,000 and the average percentage of need met is 78% - 80% (according to College Board and other sites.) </p>
<p>Student is looking for a very small school within NYC that has a certain type of learning and this school fits in every way. His stats are well above their 75% mark so we are hoping for merit as well as need. We know CUNYs are very good schools and would be cheaper and those will certainly be considered also. But as this particular school is head and shoulders above the rest he has seen, I was hoping to get a general sense of possible costs before he applies to any schools. It seems that every school can give out whatever percentage suits and maybe there is no way to know, so I do realize it might be a long shot to get good aid.</p>
<p>Since it’s a specific school and you are highly interested, take Kelsmom’s suggestion and call the school. The finaid people are going to be very, very busy starting in a few weeks so call now and ask if you can get some general information about how they might view your situation. I’ve found the finaid offices at my kids’ colleges to be very willing to talk about things if I don’t call them at the excruciatingly busy times.</p>
<p>this year tuition is $39970. Expect the cost to rise ~5% for next year. this does not include mandatory student fees (health insurance/health services, books, transportation, etc).</p>
<p>If your son attends Eugene Lang/The New School, with the “0” EFC, you can only be assured to receive the following:</p>
<p>Full Pell $5550
Full TAP $4995
Full stafford Loan $ 5500</p>
<p>This still leaves $20,925 on the table for tuition alone. Unfortunately, New School is not flush enough that the balance of your financial aid award is going to be in need based grants (unless your child is HEOP eligible).</p>
<p>Since you stated that his stats is above the 75%, he will not be HEOP eligible.</p>
<p>While the school states that there are some full tuition scholarships, you have no idea if your child will meet the criteria since there are not guaranteed.</p>
<p>The college board information from the Eugene Lang is as follows:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>this translates to on 13% of the students who had a financial need, had 100% of that need met.</p>
<p>If you look up the IPEDs information for the New School you will find the following</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>this equals $30,518 leaving ~9k on the table.</p>
<p>While you/your son may love this school, go into this process with your eyes wide open. If they give you a package that meets 100% of your need (keep in mind that loans are considered meeting your need), then it is all good. However, the odds will be that this school will probably be financially out of reach for a family with a “0” EFC.</p>
<p>What exactly is your son considering as a major that in your opinion places Eugene Lang head and shoulders above CUNY or perhaps some SUNYs? Is your son eligible for the CUNY honors program?</p>
<p>By having a 0 EFC, he could very likely have perkins loans in his package. If this is the case, you could probably be looking at 4k/year for 4 years $16,000</p>
<p>With your 0 EFC, if you are not creditworthy enough to get a PLUS loan, then your son will be eligible for another 4k/year in unsub stafford loans $16,000</p>
<p>your son could graduate with approximately 59k in loans (plus the interest that would be accruing on the unsub stafford loans).</p>
<p>Again, I ask, what is so great about Eugene Lang that puts it head, shoulders and a potential 59k of debt over CUNY?</p>
<p>I agree that it’s very important to go in with eyes open.</p>
<p>CUNYs have some great programs for sure, and he may very well end up there. I don’t know yet if he will qualify for Macaulay but that is an excellent program for those who qualify.</p>
<p>For various reasons that can’t be explained without a more detailed history, Eugene Lang seems like the best fit for him, and he plans to apply. But realistically, he can only go if it is affordable including merit awards that may bring loans down, and he is well aware of that. We do have some resources that are not counted in FAFSA so we are not as desperate as it might seem and are happy to pay our fair share if we can swing it.</p>
<p>If he ends up getting a good package from Lang, he will be thrilled. But it is good that he is aware of the odds and looking into other options as well. Thanks for the info.</p>