<p>So my parents have a total income of around $32,000, and savings around $40,000. My EFC will probably be close to 0, maybe around $4000, right (just a guess)?</p>
<p>So based on this info from the FAFSA, will U of M somehow provide the full cost of tuition, room/board, and expenses minus the $4000? I heard the max loan you can get is $5500, so will I get the rest in grants and work study? </p>
<p>Or am I being waay to optimistic? U of M is the only place I want to go to, so I hope not.</p>
<p>Being in-state will automatically make it cheaper for you. Plus I believe they accomodate your financial needs better than OOS applicants. For a total income of $32,000, they better assist you. If not, I have no idea what this country has come to.</p>
<p>That is basically right in theory, though I am not sure if Michigan meets full demonstrated need. You’ll likely get some combination of loans, work study, grants, and scholarships. </p>
<p>There is more to generating your EFC than your income, you may want to play around with some calculators and see mine jumps from year to year, one it was 36 k, then 17, then 25k more recently. Our income hasn’t changed much at all in that time.</p>
<p>Michigan doesn’t meet full demonstrated need. Last year, on average, because it changes from case to case, they met an average of 90% of need for all students. So if full expenses are $20k and your EFC is $4k, they’ll pay roughly 90% of $16k, or $14.4k, so you’d have to come up with that other $1.6k with cash or outside loans.</p>
<p>There are a lot of factors, and sometimes they meet more or less of your need, you’ll just have to see when you get your package.</p>
<p>Thanks, 90% is okay, but my biggest fear is that they force a bunch of loans on me. If my parents pay all of my EFC, then the max loans they’ll force on me is $5500, and maybe that 10% they don’t meet according to Lightja?</p>
<p>For example, like Lightja said, if total cost was $20k, and my EFC was $4k, and U of M met 90% of my need, then out of the $14.4k they gurantee, only $5500 can be loans, and the rest grants and work-study, correct? They won’t give me a $14.4k loan, and claim they met 90% of my need right?</p>
<p>Also, about meeting 90% of the need…is this for all students, or in-state? Because according to them, they meet 100% for in-state, and a lot less for OOS students.</p>
<p>Or you could be in my situation, your EFC could be much higher than you could have reasonably anticipated, and you cannot pay the EFC. Then you have to make up whatever Mich doesn’t give you as well as what you couldn’t fill in the EFC.</p>
<p>^ Was there some special circumstance that made your EFC so high? I’m gonna use some calculators now and see the EFC I get.</p>
<p>I have 1 more important question though: When you complete the FAFSA, do you get to see your EFC right away? Does the FAFSA calculate your EFC, or does U of M use data from the FAFSA to calculate it themselves?</p>
<p>^ Awesome! It’ll be nice to hear my official EFC right away. Coolbrezze, your parents got their W2 form already? My parents’ forms will only come Jan 31st T__T. Will submitting it in the first couple days of Feb be kinda late? Priority deadline is March, right?</p>
<p>Does the FAFSA ask you to “estimate” your parents 2010 income, or dumb stuff like that required by the PROFILE? IDK why U of M wants the PROFILE when they gotta meet they just use the EFC from the FAFSA anyways.</p>
<p>Also, could someone please answer my question above about the loan? U of M can only issue a max loan of $5500, right? The rest will be grants/work-study to meet my needs?</p>
<p>We had to estimate stuff and send the real numbers later. </p>
<p>The most loans they will put in your package is $5500. However, if your package is inadequate you will have to take on more loans yourself or come up with more money to make up the difference. It is your responsibility to pay the EFC and make up the difference if their package doesn’t cover it. Two scenarios which would require you finding more money are if your package is inadequate or if your EFC is too high. </p>
<p>For example, my parents cannot afford to pay for my EFC. If my EFC were lower than the COA, I would have been offered some grants and stuff. But if 1) those grants were not enough and there was still a balance to be paid or 2)my EFC was more than my parents could afford, I would have had to take out more loans. As it happens in my situation my EFC is almost exactly the COA so I don’t get anything except unsub stafford loans, which are not need based, and we had to take out private loans for the rest. That is the extreme case. But if you had a portion of your EFC unpaid or if your package was not sufficient and you couldnt afford to fork out more, then more loans would come into play if you were willing to take them in order to go to the school. You can guarantee that $5,500 is the only loan amount that is going to appear in your package, but if your package is insufficient or your EFC too high you have to decide how you’ll pay what’s left. </p>
