<p>If they have committed to the equivalent of 2 years (40000 plus), it sounds like UVa could be doable with a combination of their help, your working summers and possibly during the school year as well if necessary, your savings,reasonable loans,etc. What is your EFC?</p>
<p>32,000. It’s artificially high, 32k is 75% of what my parents have saved, total.</p>
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<p>??/</p>
<p>Is $32k 75% of your parents entire savings? or how much they have saved for you?</p>
<p>Do you have any younger siblings? If so, when will they be going to college?</p>
<p>are you saying that your parents have actually said that they will pay for 2 entire years at UVA? So is that about $40k? About $10k per year?</p>
<p>I don’t see where you’re going to get the rest. Ask your parents if they’ll co-sign loans for the rest. If they say, NO, then it could be case closed and UVA won’t be an option.</p>
<p>I think she may be saying the EFC is 32,000 in response to my question but not sure? so UVa should be possible if the family works together on this (as 32,000 is well above the instate cost of UVa). Is 32,000 the EFC or the savings? Most/many families don’t just use savings to fund college-they also use current earnings, summer work, loans,etc.</p>
<p>32000 is 75% of what my parents have saved specifically for my college. The total is approximately 45000, I don’t know the precise amont.
They are willing to consign loans, which I will be responsible for repaying.
I have one younger sister, she will be entering her freshman year of college when I am a senior, but there are separate savings in place for that.</p>
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<p>What is the EFC? If they have that much saved already, UVa should be doable if you pitch in. Many families don’t save much at all in advance of college so you are already in good shape if your family has that much saved for you already.</p>
<p>The EFC is 32,000</p>
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<p>If you truly hate VCU, I don’t think you should even think of going there. You will waste your time. Moreover, UVA is a great school and is definitely worth taking a loan for.</p>
<p>In state COA at UVA is approximately 24,000 this year. It will likely rise a bit each year. When you only look at the direct billable costs it is about 20,000. </p>
<p>If your parents can cover approximately 10,000 for freshman year that leaves about 10,000 to cover for your family in billable costs. You can take a 5500 loan in your name for freshman year. This leaves 4500 in billable costs to cover. This cost will go up each year, but likely remain in that ballpark. You will be able to borrow more in your name, but the cost will rise as well.</p>
<p>This does not include book money or money for personal expenses and travel. You may all decided that UVA is doable. </p>
<p>Talk figures with your family. If you live commutable distance from a CC with guaranteed admissions to UVA and really want to graduate from UVA you may decide that is the better bet. If your package at VCU is a complete full ride you may decide to go that route. You can always choose to transfer after a few years.</p>
<p>VA has many strong state universities. Are UVA and VCU the only two you applied to? Are any within commuting distance to your home?</p>
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<p>With an EFC of 32,000 , this is where the hard discussions will come in with your family. What were their intentions for funding college for you? Your EFC is well above the cost of any instate option. Were you told you could go anywhere in Virginia you were accepted to regardless of cost(that is what we told our kids and did not tell them,for instance, that they would have to pursue merit at VCU,etc.) or were you told you had to go the lowest cost Virginia school you were accepted to? Did they tell you before you applied to colleges that you would have to accept merit aid offers at lower ranked schools? You are kind of in a bind if all of this was not hashed out before you applied and you feel you have to go to the lowest priced option. VCU seems like a very nice school but if you prefer UVa, I can see where it might be difficult to give up that option. Good luck!</p>
<p>A total of somewhere around $25K of federal loans in your name over four years seems standard and expected at many good schools today; I suggest considering this $25K in loans as a given and work from there. Merit money is indeed an enticement less desirable (from your point of view) schools offer to attract top students; if there’s no other way to get your education, you accept it.</p>
<p>H1lpert…</p>
<p>What about the other Va publics? Did you apply to any of them? Would have gotten merit from VT or GMU or JMU?</p>
<p>KatMT (post 29) has sized this up pretty clearly. To attend UVa, there’s a gap of about $4500 in “billable costs” that needs to be covered from some combination of student employment, family assets, current income, or additional debt. That’s after drawing from college savings and taking the maximum in student loans ($5500-$7500/yr).</p>
<p>To me, that’s not a huge gap to traverse and might be worth it to attend one of the country’s best public universities. But every family has its own circumstances and priorities. </p>
<p>EFC is not based solely on whatever a family has managed to save for college.</p>
<p>I applied to VCU, UVA, Chapel Hill, Georgia, American, Drexel, and Penn.
