<br>
<blockquote> <p>Ironically, the FAFSA only schools are the ones that gave the least aid.>></p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Not ironic at all. FAFSA only schools tend to have less institutional money to award, and rely mostly on federal aid and limited institutional aid.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Northwestern was disappointing. Their expected contribution is higher than my parents annual wages...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Is it possible that this because of large parent assets including something like a second home/property or significant equity in your home, significant assets in your name?</p>
<p>washu only gave my friend 7000 in loans</p>
<p>Loyola U in Chicago</p>
<p>COA: 39500
EFC: 3750
Scholarships/Grants: 16000
Loans: 10500</p>
<p>
[quote]
COA: 39500
EFC: 3750
Scholarships/Grants: 16000
Loans: 10500
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Very clear. Thanks.</p>
<p>Macalester, Carleton and University of Chicago all gave us financial aid offers within a couple thousand dollars of each other and very close to our EFC. WashU wants us to pay about $10,000 more than our EFC. We'll ask WashU to review the numbers, but we have shifted our focus away from WashU due to the figures we were sent.</p>
<p>University of Illinois at Urbana--there's was HORRENDOUS. I got no merit aid whatsoever</p>
<p>Federal Work Study $3,000.00
Fed Direct Parent PLUS $29,146.00
Fed Direct Loan Subsidized $3,500.00
Univ. Loan-Pennell, Carter $2,000.00
OSFA Non-Resident T/W $1,552.00</p>
<p>I don't know why I got a Non-Resident Tuition Waver because I'm an American citizen. But yeah, they basically wanted me to take out 40k a year in loans.</p>
<p>I was devasted when Brown offered me $398.32.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Kenyon's total award was OK, but the merit aid effectively reducing need based aid dollar for dollar angered us, so they will get rejected.
[/quote]
Treeman, that's how the system works! The schools give you aid to meet your need. If they have given you merit aid already, then you have LESS need. Except for some very few state schools that offer full-rides plus books, etc for NM scholars, schools don't give you more money than the formulas say you "need" (and many of them give you less!). Maybe now that you understand that this is how almost ALL the schools package aid, you will stop being angered and start being grateful that they are offering you any money at all! :)</p>
<p>Ohio State.</p>
<p>supposed to be my financial safety (in state). EFC of about 6000</p>
<p>Merit = 2.4 k
Loan = 3.5 k</p>
<p>They didnt even come close with loans. What a joke.</p>
<p>Tokenadult,what are you doing with the data you're collecting?</p>
<p>I applied to case western because i read that they are extremely generous with need based aid.</p>
<p>Case COE 50000</p>
<p>My EFC is 2000
Case scholarship 22000
case grant (including fafsa + work study) 8000
Total loan amount 18000</p>
<p>18K in loans! </p>
<p>I got better packages with less than $5000 in loans from Carleton, Brandeis, and even Boston university!</p>
<p>UIUC horribly sucked but that was expected.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I don't know why I got a Non-Resident Tuition Waver because I'm an American citizen. But yeah, they basically wanted me to take out 40k a year in loans.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Your being a citizen has nothing to do with why you got a non-resident tuition waiver. You go a non-tuition resident waiver because you are *not a resident of Illinois *</p>
<p>I hate to say this but I am just going to put it out there. From most of the posts that I am reading (especially from students) it seems that many people who posted do not have a basic understanding of financial aid.</p>
<p>The FAFSA does not award you money. The only thing it does is determine your eligibility for federal aid.</p>
<p>It is highly unlikely that you are going to get generous FA from a public state university especially if you are not a resident of that state.</p>
<p>Schools that use th e CSS profile will give you a different EFC than a school that only looks at information collected from the FAFSA. If you apply to a CSS profile, yes, your stepparents income, the investment property with the big mortgage that makes no return on the investment are all counted in calculating your EFC. </p>
<p>Most colleges are not going to cover your EFC (expected FAMILY CONTRIBUTION)</p>
<p>Yes, loans are considered FA and from the school's perspective they can give you loans and still have met your need.</p>
<p>International students are not eligible for federal aid, which is the main reason that most schools are not need blind to international students and your ability to pay is a factor in the admission process.</p>
<p>Cost of attendance - EFC = Demonstated need</p>
<p>Your demonstrated need will be met through a combination of :</p>
<p>Federal grant aid (if you are pell eligible)
Stafford loans (subsidized/unsubsidized)
State aid (if you qualify and the college is in the state where you are a resident
Perkins loans (if you qualify)
work study (federal work study if you qualify, employment if you are not eligible for federal work study funds)
merit money (if the school gives merit $ and you meet that school's threshold for merit money)
Institutional grant aid (schools with deeper pockets have more grant aid to give) </p>
<p>If the cost of attendance is 48,000 and your EFC is 45,000 it is very likely that you will get a unsub stafford loan of 3500 and the school will have met 100% of your demonstrated need.</p>
<p>the overwhelming majority of schools in the country do not meet 100% of your demonstrated need they gap. If there is a gap, you and your family must fill the gap the best way you can.</p>
<p>Yes, there is going to be a major disconnect between what they give you as an EFC and what you think you can afford to (or want to pay).</p>
<p>Finally, colleges don't meet your EFC (this is what you are expected to pay).</p>
<p>No matter how "independent" a student thinks they are and they do not need their parent's help, college is a family decision and families should run the ##s together. </p>
<p>On the parent's forum there is a thread *101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before the College Search *</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>If there is a gap, you and your family must fill the gap the best way you can.>></p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>I'll take this comment about the "gap" one step further. Your FAMILY must decide whether they will pay the gap...or not.</p>
<p>thumper1 - I guess I assumed that the FAFSA only schools might give more because I am divorced and therefore the Profile schools are capturing four incomes in making their determinations while the FAFSA schools are only using two. Obviously I was wrong about that, but that's where the statement came from.</p>
