<p>I got a loverly $80,000 in loan over the course of 4 years from UT Austin with ZERO scholarships or grants…</p>
<p>Are you OOS? If so, that would be the reason.</p>
<p>Keilaxandra</p>
<p>If only we could spend our money on vacations. COL here is very expensive (Our property tax alone is over 7000k–on a modest, older home worth <200k)–we drive 10 year old cars, don’t take many nice vacations , but we are still paying off loans from our graduate school and while we COULD probably pay that, it would be about half my take home pay and that’s a lot when I have another son to start college in 4 years.</p>
<p>While it might be standard, it doesn’t mean it is reasonable. When I went to college tuition and living expenses were less than 15k (at MOST). Now they are close to 4x that. My income isn’t THAT much higher than that of my parents.</p>
<p>Many, many studies have shown that college expenses are simply getting out of reach for middle class families.</p>
<p>kelsmom, so then schools are sending in inaccurate numbers to the Dept. of Education? Hard for me to believe, but WOW, just WOW!</p>
<p>mit gave me an unsub loan and thats it…</p>
<p>Well, I wouldn’t swear to it that the school sent in false info - but the Dept. of Ed. doesn’t monitor those things, which means that they are reported to them. I assume the schools reports them. I can’t figure out how else DOE would get the info.</p>
<p>Jamiecakes, I sympathize, but calling college tuition unreasonable is nothing new. Saying that middle-class families can’t afford (private) colleges is nothing new. Life is unreasonable and unfair. As you said, you COULD pay your EFC, it would just be tight. I’m lucky to be the eldest with one little sister coming 11 years after, so siblings aren’t a huge issue. </p>
<p>Talk to cptofthehouse about being a middle-class full-pay. It’s possible. But it’s also reasonable to limit your S based on finances, although it would have been better to have had that conversation before applications.</p>
<p>Kelsmom is probably right. I’m not complaining about the FA, just sharing info. We were advised early on that the Profile may make a difference–as she said–in our family situation. We were disappointed, but anticipated the worst and had Plan B. We’re satisfied with that. Just didn’t work out at NU, but I’m sure it does for many. </p>
<p>The whole process has been a real learning experience!</p>
<p>UT Austin gave me $42000 in loans and a $1500 grant for the first year. Then again, I’m OOS. I think that’s the only school which has given me the information so far.</p>
<p>1tgmom, the Profile can be a real killer in some situations (and helpful in others). I guess that NU may very well be correct in stating that they meet 100% need - it’s just that the Profile need can be so much different than the FAFSA need, and it’s hard to swallow at times.</p>
<p>Disasterpiece02, your situation is not uncommon for OOS. My S, a high school junior, is planning on pharmD. Purdue has a good program, so I checked out their handy-dandy financial aid calculator. He <em>might</em> get a $10,000 merit scholarship (depending on whether or not he can pull his gpa up with the current term’s grades) - but the rest (or all, maybe) would be on us. Needless to say, he won’t even bother applying. Reality won’t change, no matter how much we might hope it will.</p>
<p>Berkeley. My need is ~28 grand, basically the cost of attendance, and they’re giving me 20 grand in grants/scholarships. 8 grand in loans sounds good, but I researched them and in the long run, it’s gonna be a LOT of money, probably over 45 grand in debt for four years. Did I mention my family of five’s only source of income is my mom’s 15 grand a year? Ack, I love Berkeley but it’s sucking right now.</p>
<p>Arduous,</p>
<p>That is a good FA package. My son is at Berkeley and he makes approx $10K/year by working 8 - 12 hours per week during the school year and fulltime over the summer. It is totally doable.</p>
<p>I was thinking the same thing as FresnoMom - that is as good as it gets at Berkeley financial-aid-wise. You can graduate debt-free if you work summer and 10 or so hours a week during school.</p>
<p>I was thinking about doing that (I have no problem with working), but wouldn’t Berkeley deduct from my grants because I have an income?</p>
<p>I’m very interested to hear reples, arduous. It seems to me that any source of income is factored in, and you simply can’t win because they’ll cut your grants for making anything.</p>
<p>Drexel suggested I take out at least 32k in loans with a pell eligible EFC.</p>
<p>arduouspallor, are you sure you don’t have a Federal work/study award as part of your package? And there is an income allowance that is not assesed by financial aid.</p>
<p>Arduous</p>
<p>Didn’t Cal include work study as part of your financial aid package?</p>
<p>Yes, but the work-study was for only 1,500ish. Does that mean anything I make over that gets taken away from my grants? I called the financial aid office about that, but they said each situation was different.</p>
<p>alamemom, is there any way to find out what that allowance is?</p>
<p>Thank you alamemom and FresnoMom for your help!</p>
<p>Rice and Duke. i cannot afford either of them, which is a HUGE disappointment for me. i could have worked 1/4th as hard as i did throughout high school and still be in the same position of being forced to attend a state school.</p>
<p>Work/study isn’t assesed for financial aid at all. I am not sure about the allowance (I have a vaugue memory that it was about $3,500) - you might try starting a thread on this forum to ask because there are some wonderful financial aid experts here.</p>
<p>You also might ask the fin aid office if another $1,000 to $1,500 could be converted from your federal loans to work/study. Most students can handle up to about ten hours/week of work while attending.</p>