<p>P.S. It is really hard to find a specific dollar amount on a college’s website specifying what the “student summer earning contribution” is - in part because it varies depending on year of student (upperclass students may have a slightly higher amount), and SES level of the family (very low-income families may have no or lower contribution.) I actually asked my son’s college, since I budget that amount as a contribution from son (mean mom ;)) - and they said $1500. (I love Rice U.!) Some colleges that I have heard about budget $2000- $2500 or more.</p>
<p>But my point is that $4000 of work/study - when you are going to have to work summer to make that amount, is way worse than $1800 work/study (assuming remaining need covered with grants/schols/etc), because almost EVERY school expects a “student summer contribution from earnings” - and that is ABOVE AND BEYOND the Work/Study amount allocated.</p>
<p>Is that true? It may be, I have no idea. I’ve only seen a few FA packages, and not all of them have had both W/S and summer contribution…some have had only w/s. Is it more typical of privates to include both? </p>
<p>For students that don’t have a stated summer contribution (or at least a smallish one), then having a larger w/s amount and earning some of w/s in the summer would be a good idea so that EFC is less affected.</p>
<p>I’m sick of schools requiring an on-campus interview for merit scholarships.
First, if the schools aren’t nearby, this requires travel, which is expensive. Way to exclude the ones who could really use a major scholarship there.
Second, these dates are all on the same couple of weekends</p>
<p>I don’t like these situations, either. It’s a cheap way for a school to get a lot of top students on their campuses at one time in order to put on the “big sell”. It’s one thing if they promised that everyone who attends will get at least X amount, but might get more as a result of the competition.</p>
<p>BTW…if merit is desired, then it’s better to include a few schools with ASSURED merit for stats, so that all your merit schools aren’t competitive.</p>
<p>young friend recently was offered interview for selective 5 year BS/MS program. School does not pay for interview. Friend buys ticket, which is (non-refundable, due to lack of airline competition and out-of-way location. Friend gets FA email this AM. Gapped beyond belief. School is now off the table because the parents just can’t do it. Friend is out the $$ for the ticket.</p>
<p>Your friend should at least go, then if selected, the friend would be in a better position to request more aid. How much is the family’s EFC and how much is the gap in aid?</p>
<p>Just be aware that subsidized Staffords and Perkins have a higher interest rate ultimately. My daughter had both subsidized and unsubsidized loans for grad school, and the subsidized loan is 6.5% while the unsubsidized was 2.something%. There’s no free lunch, it seems.</p>
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Actually ALL universities/colleges have an expected student summer earnings contribution - except some well-heeled colleges reduce or eliminate it for very-low-income kids, because the thought is that those students may need to contribute their earnings to their families. And college/universities DON’T break this student amount out on the Financial aid forms - it is included in the “Expected Family Contribution” - that’s the contribution from parent assets and earnings and student assets and earnings.
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<p>Because that makes an assumption about what people outside the student’s immediate family will be willing to pay on that student’s behalf?</p>
<p>Actually ALL universities/colleges have an expected student summer earnings contribution - except some well-heeled colleges reduce or eliminate it for very-low-income kids, because the thought is that those students may need to contribute their earnings to their families. And college/universities DON’T break this student amount out on the Financial aid forms - it is included in the “Expected Family Contribution” - that’s the contribution from parent assets and earnings and student assets and earnings.</p>
<p>Ahh… so if the parents choose to pay the entire EFC, then theoretically, the student could begin the W/S in the summer.</p>
<p>If you work at a work-study job in the summer then that meets the “requirement” of expected summer earnings of the school.
It is just that when you file the fafsa again those earnings are not held against you.
Keep in mind - the sole purpose of the EFC is to determine need for elibibility for federal grants and loans.</p>
<p>m3ck - a rising freshman may work a job that is work-study the summer prior to freshman year. </p>
<p>Over the course of a year, working in the summer and part time work during school (10 hours or so a week) $4000 is not difficult to earn at all.