<p>University of Delaware- $5,000 per year. I'm glad they offered me something, but of course, when the whole package will still cost in excess of $25,000 when you figure other expenses in, it's not a terribly realistic option.</p>
<p>University of Maryland- Zip. Nil. Just a $3500 loan. Given my stats (3.95 UW GPA, 4th in class), I'd have figured they'd have given me at least some merit money to try to get me to come, but apparently they don't want me bad enough...</p>
<p>Sybbie, I can't speak for anyone else, but for myself, I knew all the things that you posted. </p>
<p>My dismay comes from the gap between aid and demonstrated need. And yes, I knew there WAS a gap, but until we get the aid letters, it's hard to know how big the gap is going to be. I am disappointed because for me, I'm getting the most aid this year (since this year I have three in college), so I'm looking at the numbers and thinking, whoa, if this is what it looks like now, next year is going to be much worse... </p>
<p>From the posts i've seen, it appears that many parents are in the same boat of being disappointed with the size of the gap. And forewarned is Not forearmed in this situation because we all (of course) hope that our situation will warrant a little more. I think that's just human nature. I haven't found the aid calculators to be all that useful, so I've just sat back and waited to see what is going to happen for MY child, in MY situation.</p>
<p>Also, I've seen a bunch of posts saying (I paraphrase) that parents are all whining that their EFC is too high. Again, speaking only for myself, I was VERY happy with the EFC. I would be thrilled to pay the amount of the EFC and be done with it. I would be thrilled to pay a little more than that. I'm not thrilled to be paying three times the EFC.</p>
<p>And of course, the first aid letter is the worst. After that initial disappointment I'm looking at the reality of our situation and we'll sit down and crunch numbers and get it figured out.</p>
<p>I've also seen posts saying if you don't have enough money to get into the 'top tier' schools, apply to your state school. But as Thumper pointed out, they usually give the least amount of aid. So for people who have high EFC's and won't be getting much money anyway, it may be true that shelling out 80k for four years at the state school is better than shelling out 200k for four years at the private school, but for people whose EFC is lower, they may do better at the wealthier private schools. And even high EFC people might do better if their child gets merit aid. But all of those things are <em>mostly</em> unknowns until you actually go through the process. You can make projections, but until the letters are in your hands, you're not sure.</p>
<p>So I expect that if you went back ten years, you'd see the exact same postings every March/April. Some people who are thrilled with their aid packages, lots of people who are disappointed, some who are completely in the dark, and some who are angry. But mostly people who are disappointed, because they've DONE the reading, worked on spreadsheets, etc, and still found that the system didn't give them what they were HOPING for. And maybe the hope is unrealistic, but I think the process is a lot more complicated than just having a basic understanding of how financial aid works.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I'm afraid so. Maybe the biggest basis for disappointment about financial aid is unrealistic expectations. </p>
<p>I was asked what I'm going to do with the data I'm collecting, and actually I'm not collecting data. I forget the specific figures as soon as I see them. What I'm wondering about is whether there are certain colleges that are reputed to be generous with either </p>
<p>a) need-based financial aid </p>
<p>or </p>
<p>b) "merit" scholarships </p>
<p>that still leave admitted applicants with substantial out of pocket expense (beyond "expected family contribution" by either of the two general methodologies), contrary to that reputation. If I get a sense that a particular college usually leaves admitted applicants holding the bag, I'll look for other colleges to encourage my class of 2010 son and other young people I know to apply to. Most people I know in my town have incomes just a bit above the national median household income, so list price at a nationally famous college is out of the question, but reasonable financial aid should help some of the young people I know through my math coaching have more choices when it's time to apply to college. </p>
<p>By the way, I recommend that participants new to this thread take a look at many of sybbie719's previous posts in this financial aid and scholarships forum </p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/search.php?searchid=10778342%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/search.php?searchid=10778342</a> </p>
<p>because those posts have good information and clear explanations of what is less than obvious about how financial aid works these days.</p>
<p>goonymom, I wonder what it will look like in ten years? Are people going to be gapped significantly more? Are sticker prices going to be 60k, 70k/year? The costs are more than straining families now! Will we have some government relief? Obama has introduced some ideas. I believe that they are a drop in the bucket. Will they just enable schools to just charge that much more?</p>
<p>Northeastmom, who knows? I have a friend with an EFC of 60k who has told her daughter that all the debt should be in the daughters name because maybe there will be changes in the laws that will forgive some of that debt, and of course there are a few programs presently that will forgive debt.... she's hoping for change in the federal aid. I wonder though, with her income, if increased federal help would help her anyway.</p>
<p>Of course, if schools think that most parents will be able to come up with XX dollars on top of XX federal money, they will increase their tuitions to maximize their returns. Colleges ARE businesses after all, right? </p>
<p>I see in college some of what I see in health care, which is that in a bid to attract students (patients) a lot of institutions are building gorgeous plants. Which increases costs, and really has no bearing on the quality of education (patient care). Of course there is some benefit to having a great science or athletic center (state-of-the art operating arena), but there is really no educational benefit to having huge student apartments (three-story atriums with waterfalls).</p>
<p>My fear is that 'the american dream' of kids going to college is going to become out of reach for lower and middle income families.</p>
<p>I heard a couple of really interesting stories on NPR, one about the GI bill and how much it brought into the economy back when it started (not the stripped-down version of today). The other was about the drag on the economy from student debt, that recent college grads are moving back home and aren't buying cars, homes, etc, because they are starting out with so much debt.</p>