<p>Okay, I am planning on attending Hawaii Pacific University but am worried that I will not be able to afford it.</p>
<p>I am currently a Senior in High School.</p>
<p>My father recently passed away and since then my family has suffered financial hardship. </p>
<p>How will FAFSA, etc help me out? Will student loans account for the rest of the tuition?</p>
<p>I’m sorry to hear about your father. It’s especially tough when a family has to deal with not only the emotional loss, but the financial loss too.</p>
<p>There are some financial aid experts here who can help you in more detail than I can, but just some general stuff:</p>
<p>FAFSA isn’t aid; it’s the way colleges determine how much aid you will need. Completing FAFSA will give you your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). This is the amount that colleges will figure that you and your family can pay toward college. In theory, the college comes up with an aid package to cover the difference between the total Cost of Attendance (COA) and your EFC. </p>
<p>Different schools will structure your aid package in different ways. Some will be mostly loans; some will be mostly scholarships/grants which don’t need to be paid back; some will have a work/study component which you’ll need to earn during the school year. Most aid packages have all 3 components, but the proportions can vary drastically. Obviously, the best aid is grants/scholarships, followed by work/study. The fewer loans, the better, but realistically it’s almost impossible for most people to get through 4 years of college without some borrowing. The idea is to keep it to a minimum.</p>
<p>The FAFSA that you will file soon after New Years Day will be based on your family’s 2009 income. It sounds like your 2010 income may be significantly lower than 2009; you will want to make the Financial Aid Office aware of that fact and the reason for it. </p>
<p>If you haven’t already, check out the Financial Aid Handbook for Hawaii Pacific. <a href=“http://www.hpu.edu/images/FinancialAid/09_10undergradbook_SFW_a26697.pdf[/url]”>http://www.hpu.edu/images/FinancialAid/09_10undergradbook_SFW_a26697.pdf</a></p>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>
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<p>I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your beloved father. </p>
<p>Since you’re worried about how you’ll afford the school, make sure that you also apply to 1-3 financial safeties so that you’ll have a choice if the FA package to HPU doesn’t work out. Apply to a couple desirable in-state publics and perhaps a couple of privates that are known for good aid and/or merit. Apply to at least one school that you could commute to if necessary. While this may not appeal to you, it would be worse for you to not apply to these other schools and then find out in the spring that the HPU financial aid package is insufficient.</p>
<p>If HPU doesn’t meet “full-need” then you could have a gap (a difference between cost and aid). This may also be a school that puts a lot of loans in its FA packages. </p>
<p>If you aren’t living in Hawai’i now, you’ll also have to take into consideration travel costs back and forth to the mainland for holidays and Christmas. Those costs “may” be included in your COA, but it the FA package has a gap and/or is mostly loans, then those costs wouldn’t be really covered.</p>
<p>Obviously, the loss of your Dad’s income is significant to the family. However, if your mom works and her income is good, you may not qualify for grants. </p>
<p>What is your family’s current income?</p>
<p>OP: There is no need to post your income here, since there are other factors which also go into determining your EFC. Anyway, it’s none of our business. :)</p>
<p>The relevant question is: What is your EFC? You can run this estimator to get a very rough idea of that number: [url=<a href=“http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp]EFC”>http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp]EFC</a> Calculator: How Much Money for College Will You Be Expected to Contribute?<a href=“You%20may%20need%20to%20enlist%20your%20mom’s%20help%20in%20estimating%20what%20your%202009%20income%20will%20be.”>/url</a></p>
<p>My father was the only one who worked. My mom does not have a job. :(</p>
<p>If I buy the sat princeton prep book, will it have a big impact on my sat score?</p>
<p>Also, is the kaplan sat review book better? I heard princeton was.</p>
<p>^^ this would be better posted in the ACT/SAT section. Or better still do a search in that section for you question which is asked frequently.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, and I know that you all are having a VERY tough time right now. </p>
<p>Run that calculator just to get a feel for what the number might be. Then you might want to go ahead and call the HPU Financial Aid Office. Explain the situation and tell them that your 2010 income is going to be far far lower than your 2009 income on which your EFC will be based. There are a couple of posters here on CC who work in financial aid offices, and they might be able to tell you how to approach HPU with your special circumstances.</p>
<p>BTW, there’s a girl at my church whose father (sole wage-earner) died unexpectedly the summer before she went away to school. Her mother contacted the school soon after his death, and they were very willing to work with her to adjust the daughter’s financial aid package. Please don’t give up. Whether at HPU or someplace else, you’re going to get your college education.</p>
<p>Since your dad was the sole income provider, that will have to come into play with EFC. </p>
<p>However, if HPU is not a school that is generous with aid (does anyone know?), then it likely won’t be a good choice for you. If I’m remembering correctly, HPU doesn’t give good merit to OOS students (even tho it’s a private U). Therefore, FA might be your only available funding, so if their package consists of large loans or gaps, this may not be a good economic choice for you. </p>
<p>What in-state publics interests you?</p>
<p>I meant no offense by asking what your family’s income would be now that your father has passed, since you’re obviously trying to figure out if HPU is do-able financially. In cases when someone is seeking FA info here, I don’t think the question is any more offensive than asking one’s EFC (which could also be considered "no one else’s business). There is anonimity here. Students often have no idea of what their EFCs are, so income can give a more general sense of whether they will qualify for fed grants. When someone needs FA info to determine affordability, then such questions as income/EFC come into play.</p>
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<p>Yes, but other factors come into play, such as parents’ age, tax liability, savings, number of people in the household, and number of kids in college. This is why the raw income number isn’t necessarily very enlightening, and why discussion about aid usually centers around EFC, not income. I do seem to remember reading that you’ve never completed a FAFSA, so I can understand why asking about income rather than EFC would be more natural for you. But truly, it’s EFC that counts.</p>
<p>Luckily, there is nothing difficult or time-consuming about the estimators (or FAFSA itself, for that matter) and I have every confidence that the OP can handle the job. Then we will have a much better sense of what the situation may actually be.</p>
<p>I grew up in New England so I am interested in colleges with nice habitats/scenery/weather because I hated the cold. Right now I live in Florida.</p>
<p>Any suggestions if HPU wont help?</p>
<p>My suggestion would be to start a new thread in the College Search forum. There are lots of folks over there who’ll have great ideas for you, folks who may not necessarily hang out here in the financial aid forum. We can still keep this thread going at the same time for financial stuff.</p>
<p>Over there, post your grades, test scores, ECs, etc. Also generally describe what you’re looking for in a college: small/large, urban/suburban/rural, university/LAC, what you might want to study, any extracurriculars that might be important to you. Be sure to put what you don’t want as well, in your case, a cold-weather location or anything else you want to avoid. Do mention that you’re going to need financial aid.</p>