<p>You seem willfully ignorant of the fact that unless a poor student is lucky enough to win the lottery of getting into one of those 62 schools, they are not likely to afford any school other than commuting to their local public college or university… if even that.</p>
<p>I go to a private LAC and I have to cosign loans every year because my parents can’t pay for it. The FAFSA is supposed to give the best financial aid package based off of the parents income right? Wrong. My parents income might seem like a normal middle class income, but they still can’t afford my yearly fees of 10-11 grand. Their income is about 75-90k. On top of all of that, I have around 6-7k in government loans each year.</p>
<p>FAFSA doesn’t give ANY money.</p>
<p>and, if your parents worked at McDonalds, then you would only get a lot of grants IF YOU got accepted into a school that can AFFORD to give you large grants. The federal gov’t gives SMALL grants to low income kids…not large ones. That’s why MOST low income kids can only go to a CC or a local state school. </p>
<p>It isn’t anyone else’s fault that your parents can’t pay much/anything. Many parents can’t pay their EFC, but if your parents can’t pay ANYTHING or very little, whose fault is that???</p>
<p>Where did you get the idea that the schools in the US have to respect what some FAFSA calculation says is your EFC?</p>
<p>Do you think that all the colleges held up their right hands and swore that they will accept whatever looney calculation FAFSA determines and they (the school ) will then have to cough up the dough?</p>
<p>Heck, if that ever happened, you’d find that most schools would suddenly become “need aware” and only accept those with little or no need.</p>
<p>Just because some federal application says that your EFC is X, does NOT mean that some school will magically have the money to give you. Where’s the money supposed to come from? Trees???</p>
<p>Rks, the answer is simple. If being poor is so wonderful, ask your parents to give up their jobs, their home, their assets and become poor. It’s easy enough to do. Take off a year and help them divest themselves of everything, move into a shelter, and voila, you are eligible for a full ride at college. I don’t understand why everyone isn’t doing this.</p>
<p>Lydiana just says she has to pay $32K. If it’s $32K over 4 years, and that is not after Staffords and other loans are applied to the cost, then yes, she can take out $5500 for freshman year through a Stafford loan and ask for work study or a Perkins (though Perkins are usually in the package if you are going to get one and colleges will give out all they have, so there usually aren’t any for the asking). </p>
<p>But if she needs $32K for the 2012-13 school year, and if that is after her package with Staffords and everything else, then that is a whole other story. I took her post to mean that she needs to come up with this amount for the upcoming year, not for all four years since there is no way of telling what costs will be in future years with tuition increases, housing choices, etc, We also don’t know if that $32K is after any Stafford and other loans have already been applied to the cost. That amount is about what my son owed this school year at his school, by the way, and what we paid up for him. As parents, we had to either come up with it from savings, pay it down out of salary each month with a payment plan available, and/or borrow through PLUS.</p>
<p>Rks, I know what you are saying. If you are going to a school that meets 100% of need as defined by their PROFILE application, you are going to see the college world through a very narrow perspective. You are also being very selfish in that you are only thinking about yourself and not others in your family in that perspective. </p>
<p>First of all congratulations for gaining admissions to that school. Such schools tend to be very selective. So getting accepted is a big deal. Look at the stats of your school in terms of financial aid and you will can see what percentage of kids going there get aid. Usually for such schools, it’s about half. That means half the kids there have family incomes/assets that are deemed sufficient to pay for the costs. These families are getting the money somewhere to pay for college for their kids. Usually some combination of savings, income, and loans. Just because the financial aid application numbers say a family can afford a school, doesn’t meant they have the money sitting there to pay. </p>
<p>Then look at what the average grant is at the school and the average loan/work study package. Those are the need packages the school is giving out. You can figure out about how many kids are getting what. The other number you should check is how many PELL eligible kids go to your school. I’ll bet not many. So you can see that about half the kids’ families are well to do enough to pay for college by their definition and how much aid everyone is getting. </p>
<p>So if your school meets full need, yes, a kid who is PELL eligible is likely to get a full ride. Do you really want your family living at that income level? To get a full ride via financial aid, or close to it, check out what those families have to be living on. There really are not that many kids in this country that are PELL eligible and getting full rides from selective colleges. </p>
<p>I live near a big city where there are high schools in areas where most of the students are Pell eligible. Very, very few of those kids go away to schools that meet their need fully. Most of them, if they go to college at all, go locally, and pick off a class at a time or so in terms of college. You are looking a tiny portion of this population, the tip top students of this group, literally the tip of an iceberg. You really want to be there, with your family submerged under an ocean of debts and insufficient income? Those kids are the ones who were able to achieve high academic standards despite being in a family with few monetary resources. So yes, some leeway might have been given in terms of their grades and test scores as compared to silver spoon kids whose parents can and do buy them extra classes, tutoring, lots of educational opportunities , personal attention , and who know the educational system.</p>
Shush now, cpt - I got a dressing down for suggesting that to the op on page 1 of this thread. Amazing to us all that there isn’t a mass movement of people purposely divesting themselves of their middle-classness and enjoying their newfound poverty. Think of it. Less house to clean, less grass to mow, less food to have to cook, fewer clothes to wash. Being poor is easy! fun! get yours today!</p>
<p>I said it on the first page too. i can become PELL eligible for next year, if I so please. Easily so by the time my youngest is ready for college. Now why aren’t I running out to do that? Why isn’t there a rush to get a zero EFC? It is easily achievable.</p>
<p>I find it interesting that the same person that makes statements like 'if my parents worked at McDonalds…" Also, acknowledges that even though his parents make a LOT more than that, they can’t pay a lowish EFC. What the heck does he think his parents could pay for with a McJob…probably not even a roof over his head. I’d take the roof any day.</p>
<p>My EFC is 12k, but I’m expected to pay 30k.</p>
<hr>
<p>The truth is, you are not expected to pay 30k. You simply were not offered any need based aid because California schools apparently are not in a position to offer need based aid to those with anything but a very low EFC. If you do attend a school that costs 30k, you have CHOSEN to attend. The school did not expect anything. They offered an aid package, and you have to decide whether or not to attend based on that aid package. </p>
<p>The aid process definitely is a shock to most students and parents. Certainly, a family with a 12k EFC cannot typically afford to pay 30k per year; I certainly would not recommend borrowing that much. The problem is, there just is not enough money on the federal level to give aid to any but the poorest. Some states are able to give students grants to help bridge the gap, and some schools are able to do so. Many, many students have to work to pay for school, balancing the two (often by going part time), or put off school to make money to pay for it later. Many, many students attend community colleges or live at home while attending a local school. MOST probably would love to go away to a fun school as a full time, regular college student. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t always work out.</p>
<p>I know it s**ks, and I know you have probably heard it before: Life is not fair. K-12 is a “right,” although we know that some kids get the better end of that right than others (depending on where they live). College is not a right. Fortunately, there are less expensive options that many students can take advantage of. The ones I feel really bad for are those who do not live within commuting distance of any viable options.</p>
<p>THese kids see some students getting large aid packages and think that this is what they would be getting, if they had that need. It could well be true, but that is only one part of having a low EFC. It’s like being envious that the person in the check out line ahead of you has a food stamp card and you are paying full fare.</p>