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<p>Matlas…MOST families do not have college savings for their kids. That is something that SOME families have but not most.</p>
<p>BigKev…I just got my violin out.</p>
<p>True that most people don’t have college savings, but most don’t have that kind of income.</p>
<p>It does seem a little odd when a family has been having that kind of income, yet not have any savings for college.</p>
<p>This thread has been odd. Here this very smart student has been assuming that he’d get aid despite his parents unusually high income (which for some reason he didn’t know was unusually high compared to others), his parents have known the kind of schools he’s been looking at, yet it wasn’t until tonight that he was told that they would pay. </p>
<p>Frankly, even the fact that the dad ran an EFC calculator is odd. Who runs an EFC calculator when you have only one child going to college and you have an income of $350k? Makes you wonder if they checked the charts to see if they could get free lunch at school.</p>
<p>matlas,</p>
<p>You have excellent stats. Read through this thread and see if any of the places mentioned would work for you: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a>
Also, if you are willing to spend the next couple of days doing a lot of online research, good scholarship search techniques can be found at: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html</a> and at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>Some parents with income like your parents really, truly are willing and able to pay full freight at their children’s dream schools. Talk with your parents about your concerns. Perhaps they have been preparing mentally, emotionally, and financially for this for years. Perhaps they just think that applying to 19 colleges and universities is excessive when you will only actually be attending one - chances are that each of them only applied to three or four back in the last century. Maybe you can reshape your list intelligently into one or two rock-solid academic (and financial) safeties, two or three reasonable matches, and three or four reaches/lotteries. That would mean your application costs would be cut way way down.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>
<p>Thanks for the links happymom, I will definitely look into those.</p>
<p>mom2college, I do realize that my parent’s income is very high and I am thankful for that every day. If you think I am lying though, I am not. Those are my real stats, my parent’s real income, and my real concern. </p>
<p>However, I think I am a bit to blame. For the past few months, I have been caught up in applying to college and having been neglecting financial aid applications. This is the first time my parents and I are going through this process, so yes, we don’t know much about financial aid. </p>
<p>Truthfully, the whole reason why I posted was because my dad is getting upset over the various costs of applying to college (application fees, SAT/ACT fees) and it is causing a lot of stress. For example, my parents want to cut down my college list to 9 colleges to avoid application fees and I am trying to convince them that if they are going to end up paying $200K, what is an extra $1000?</p>
<p>I guess I was just hanging onto some thread of hope that I would get some need-based aid. But, again, I now understand that that is highly unlikely. My dad is still going to fill out CCS/FAFSA, but in the meantime I will focus on merit scholarships (I just found out I am a Coca Cola Semifinalist). Anyways, thanks for confirming my fear that the $200K will have to come out of my pocket.</p>
<p>Using [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid)</p>
<p>I got $36,155 EFC for each of two kids, with an AGI of about $290,000 and the assests you might expect at that income. (Didn’t bother to do the FAFSA yet, though we plan to for an unsub loan). </p>
<p>Does $36,000 X2 sound right?</p>
<p>The reason many families who make large incomes do not have a lot of extra money is that they/we spend it on things that are commitments like a very good school district, a nice house in a good neighborhood with amenities, convenient to work and everyday things. That’s a lot of life being lived all of these years. College is not the end all. Until the college years hit. Ironically, those who blow their money on shopping sprees, vacations, and disposable stuff on a high income can more easily tighten the spending than those of us who spend the money on a higher quality of life for the whole family.</p>
<p>You and your family definitely should fill out FAFSA because sometimes it is needed for some scholarships and also because it allows you and your parents access to federal loans. You can take out $5500 in Stafford loans on your own. If you can work summers, vacations you can pay another $3K ors so towards your cost of attendance.</p>
<p>We had to limit our contribution to $35K and anything in excess, our kid have to borrow, work or pay from their savings. My college kid has gotten a number of merit awards that will be bringing his senior year at college cost down to well below that amount. It’s heartening that some kids are pitching in. I’m glad that you are aware of the enormity of this cost.</p>
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<p>On almost $300K of annual income…yes. I actually sounds a little low.</p>
<p>I thought low too. Based on this thread, I was expecting closer to 99k. Nothing I plugged in got to 99 K.</p>
<p>You should file a FAFSA anyways because you may get Stafford Loans which doesn’t look at EFC.</p>
<p>^Well it looks st EFC for sub vs. unsub. I have not hurried in the past, but one of son’s schools is making me wonder.</p>
<p>“I thought low too”…36k has me giddy and confused!</p>
<p>You will probably not qualify for a subsidized loan. Our EFC was about the same as yours for our one kid and he never got a subsidized loan. DD got them but her EFC was half as big bro was also in college.</p>
<p>I would have guessed that your TOTAL EFC would have been that $99K divided by two (or so) so $45K per kid. I guess my guestimate was high.</p>
<p>I know no unsub Stafford. I’m just wondering if I should do the FAFSA before the May 1st reply deadline…I was surprised at the EFC. I thought I remembered about 50K when I had just one in college n 2009, but didn’t expect to divide that by two with two in college.</p>
<p>Maybe there is some kind of income cap? 45k EFC/student would be just fine if it would help at Duke, SCU or LMU?</p>
<p>BTW, Doing SCU preview day on Saturday!</p>
<p>Just read this thread (guess it was old, but bumped). Some of the adults were unnecessarily rude to this young man.</p>
<p>Or should I say, SOME of the adults WERE unnecessarily rude TO this young MAN (in CC speak). </p>
<p>In any case, some of you should be embarrassed. The kid seemed to be quite nice. Why couldn’t you rise to his level?</p>
<p>^ I bumped it. </p>
<p>CC does not suffer high EEC’s gladly. I thought I’d hide my question in his.</p>
<p>Hey mom2ck - Why the rudeness? What did that nice kid do to you?</p>
<p>What is so rude about Mom 2 College Kids?</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone was rude to this student. I do suspect that the student missed the parents’ true message. I don’t think these parents are unable to pay for college. I think they didn’t want their son with almost perfect scores and no financial need wasting money by applying to 19 schools. I think they may have seen it as indecisive (or wasteful-- I don’t know enough about the situation to determine). Out of curiosity, I checked his other posts and he says he has been accepted to both MIT and CalTech-- but he’s now trying to convince his parents to spend the $ for him to visit Case where he was accepted but admits he’s unlikely to attend. So I think it’s a recurring issue.</p>
<p>If what I said sounded rude, I apologize No rudeness intended. Our family is in the same sort of situation, so I bear no ill will to those who are here. </p>
<p>I had to explain to our kids that we have trade offs on what we use our money. They, as many of us, take for granted the status quo and don’t feel it is extravagant and luxurious especially in their world where many of their friends are in the same surroundings. But it is. We live in a big, expensive house in an expensive area and we spend a lot of money for our standard of living for the whole family. Which does not leave as much to pay for college. That is what our balancing act and priorities have brought. </p>
<p>What’s the shame is too many parents don’t explain things that way to the kids. They blame the system instead. No one wants to be the rich guy. They want to be the poor underdog, but live the life of the rich guy. It’s human nature.</p>
<p>Okay, I tried it it again, and it CAN go above 99K.</p>