<p>I think they considered our house and my dad’s business as assets and used that against us, which was stupid because we can’t sell our house or our business, we need those to live. But I REALLY do not understand the FAFSA at all, my dad fills it out for me, so I don’t really know what happened. They also didn’t take into account that for half the year we make almost no money, and that we have massive medical bills to pay because we can’t afford health insurance and we’ve had one surgery+hospitalization and one hospitalization in the past year. My income takes you a lot further when you have steady income and insurance, but nobody cares that I don’t have either. That’s just the way it worked out. Many of my friends have similar stories, some even worse than mine, but most not quite as bad. With your income being so low I think it’s a little more cut and dry for you, but my point is just not to count your chickens before they’re hatched. If FA is going to make or break you coming to Michigan, make sure you’re not putting all your eggs in that basket. FAFSA takes into account a lot of really weird things and you won’t truly know what’s going to happen until you get your EFC and your aid package. It is really not rational to say “okay, we make X amount of money, so Y is going to be our EFC, so I am going to be offered $5500 in loans and then the rest up to 90% of my need will be paid in grants and I am good to go!” There are just too many missing variables for that to be accurate.</p>
<p>Yosup my mom does not have to file taxes, like possibly yours our efc is 0. </p>
<p>Yes March will be very late. Such at Boston University ( also applied there) either the deadline to submit the CSS profile or FAFSA is Feb 1st… I think its the deadline for CSS profile.</p>
<p>Yosup at MSU if your elgible for the Pell Grant ( efc 0) you will likely have yearly loans hovering around 1k, at UMich unlike MSU I have not heard of such a program and as TwistedxKiss explained attending UMich you could possibly be stuck with loans well over 5k a year.</p>
<p>Okay thanks. I’m gonna send my FAFSA to MSU as well, but U of M is the only college I wanna go to. I really hope this works out. Do you guys think sending the FAFSA (with the official tax numbers) in the first week of February will be okay?</p>
<p>Yes, you’ll be fine. A couple of things, just so you’re prepared:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The FAFSA EFC is not always the same as the U of M EFC because of the CSS, which treats assets differently (eg. can include value of home equity) – but don’t panic, doesn’t always make a BIG difference unless your family is sitting on some liquid cash and sometimes the university uses the CSS in a PREFERENTIAL way (they did with us.)</p></li>
<li><p>Your “Cost of Attendance” will be about $23,000 - $24,000 including room, board, books and spending money. That will be the kind of number they attempt to meet. I expect your EFC will be $2,000 or less – just a guess – could be 4-ish if the 40k your parents have is liquid as opposed to sitting in a retirement fund or something (believe there’s a formula for how much of it they expect to be contributed, think it’s 5.6% on adult assets…but if it’s in your name, it’s more like 20% so don’t encourage any family members to move any money into your name! )</p></li>
<li><p>Note that I do not believe you’ll end up with a 0 EFC, but note that there is a MSU program that forgives all the loans if you’re financially challenged. Not to sway you, but just so you know to keep that option open until the very end. So on one hand, Coolbreeze is right about that. On the other hand, making it sound like having $5k in loans a year for a nationally reputable school such as Michigan while many families willingly pay $45k to come from OOS is kind of of bizarre. Nobody rides free, if you know what I mean.</p></li>
<li><p>Your package may look something like this (just a wild guess, but so you’ll have an idea what kind of categories: Fed Lns $5500; Pell $3000; Academic Competitive Grant $750; Work Study $3,000; Michigan competitive academic grant (for lower income res., if it’s been funded this year) $2300; MPact Grant (straight from the school) $7,000 Balance for family to pay $ difference (plus remember tuition goes up each year 5 or 6% so keep that amount set aside for August)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>That’s more or less how they build a package. Also MAKE SURE YOU APPLY for the Michigan Alumni Association’s 4-year scholarships – they’re worth $2750 a year for four years – google and phone your local Alumni as the DEADLINE is Feb. 1st. You cannot apply through the school.</p>
<p>Good luck! And don’t worry – the school for an in-state is worth the investment.</p>