<p>
</p>
<p>Yeah, I can concede to that. That is questionable.</p>
<p>I wonder why the OP can’t afford more than 3k…???</p>
<p>My EFC was 40k…my parents made around 130k together in 2008…now my mom is unemployed…</p>
<p>is that an accurate EFC u think?</p>
<p>yep 40K is an accurate EFC for an income of 130K,
if mom is now in 2009 unemployed, you should contact the FA office at your school, let them know, they will “probably” want proof of the unemployment, and “may” take the unemployment into consideration and change it. FA is based on the previous years income assets/savings.</p>
<p>It is based on the previous year’s income and assets. In a way you get it back on the other end. For a student graduating college in 2013, their financial aid for their senior year will be based on income and assets from 2011. So in 2012 the parents (or the student) can earn more than previous years and it will have no effect on FA for the academic year 2012-13.</p>
<p>paying for college ONLY with current income is doable for only a few of us. I am not one of the Us. Had I not lived like a pauper for the 10+ years prior, I would be unable to pay for college.</p>
<p>I don’t think enough people grasp that concept. I realize not everyone can save money, and those are the people who are getting full pell and other federal grants, the max perkins loans, stafford loans.</p>
<p>People need to be realistic. If you know you can only pay 3K, whether your EFC is 3K or 30K, don’t apply to 50K+ schools ASSUMING the college is going to provide all the money you can’t.</p>
<p>Downsizing expectations. Had my son not gotten a scholarship from NYU, he would be at West Chester where the COA is about a 2K more than my EFC.</p>
<p>This last time around with college apps, I finally took a deep breath and made money an important issue. We specifically looked for schools where our son was likely to get a nice merit award. We did not do this with our other kids and ended up getting little or nothing even though both had some pretty good stats. You do have to search to find the schools that are likely to want your child enough to pay for him to go there, or offer a “discount”. And these days with cost going well past the $50K point at some schools, the discount has to be hefty to bring the cost down to a manageable level for most of us. A $5K award is nice but barely puts a dent on these blockbuster costs.</p>
<p>Sorry, I guess I mean they met our need…meaning they gave my son a combination of great grants, some loans and work study and then we had our contribution…always right about our EFC except one that gave us an extra 4k and one that gave my son a full ride.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the opinions. Obviously we don’t know what we are doing and have to live with it.</p>
<p>For those that think we have excess…we have two cars (dh and s share one), and one house, and no pension. DH’s heart surgery, and our health costs and continued care wiped out most of our savings, but we are rebuilding for retirement with a dwindling 401K. With only 10 years left til retirement, FASFA doesn’t take that into consideration, but thankfully DH is back at work but truthfully he feels he won’t reach that age. I should have made clearer that 3K was what we we “hoping” to contribute each year with loans to supplement the scholarships that haven’t come. Workstudy is on the college app and is a plan, but it is our flagship school, not an Ivy or MIT (his first choice that he knew would cost too much). So obviously we have made several wrong turns…not enough apps, not enough research, and too little time to correct these. Irregardless, we will figure this out somehow. So many posters have made me realized I need to just make it work somehow and how stupid we’ve been. Just hoped it would turn out differently.</p>
<p>TNMom - if your husband has a lot of medical bills make sure you tell the financial aid office about it. They may be able to make an adjustment to reflect this.</p>
<p>TNMom - you sound eerily similar to our situation, and we are in TN also. Son has just about same “stats” as yours, and we’re shocked at the lack of offers. As he says - “they’re not showin’ the love”! But is your son’s favorite school in-state? If so, you’re forgetting about the TN HOPE scholarship = that’s $5K per year right there!</p>
<p>Well, it does not sound like you cannot afford son’s #1 choice; it sounds like you were expecting some scholarships. Has he applied for summer jobs yet? My D worked for part of her senior year incl vacations and saved $3K for college; she set up an interview and has her summer job lined up for some extra money as well. </p>
<p>I also agree with the person who suggested you contact FA to let them know of the unusual circumstances re your husband’s surgery (and I hope he is doing well).</p>
<p>The bottom line is that your son sounds like a great kid and Eagle Scout is a commendable accomplishment. With some loans and some part-time work in summers, I think it will all work out. And I think your having shared this story here on CC will help a lot of folks, because, frankly, I don’t think your expectation was out of line. The only reason I knew a bit about FA was due to having a stepson older than my daughter and from reading CC.</p>
<p>I volunteer at the College Center at our local high school. The Center also puts out news letters about outside scholarships that are available for our students to apply for. Occasionally, we get a parent who is sorely disappointed that their kid struck out. Surely, their kid qualified for almost all of the scholarships listed and didn’t get any. She had stats similar to your son’s, she was on the varsity XXX team, etc.</p>
<p>We tried to explain to him that many of these scholarships have restrictive qualifications. You have to be 1/4 or more Japanese, or play a musical instrument, or want to be an engineer or teacher as a future occupation, or have a parent in the military or one that works for a certain company. </p>
