Our family has also been disappointed with USC financial aid. Our FAFSA expected family contribution (EFC) was just under $20K, but mysteriously after filling out the additional CSS form we were told that we would have to pay $38K, nearly twice as much.
My son is very sad, and we felt mislead by the USC comments online that “We work with families to meet the full demonstrated need for students who satisfy all deadline and eligibility requirements.”
“Full demonstrated need” using CSS, not FAFSA - USC could consider clarifying that statement.
Do you have a large amount of home equity? Was that the issue?
@ProspeParent and Tookybird,
Our award from USC was also the worst of 6 schools. Only other one was BC, which we gave up on our award, they took so long asking for so many more documents and schedules and returns, that my son had made a decision to go somewhere else where he got a wonderful merit scholarship.
But, my son’s USC award was even worse. EFC was 17,000, 2 kids in college, and USC came back with a cost of $42,000, so we were really out of whack. Guess it was home equity?The other 5 schools were all under $30k COA.
And you aren’t alone with your small business, if you have an S or C corp, that small company profit will kill you. My boss got hammered with a $55,000 EFC. Ridiculous. It’s like colleges don’t understand tax practices at all, and they have reputable business schools where they should know better.
OP seems to be low income as the EFC is very low and she would be Pell Grant eligible. I have seen very generous packages for Pell grant students from USC.
@maggpie, I think these schools understand tax practices quite well; it’s really a function of having too little funds available to meet the true need of their accepted students. Therefore, in order to be able to say they meet “full need,” they must adopt a ridiculously narrow definition of “need” that is nowhere near what most reasonable people would adopt.
I can only assume that these types of schools claim to meet full need under these extremely narrow definitions because it somehow elevates them reputationally to be able to say they “meet full need.” It puts them on the same level of generosity as the top tier schools in the eyes of John Q Public who has not actually gone through the process of applying for aid. But, can’t get blood from a stone. If the Trojan Family truly wants to bill itself as a top tier school in terms of aid, its alumni need to cough up some contributions. Until that happens, I believe the FA office is doing the best it can with what it has. Really shouldn’t be calling itself a “full need met” school, though.
Good observation. I’m still puzzled by the fact that 4 other private schools gave us $12-15,000 more per year. SC was totally the outlier.
Anytime you see a college that says, “We meet full need,” you need to tag on the rest of the sentence, “and we (the college) define what your need is using our own formulas.”