The community colleges near my house are subpar. Also, my mother has made it quite clear that she wants me to have a “real” college experience - going away for four years. It’s rather contradictory, I know.
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<p>h1lbert -</p>
<p>Nationwide, more traditional-age college students live at home and commute to their colleges and universities than live on campus. This means that if you commute you will be having the “real” college experience. Sleep-away college, like sleep-away summer camp is a luxury that many of us cannot pay for.</p>
<p>While I sympathize with your mother’s desire to provide the best for her children, the hard cold fact is that for most of us, our options are controlled by affordability. Encourage your mom to take her questions about paying for your education to the Financial Aid Forum. They experts there will have information that is useful for her.</p>
<p>It doesn’t look like you applied to any schools that would have given you large merit for stats besides VCU. That was a mistake since VCU is an undesirable choice for you. Perhaps at the time you applied, you thought it was ok, but later decided against. That’s why when money is an issue, kids need to apply to 2-3 financial safeties. Otherwise they could end up feeling railroaded into a school that they don’t like.</p>
<p>The test is this…</p>
<p>If you can divide your college fund into 4 parts and take 1 part and figure out how to pay the rest for your first year, then UVA is an option.</p>
<p>What have your parents said about co-signing loans???</p>
<p>HOWEVER…if your plan is to be in denial and procrastinate by spending your savings the first 2 years and “figure the last two years out later”, we can almost be assured that you’ll be leaving UVA after soph year unless your parents figure out a way to come up with another $40k+ for you. Or maybe that is your plan. Maybe you think that if you go thru your savings and it becomes apparent that you can’t come up with $40-50k to finish the last 2 years, your parents will feel forced to pay??? If that’s what you’re thinking, that’s risky.</p>
<p>As for your mom’s insistance that you have something (sleep away college) when she’s not willing to pay for it, well, that’s just silly. She can’t insist on something that she won’t pay for. Any parent who insists on that needs to provide at least full tuition and probably housing, so that a student loan can cover meal plan, books and incidentals.</p>
<p>^^^ bad advice. Sorry. She will file a FAFSA every year. UVa wont let an Echols Scholar leave for lack of funds. And they can give her grants.</p>
<p>sovereigndebt,she has an EFC of $32,000, well above the cost of UVa instate. She has no need as far as UVa is concerned. Echols has no money attached to it so that is a nonissue. Unless her family’s finances change drastically, she will likely continue to show no need with her future FAFSA’s.</p>
<p>Sovereigndebt…</p>
<p>What is your point. No one has said that she won’t file FAFSA every year. The POINT is that her EFC is beyond COA. When UVA sees her FAFSA every year, they will see a big ole EFC.</p>
<p>Unless you can offer verifiable proof that a rising junior with an EFC of $30k+ will be given a very large grant (at least $15k per year) without any need, your advice is dangerous. what if this student took your advice and then UVA said, “sorry, but your parents have a high income and should pay, we’re not giving you $10k-15k for each of your last two years…”. </p>
<p>Are YOU going to be there two years from now writing that check if UVA doesn’t give those big grants?</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone is saying that UVA would never offer a couple thousand…but to insist that they would give enough (a LOT) so that this student won’t leave, is dangerous advice without offering any proof.</p>
<p>Sovereigndebt, My daughter was invited to be a Echols and let me assure you that UVA did not fight to get her to attend. They extend the Echols to many applicants but only looking for a percentage to accept. Colleges let top applicants go all the time because their are other top applicants to fill their spot.</p>