Very confused about financial aid

<p>ok i thought i had it down and now i just want to freakin cry. i did the fafsa very early and i got my award pacakge from university of michigan. the tuition is $18,600. the family contribution is a huge $12,000!!! holy crap i mean 12k? what are they thining???? that's insane. </p>

<p>they are "giving "me about $6,300. and i'm supposed to work for $2,500 for that during being a full tiome student and about $1,300 in fed loans and the rest a measly 1,250 is free. what am isupposed to do, i got only 2500 in scholarships. i plan on working but omg.. can any one pleass</p>

<p>please oh please explain to me the whole loan thing and how am i supposed to get more federal loans???</p>

<p><em>cries</em></p>

<p>Did the university offer your parents a plus loan? These are loans that are offer to parents with low interest rates. If that is not feasible, what about work study. With work study u are able to work on campus and normally the hours are flexible with your schedule. There are also other loans out there. The interest rate may be higher because they are not federal loans. I would suggest u call the financial aid office and see if they can direct u to some help.</p>

<p>in my post above, i mentioned i will be doing work study..but they consider that as financial aid. crap. i screwed. maybe i can just go to a community college</p>

<p>In what form is the student loan? You may be able to request that they increase your student loan to the maximum Stafford for your academic year (I assume you are a Freshman, so it would be $2625) and/or provide you a Perkins Loan (if they have any money available -- the maximum annual loan in Perkins would be $4000).</p>

<p>You should also talk to the university about your concerns. Perhaps there are special circumstances and you could appeal? Make an appointment to meet with a financial aid officer and find out if you have any other issues they might consider.</p>

<p>Additionally, you could look at parental loans (like PLUS as mentioned above). The monthly payment on a PLUS for $12K would be in the $120 a month range.</p>

<p>i want to kill myself</p>

<p>I hope you aren't serious in your last post...</p>

<p>Please don't joke about something like that. </p>

<p>If you are, please find someone to talk to, and fast. Remember that there are many people who can help you through lots of issues, so don't take this too seriously.</p>

<p>lol.. that's what i hate about type. it's just an expression of exasperation</p>

<p>Please be very careful about using that expression. It's really not something to joke about. There are kids who do kill themselves over the whole college admissions/financial aid experience. You may be joking but people have no way of knowing that.</p>

<p>Good luck to you. I think calling someone in FA and getting their advice is the best course.</p>

<p>u michigan often doesn't give great financial aid from what I have heard
what is your EFC?</p>

<p>EK,</p>

<p>$18,600 (is this based on in-state tuition plus room and board or just out of state tutition?)</p>

<p>His family contribution is $12,000 (I think that part of this family contributions includes his/her summer earning) It is not unusual for the college to ask the student to contribute between $2000 to $3000 from summer earnings toward their education. </p>

<p>2,500 I gather in workstudy
$1,300 in fed loans
1,250<br>
2500 in scholarships</p>

<p>Theappleisblue,</p>

<p>Beleive it or not, this is more doable than you think.</p>

<p>Are you working over the summer? If not you definitley should be you may have to work 2 jobs over the summer . You may have to get a job at a resutrant, busing tables picking up extra shifts, but if you really want to do it you can. At the end of the day this is an investment in you.</p>

<p>While many of us feel for you we are in the same boat. I know that EK's daughter works her but off over the summer and has done some voluntering through americorps to knock down some of the debt. My daughter is working over the summer as a camp counselor and volunteered to work early drop off for extra money.</p>

<p>In addition you can still check for outside and local scholarships to help reduce the cost.</p>

<p>I wasn't sure if his EFC was $12,000 or that was just the amount that UMich came up with.</p>

<p>Ya it is a B****. Our EFC is 1/4 of BEFORE tax income.
If we made $100,000 then $25,000 wouldn't be so bad, we would at least have plenty to live on but 1/4 of $60,000 really hurts.</p>

<p>We also use tuition management services- it is a $75 yearly fee but helps by distributing semester payments over the year to make it a little easier.</p>

<p>Theappleisblue, the UMich offer is about right. In fact you are lucky to get 100% of EFC covered as Mich does not always do that. They tend to gap even in-staters.</p>

<p>ok yea actally i'm expecting to get a pretty good job.. but we're moving in the middle of summer so that sucks</p>

<p>and i'm female by the way</p>

<p>As colleges see it, someone who makes 60k a yr, should not have waited until the student had college diploma in hand to begin saving for college costs. They feel a family should have started sooner saving to be better prepared. Fair or not, but that seems to me how they feel.</p>

<p>this won't help the original poster, but since I assume you are responding to my post since I mentioned the # $60,000, I will reply.
First- $60,000 is what we made before taxes last year, not what we have made for previous years. This included a great deal of overtime ( 3 weekends per month) and is starting to go to rebuilding accounts that were decimated during years that included labor strikes and layoffs.( not to mention stock plummeting) During those times our savings were spent, and maintenance on our house was put off.
Another factor in our high EFC is housing costs. We live in a less than 1000sqft over 100 yr old house in an area that is fairly expensive. The house despite plumbing/electrical/roof etc that is in desperate need of modernization is taxed at $400,000. Yes I think it is a bubble and will pop eventually .
FOr families who are trying to educate their kids better than they were educated, it can be very difficult, particularly in a time when so many are unemployed/underemployed, have high housing/medical/education costs. Steve Jobs recently gave a commencement speech at Stanford in which he addressed the reasons that he was forced to drop out of school- money. His blue collar family couldn't raise enough money for tuition at his private college. Interesting- Both Jobs and Gates dropped out of college.</p>

<p>
[quote]
As colleges see it, someone who makes 60k a yr, should not have waited until the student had college diploma in hand to begin saving for college costs. They feel a family should have started sooner saving to be better prepared. Fair or not, but that seems to me how they feel.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>They forgot to mention it before kids were born though. :D</p>

<p>
[quote]
Steve Jobs recently gave a commencement speech at Stanford in which he addressed the reasons that he was forced to drop out of school- money. His blue collar family couldn't raise enough money for tuition at his private college. Interesting- Both Jobs and Gates dropped out of college.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Who is Steve Jobs? What does he do? I guess he is a billionaire/millionaire?? The Olsen twins have a nice job... :(</p>

<p>Steve Jobs?
He started Apple computers ( along with Steve Wozniack) in his parents basement- he is the current CEO. Also started Pixar
Apple I was the first single circuit board computer.
Gates of course founded Microsoft ( along with Paul Allen)</p>