Some kids I know even work TWO jobs in the summer.</p>
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<p>Sounds like your D graduated before 2008? The feds have changed this in recent years and the unsub rate is now fixed at 6.8%. Perkins is at 5% (but sounds like it will no longer be a subsidized loan) and the subsidized Stafford rate is 4.5% for 10/11, 3.4% for 11/12, then is set to go back up to 6.8% for 12/13. Of course, new legislation could change that at any time. But, for now, subsidized is the better deal…though still not “free” money!</p>
<p>Not much of a whiner, having been through this 3x before, but I’ll take some cheesecake!</p>
<p>I do have a complaint…why do people’s eyes glaze over when I mention S might just go to State U. here in town? It’s affordable, great in his field (engineering) and for him, as a NMF, it would be well-nigh FREE. If I said he was considering a similar school in another state, people would be all kinds of impressed.</p>
<p>That’s why so many kids go away to school…the hometown school don’t get no respect.</p>
<p>Like the guy said…“Show me the money!” :D</p>
<p>Middle daughter had a $4000 workstudy figure included in her aid package every year. Since her workstudy wage was low $6.50-7.00 her freshman year, it was difficult to earn all $4K. However as stated by another poster she was able to locate better positions that paid MUCH better after she had been on campus a semester or two. Since her school has a medical school/ teaching hospital she was able to land research/administrative position that qualified for work study that now also looks great on her resume.</p>
<p>Son’s work study component was smaller but grew larger each year. However, his school will replace work study earnings with his outside scholarships. Since his school is no loans to begin with his outside scholarships replaced his work workstudy and HIS expected summer contribution. Work study wage for him started at $13 per hour, big difference from sis. </p>
<p>All the schools he applied to included an expected summer contribution BUT they varied greatly. The lowest was Univ of Penn with a $50 expectation and went up from there to the highest of $3500. Workstudy also varied from $750 (Amherst) to $0 from Colby. His matriculated school will waive half the summer contribution if traveling, studying or doing research during the summer and then will apply outside scholarships to the remainder, or allow extra work study.</p>
<p>There were many schools that offered “preferential” packaging, revealing stipends for research, travel abroad, laptops, again varying greatly. Only by having numerous packages was he able to obtain a real view of the financial aid landscape.</p>
<p>With 5 kiddos having attended community colleges, OOS publics, in-state publics, LACs, and elite privates and applying to 10X what they matriculated to is how we as family have seen so much over the last 8 years. Having at least 1 college for those 8 years the individual packages themselves have also changed. </p>
<p>Now they get to figure out grad school finances. As hard as it was uprooting them all 6 years ago and moving 3000 miles to the other coast, they are all now very thankful I picked the state I did! I moved solely for that very reason…As a single mom it was not an easy move but when one of them “discovered” last week that our state has the least expensive med school ($9K per year and the other is about $2K more) they again reminded me what a great move we made. Not just for undergrad opportunities but grad school and beyond. The in-state tuition here is like a HUGE merit scholarship (16 campuses to pick from- low cost-of-living as well), multiple times 5 kiddos and it is fantastic. We made our own financial aid!!!</p>
<p>And I do love the sweet tea!</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Ok, let’s get back to whining… :)</p>
<p>Bless your heart, that was southern whining!</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Kat…what state are you in? I thought med school in Alabama was cheap, but yours beats my state.</p>
<p>My whine: as young parents, we assumed that college would be affordable. H and I never considered privates for ourselves, but so many around us send kids to private colleges that we began to assume that they, too, might be affordable for people like us. But for many today, public unis are only possible with loans, and the economy is so poor that people can’t count on steady jobs to pay those loans back. The game has changed a lot for parents of college-aged kids. Most of us are downwardly mobile now.</p>
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<p>Righto. And when we shop for a car we have the cash to buy it in hand, having saved (say) the $30,000 for a decade or so. That’s about the cost of one year of tuition and board at many in-state flagships!</p>
<p>Mom2collegekids: NC</p>
<p>^waving to fellow Carolinian. NC has great in state schools with fairly low in state tuition. Figures that my youngest does not want to go to a school in-state! She has been accepted to NC State as her safety school. Luckily she is a very smart cookie and is getting merit aid from her top choice.</p>
<p>Now for my whine - why does the FAFSA ask for all your assets but does not ask for all your liabilities? You may make x amount of dollars and have x amount in a retirement plan, but if you are living paycheck to paycheck, there’s no way that is reflected in the FAFSA. I just don’t feel that the FAFSA is a true reflection of a familiy’s ability to pay for college.</p>
<p>^^^
re the FAFSA…that was exactly my point on an other thread in the fin aid board…the FAFSA does not look at the whole equation
which then makes a lot of errors/assumptions about a family’s liabilities and cash flow </p>
<p>just my $.001 ((:o))</p>
<p>I don’t think liabilities should anything to do with FA except for rare circumstances like extraordinary medical bills. </p>
<p>Can you imagine how many people would be on government assistance (welfare) if debt and liabilities were all taken into account? FA is really just another form of welfare. It makes it easier sometimes to think of it that way because most people would not want people on welfare with vast assets and would not want a huge mortgage on a lavish home to result in becoming eligible for welfare. Why is accepting and desiring financial aid so much more socially acceptable than accepting other government assistance?</p>