<p>I was recently accept to USC which I was very excited about Bc it is my top choice. But THEN they told me they're expecting my middle-middle class parents to pay FOURTY GRAND A YEAR. When I called the financial aid office they told me THEY TOOK MY PARENTS' GROSS INCOME INTO CONSIDERATION. Who does that? We can't evade taxes and mortgage payments. How on earth is anyone expected to oat anything with their GROSS income. I'm female, Asian, and I applied and got accepted as a Biology major with professional emphasize on premed. So anyone not living under a rock can tell getting on USC was difficult enough as it is. I did apply for the merit scholarship but was not a finalist. I did not apply for GMS Bc I thought I don't qualify for pell grants but it turns out I do...which really sucks.What am I suppose to do now? I checkedon USC's website, and as far as appeals go it is required that some dramatic change tool place to alter our income status which did not happen.My parents' gross income is only $60,000 btw. See the ridiculousness of the situation?</p>
<p>Unfortunately - what you can do now is try and appeal (which probably won’t work) and then pick a school that accepted you that you can afford (hopefully you applied to other less expensive schools). Many are in this same situation. My son applied to 11 schools. Got into all and got good scholarships at most - but we were really only left with one choice after all the packages were in. He knew this was a strong possibility when he did his applications, and fortunately, he is fine with the financial safety he was accepted to.</p>
<p>Schools do not owe anyone a reduced tuition. They certainly cannot afford to let every student pay what they can afford, or they would not be able to survive. For example, I cannot expect to purchase a Lexus with my Hyundai Elantra income.</p>
<p>Hopefully you applied to some schools that you can afford? Otherwise you may need to take a gap year and apply to schools that offer better financial aid or guaranteed merit aid that makes them affordable.</p>
<p>First of all USC does guarantee to meet full need, and if your parents’ gross income is truly $60K a year, there has to be significant assets, a business, a NCP or something else for them to be expecting them to pay $40K a year. You are PELL eligible, you say, so there is something significant that came up on the PROFILE for them to be coming up with that discrepancy in family contribution. I am assuming that you are talking about University of Southern California, here, by the way.</p>
<p>Are you a CA resident? Did you apply to the UCs and Cal State? How about sharing some of your other options with us.</p>
<p>USC is a private school so they can do anything they want with their money. Most people prefer not to be rejected, by the way, for monetary reasons, as some of them feel they just might be able to make it work out somehow even though a college won’t give them the aid they had hoped to get. You can tell a school to not bother accepting you if they can’t give you $X or just pitch the acceptance. It becomes YOUR choice, not the schools as to what to do with an unaffordable acceptance. so don’t go around shutting down other’s choices just because your feelings are hurt. </p>
<p>What is GMS?</p>
<p>Edited: USC does NOT guarantee to meet 100% of need though they come closer than most such schools in meeting it. </p>
<p>Also want to add, they use Gross Income For ALL students. It’s not like they treat individual applicants that differently. So all fin aid kids get their family GROSS INCOME examined. Why you are hung up on that , I don’t know since that’s the way it is for everyone and at all schools. If it makes you feel better, they do subtract out taxes paid.</p>
<p>As already noted, clearly there is something going on here other than simple earned income - perhaps business income or a significant asset?</p>
<p>Did you run the net price calculator for USC and, if so, how did that result compare to the offer you received? If the results were dramatically different, you can call USC and ask that they explain the difference. If you really want to understand what’s going on here, that’s what I’d suggest you do.</p>
<p>Maybe there is no mortgage on their house and that would be a big asset parents could borrow against.</p>
<p>Tell us more. Something is not right.</p>
<p>Do your parents:</p>
<p>Own a business?</p>
<p>have lots of savings?</p>
<p>owe little or nothing on their home? If so, how much equity?</p>
<p>What was your FAFSA EFC? You mention that you qualify for Pell, if so, then you’d get that after submitting FAFSA. </p>
<p>I suspect that either home equity or family business is the problem, since those two items get fully addressed using CSS Profile.</p>
<p>GMS = Gates Millenium Scholarship?</p>
<p>USC considers loans a form of financial aid, unfortunately. But a $60k gross income should not result in an EFC of $40,000. There’s something missing here. Does that gross income come from rental properties your parents own by any chance?</p>
<p>Agreed with others. There is something wrong with this file contribution if income is $60,000 AND there are not significant assets. OP, are your parents self employed? Do they have significant assets (savings, investments, real estate other than your primary residence)?</p>
<p>I see that the student mentions “mortgage payments”, so there is a mortgage on something…either the home or a business. However, somewhere the family has high assets…either equity, business or something. Or, the family owns a business and deducts a whole bunch and some of that was added back in.</p>
<p>Admit/Deny</p>
<p>I sympathize, but you have the choice of going into premed at USC. A choice most kids don’t have. Now you must chose to go or not go. If your parents can pay $20K, then through work and loans, you should be able to come up with the other $20K. If you have the stuff to be an MD. I think it would be a good investment. GL</p>
<p>I’m confused. You are eligible for pell? But you didn’t get enough financial aid? That’s strange.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Poet…</p>
<p>That happens. Pell eligibility doesn’t take into acct value of a family business or home equity. So, a person could have a restaurant that has a high value or a $500k home with no mortgage and qualify for Pell. Crazy, but true. A person could also have a very low income and then assets don’t count and have an Auto 0 EFC.</p>
<p>USC does not do admit/deny. They meet full need for all accepted students. BUT…they do use the Profile and they do look carefully at family income AND assets. </p>
<p>If this family really has a GROSS income of $60,000, they would have to have very significant assets that USC considered when they were determining the awarding of need based financial aid.</p>
<p>If the family does NOT have any assets…then there could be a mistake on the FAFSA and Profile forms. Perhaps the family listed assets under both the parent AND the student. Perhaps they added an extra zero onto the income line. </p>
<p>However, the OP needs to make sure they understand their family finances. It is VERY possible that USC’s calculations of need based aid are accurate.</p>
<p>Now, one question…qualifying for the Pell. When a student qualifies for the Pell, but doesn’t qualify for need based aid from a school like USC, it is usually because of one of two things. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>If the student’s parents are divorced and the custodial parent income is such that they would qualify for a Pell grant, the student would get this. HOWEVER, for institutional aid, the NCP income and assets would also be considered…student could end up with no need based institutional aid of the NCP is wealthy.</p></li>
<li><p>The student has very very significant equity in their primary residence which is not taken into consideration at all in the FAFSA calculations.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Soso…this student says her GROSS family income is $60,000 a year and USC expects them to pay $40,000 a year. Sorry…but there is NO WAY this family can do that. If their gross is $60k, they would be lucky to bring home $40k.</p>
<p>There’s information the OP is not telling or not aware of when she applied for financial aid.</p>
<p>I find it very difficult to believe that her EFC is $40,000 when the family gross income is $60,000 and does not have any other assets.</p>
<p>Also, taxes are subtracted from gross income to get the income that both FAFSA and PROFILE use. Also no mention of Cal grants and UCs or Cal states. Wonder if they are not an option for the OP.</p>
<p>The OP would only qualify for the Calgrant if she is a CA resident who graduated from a CA high school. Is the OP from CA?</p>
<p>The story has more holes than Swiss cheese.</p>
<p>There is definitely something missing from this story. We have an income around $60K and our EFC was never more than $8K (lower when we had two in college). My son applied to a few top “no merit” privates and never had an expected contribution higher than 25% of that the OP is reporting.</p>