<p>One of the most restrictive qualifications is “financial need”–if you have an EFC in the $30K area, it’s going to be hard to compete against someone who has an EFC of $0. </p>
<p>The kids who usually win lots of outside scholarships at our school is not the valedictorian. It’s usually some “story kid:” a kid who has experienced some daunting situation–including but not limited to poverty-- and has overcome it to succeed, a kid who has taken a leading role and spent countless hours concentrated in a specific worthy cause,etc.</p>
<p>Sorry your S hasn’t had much luck in the area of outside scholarships. Good luck in trying to make it all work. I definitely agree that you should try to get a re-assessment by the fin aid office to take into account your husband’s illness. When you have the income that would lead to a $30K EFC, it is assumed that you should have certain assets and savings that come with that income. If you don’t and have a good reason for it, that is something that the fin aid should want to know.</p>
<p>There is a myth out there that millions of dollars of scholarships are just waiting for your child. Yes, there are millions of dollars, but the qualifications for the big amounts are tough and the chances of getting them very small. Most of the local scholarships are small amounts, sometimes under $1000. Every bit helps, but it takes a lot of those little ones to make up the difference a family needs with what college costs can be these days.</p>
<p>Every bit helps, but it takes a lot of those little ones to make up the difference a family needs with what college costs can be these days.>></p>
<p>DD got enough in small scholarship money to pay for the first 1 1/2 years. She has $3500 a year after that. Most of those she got through service organizations in our small town and she got several national ones with the smaller payouts (ie Elks national). If we were where we currently live, she probably would not have gotten any - way more qualifed students than scholarships.</p>
<p>That is great, Cap. We only got one with our last son after applying to hundreds among our three kids who have gone through the college process. But it did come out to be a nice amount for him. It was doubled as they are trying to phase out and S will be the last recipient from that fund. Pure happenchance that it worked out that way, and I am thrilled. But most folks I know, and for us with the other two, the pickings were slim and none.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So why did you bother to apply? He should have picked a safety school he is willing to go to, and one that preferably, is known to be inexpensive after financial aid.</p>
<p>My son got into all but one school he applied to. However, only one of the schools he got into (the safety school) is financially feasible.</p>
<p>What happens to scholarships for students who chose not to go? Are they just pooled back into the school’s endowments or do they search out other students to give them to?</p>
<p>In most cases – at least for less than full-ride – the colleges actually award more scholarships than they expect to have to fund, because they know that the kids who get the big merit scholarships are also the most likely kids to get accepted to schools with more prestige. They’re hoping that the financial inducement causes the student and family to more seriously consider the school. I’d guess that one of D’s schools gave out 2-3 times as many Trustee’s Scholarships (half-tuition) as they really expect to need to fund - maybe more.</p>
<p>Now that is probably not so true for competitive scholarships where the student travels to the school and competes with other kids for a fixed number of really big scholarships – I think that some of those schools actually establish waiting lists, and if you don’t initially make the cut but one of kids who was awarded the scholarship declines, then it is offered to someone on the waiting list. I think U VA has these. But, this is much rarer than the kind I described above.</p>
<p>OperaDad…the school that offered the scholarship WAS the safety. The scholarship was offered based on paperwork and stats only. Once he was accepted to first choice, we visited the safety to make a decision. It was not a fit, they didn’t offer his major and that made the school not a real consideration.</p>
<p>Finding the right safety can be very challenging. It’s too late now for TNMom and her son, but for others with students who are high school juniors the trick is to find a safety that is both certain to admit the student but also that will be affordable. Sometimes “affordable” is because of merit scholarships, not just because it’s a less expensive school. I think it’s wise to have more than one where a substantial merit scholarship is likely so that once the final awards are made you can still compare where the best offer is coming from. </p>
<p>For many other students the best safety in terms of affordability is a state school (or community college) to which they can commute. Kids often say “I refuse to go there!”, but money is money and if it’s not available it’s often commute or don’t go to school at all. After slinging hash for a few months they often come to their senses.</p>
<p>My daughter who has strong stats (GPA 4.0, SAT 2150, SAT IIs 800, 790, 790, 700) went to a regional state college this year. It’s 4 blocks from home, and many of the local high school kids love to disparage it just because it’s in their own backyard. But it’s a lovely campus, she’s in the honors program, has had fantastic classes and just a generally great experience there. She does, though, want to have an away-from-home college experience, live in a dorm, etc, so next fall she’ll be transfering the honors college at Flagship State U. This first year at home, however, saved a TON of money and was a very good experience all around.</p>