My EFC is 19,000. My father gambles a lot and lost all of our money, but my EFC still stands.
I got accepted to Cal poly SLO, UC Davis, and UC San Diego so far. My parents can’t pay the plus loan of 19k because they have bad credit, so I think I’d have to take out private loans for that, on top of the student loans. In total, my net for each school comes around to 30k a year.
I feel like having over $100,000+ in loans for a bachelors degree seems pretty ridiculous. What should I do? Should I just go to community college?
You will only be eligible to take out loans of $5500 for freshman year; $6500 for sophomore and $7500 for jr. and sr. year.
As you have said, your parents have to take out the rest in parent loans and they may not be eligible to take out loans.
Once you begin CC classes, your options for scholarships are severely reduced and limited.
You may want to take a gap year, work and save money; then, reapply to schools that will accept your stats for scholarship monies. Do not take ANY CC classes while on a gap year.
EFC will not change because your father gambled it; the schools will not compensate gambling losses.
By the way, what state are you in? Are you a CA resident? If not, please look for affordable in-state Us, possibly even ones where can commute as options. It is correct that entering freshman (students who have not taken any CC or college courses) are those who get the lion’s share of any merit and FAid, so if you hope to get any of that, a gap you MAY work better for you than CC.
The other way to look at it is that CC can let you get credit toward a degree at very little e cost, as long as most of your courses and credits will transfer to your college degree. Done Us have articulation agreements spelling out which courses they will accept when the student is accepted as s transfer.
Our D had a admissions counselor at the private U she hoped to transfer into help advise her about which of her CC courses would transfer, which was very helpful when she was admitted to that U.
What are your stats, in particular test scores?
Assuming you live in California, community colleges there are the cheapest in the nation and are widely considered the best academically for transfer purposes. The problem becomes what to do once you’ve completed our cc coursework.
Your strategy will depend on what stats you currently have.
@MYOS1634 My SAT is a 1260/1600. Pretty average, but it’s a good score based off my school. I go to a low-income school and most SAT scores are lower than 1050.
I also have a 4.0 UC GPA, 4.2 Weighted, 3.8 NW. And yes, unfortunately I live in California.
@HImom I’m a CA resident, the only financial aid I got at all was that grant for being a CA resident. Besides that I got absolutely nothing.
@aunt bea - I don’t understand, why would it be better to take a gap year? Wouldn’t it be better if I started school earlier? My parents said they’d pay for my community college, or I could get a job to finance it.
The gap year advice relates to the theory that your best scholarship amounts are awarded to entering (freshman) students and NOT transfer students. Once you take a single class at a CC, you are now a transfer student.
Your only option in my opinion, if your parents will pay very little, is to search for a school that offers very high merit aid. It sounds like even if the school gave you fantastic aid and got the price down to $15K you would still have trouble paying. Your only option might just be to go to CC for two years and then transfer to a local city school in CA to finish up. Over those two years at CC, you should be able to work and save some money.
Good luck.
“Unfortunately” you live in CA? I will take issue with that. CA has a terrific network of community colleges with articulation agreements with many of their four year public universities.
Was your family income under $80,000 a year? With an EFC of $19,000, I would guess that is a yes, and you would be eligible for the Calgrant which is actually a generous state grant as state grants go.
So…is there a community college to which you can commute?
Is there a four year Cal State to which you can commute?
What was YOUR net cost at the colleges to,which you have already been accepted.
I will stick my neck out here.if your parents have bad credit, they will not be qualified cosigners for private loans for college. And you will need a cosigner for a private loan.
When you made your list of colleges to apply to…did you have a different plan for paying the costs?
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What grant did you get? A Cal Grant?? Your EFC seems high for a Cal Grant. Maybe you got a UC grant???
What is the amount of the grant? And what is its name?
You can’t borrow the amount you’re worried about because your parents won’t qualify to cosign.
You can start at a CC, but unless you later transfer to a Cal public that you can commute to, you’ll have the same problem.
Did you apply to any Cal schools that you can commute to?
Did you get a Cal Grant, a UC grant/BlueGold…?
Did you get into any UC/CSU you can commute to reasonably?
A gap year would give you time to formulate a list of affordable colleges. You could retake the SAT and ACT before you graduate (somes colleges won’t accept it post graduation but taken in April or May is perfectly fine), trying to score higher - basically, the higher your score, the more money you’ll get.
No, I didn’t get any cal grants. UCSD just gave me a grant of 3000, I’m not sure why. It just says UCSD grant. And UC Davis gave me one of 5000. But I didn’t get any cal grants.
Sorry, I like California, I just meant that California is an expensive state compared to other ones, and right now I’m a little stressed.
There’s a local community college I can go to. I’m just upset that I have to settle for a community college when I already got into my top choices.
Well when I applied to colleges, my parents forced me to only apply to UC schools. My whole family has only gone to UC schools, and they expect the same from me. They’re mad I even applied to SLO, which is a great school. To be honest, my parents always act like we’re very poor. I assumed I’d get a lot of aid, and my parents say next year our EFC will be much lower because my dad stopped gambling. That’s why all my sisters went to UCs with more aid, because back then we weren’t as well off.
This is just a bad year, but I think the next 3 years my EFC would lower.
“I’m just upset that I have to settle for a community college when I already got into my top choices.”
Welcome to adulthood 
Brand names are a luxury. You’ll be fine at a CC --> transfer, good luck.
also lol @ your family being mad you applied to SLO. In some fields SLO beats out almost all the UCs (for computer science companies recruit from Berkeley and SLO crazy heavily, for instance)
@CourtneyThurston I know! I love SLO! My parents don’t understand the college system well enough to know that. Half of the time they think I got into cal poly Pomona, not slo.
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my parents say next year our EFC will be much lower because my dad stopped gambling. That’s why all my sisters went to UCs with more aid, because back then we weren’t as well off.
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this makes no sense to me.
Why are you more well off now if you claim that your dad lost all your money?
I didn’t say that … We’re worse off now.
Well yes, you did…
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That’s why all my sisters went to UCs with more aid, because back then we weren’t as well off.
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Your words say that you’re better off now…
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To be honest, my parents always act like we’re very poor. I assumed I’d get a lot of aid, and my parents say next year our EFC will be much lower because my dad stopped gambling. That’s why all my sisters went to UCs with more aid, because back then we weren’t as well off.
This is just a bad year, but I think the next 3 years my EFC would lower.
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Please explain this
Unless what you’re saying is that your dad had gambling income in the tax year used for FAFSA, and subsequently lost everything, your comments on the family finances aren’t making a lot of sense. If things improve financially, your EFC should go up. When things are worse, your EFC should be lower.
In your situation, I’d start out at a CC. You can’t take out enough loans to afford a UC, and even if you could, it’s too much debt. The California CCs tend to be among the best and have good articulation agreements with the 4 year state schools. Plus if you transfer to a UC, your degree will be from the UC. If your parents don’t like it, that’s really too bad, as they’re not willing/able to pay for you to go elsewhere.