<p>i am sick of hearing about people who ruined their lives by taking about $50k loans every year...why do so many people refuse to apply for financial aid? doesn't doing nothing hurt the most?</p>
<p>schools give out loans and call that financial aid too.</p>
<p>Because they go to schools that they cannot afford. If you can get into a school that costs $50k, you can generally get into a good school that will give you merit aid so that you don’t need $50k to attend.</p>
<p>Where have ou heard about people refusing to appl? Most paing full price at schools that meet 100% of need simply don’t qualify. Not to mention that most schools don’t meet need, so even if you qualify you won’t get the money.</p>
<p>Seems that most people DO apply for aid, and most get aid. I’d argue that most don’t pay full sticker price.</p>
<p>Here’s a sampling of the financial aid stats from a selection of well known colleges, public and private. Two of these are FAFSA-only schools.</p>
<p>Harvard
Financial Aid Statistics</p>
<pre><code>* Full-time freshman enrollment: 1,652
-
Number who applied for need-based aid: 1,146
-
Number who were judged to have need: 999
-
Number who were offered aid: 999
-
Number who had full need met: 999
-
Average percent of need met: 100%
-
Average financial aid package: $40,533
-
Average need-based loan: $2,510
-
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $39,164
</code></pre>
<p>Stanford
Financial Aid Statistics</p>
<pre><code>* Full-time freshman enrollment: 1,723
-
Number who applied for need-based aid: 1,020
-
Number who were judged to have need: 761
-
Number who were offered aid: 756
-
Number who had full need met: 574
-
Average percent of need met: 100%
-
Average financial aid package: $34,221
-
Average need-based loan: $2,401
-
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $31,794
</code></pre>
<p>UC Berkeley
Financial Aid Statistics</p>
<pre><code>* Full-time freshman enrollment: 4,204
-
Number who applied for need-based aid: 3,229
-
Number who were judged to have need: 2,115
-
Number who were offered aid: 2,042
-
Number who had full need met: 964
-
Average percent of need met: 88%
-
Average financial aid package: $17,823
-
Average need-based loan: $5,241
-
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $13,495
</code></pre>
<p>Wellesley
Financial Aid Statistics</p>
<pre><code>* Full-time freshman enrollment: 596
-
Number who applied for need-based aid: 423
-
Number who were judged to have need: 344
-
Number who were offered aid: 344
-
Number who had full need met: 344
-
Average percent of need met: 100%
-
Average financial aid package: $35,289
-
Average need-based loan: $2,417
-
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $34,528
</code></pre>
<p>Willamette
Financial Aid Statistics</p>
<pre><code>* Full-time freshman enrollment: 482
-
Number who applied for need-based aid: 371
-
Number who were judged to have need: 278
-
Number who were offered aid: 278
-
Number who had full need met: 69
-
Average percent of need met: 93%
-
Average financial aid package: $27,374
-
Average need-based loan: $4,430
-
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $21,412
</code></pre>
<p>In nearly every case, most of the admitted applicants also applied for financial aid. And in most cases, most of the incoming freshmen received financial aid.</p>
<p>With the average family income around 50K, most families are eligible for aid, and most apply for it.</p>
<p>In some higher-priced areas of the country, living a middle-class life means that the wages are higher–but so are the expenses. The FAFSA does not adjust for these factors. There are a lot of people who do not qualify for financial aid that aren’t doing anything fancy. And you can find that out by plugging a few numbers into the FAFSA forecaster.</p>
<p>Yeah. It’s expensive to live expensively in “higher-priced areas of the country.”</p>
<p>Many people have also actually saved up for their kids’ educations.</p>
<p>True, that won’t make their loans equal $50k, and they won’t necessarily be “ruining their lives”, but these people don’t apply for FA because much of the money is already saved.</p>
<p>I also agree w/ Endicott & sblake7. When you live in the high-rent district, it’s a whole new ball game.</p>
<p>I know several people among the 25-40% who do not apply for aid at all. It’s generally because they have enough money to pay for their child’s education in full. Among my friends, these funds have usually come from a “windfall” - sale of a business/home, inheritance, or insurance settlement - and have been reserved for this purpose. They also don’t want their child to borrow money and don’t care to share their private financial information with the schools when they don’t need the help. Often the cost was already reduced by a merit award that doesn’t require FAFSA, so they actually are receiving some aid.</p>
<p>Not to mention the fact that $5500 (max.) in FA loans IF YOU’RE ELIGIBLE doesn’t make much of a dent in $50k…some folks prefer not to trade their privacy for a LOAN that represents 10% of the cost (when they can access their own loans : ) Those would be the same folks who don’t qualify for up to $5300 GRANT. They’d be able to determine this without filing FAFSA.</p>
<p>2 out of 5 Harvard, 3 out of 5 Stanford students pay full? Lots of families are paying full in those so-call best FA schools.</p>
<p>The reason they can afford the good aid is because they have a history of serving the wealthy who in turn donate money. All of these schools need to maintain a good number of wealthy students to continue the flow of money.</p>
<p>^^ True true</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Looking at the FA statistics of several schools at the collegeboard.com, more than half seem to be paying full sticker prices. </p>
<p>And “Number who were offered aid” is shown about a half of “Full-time freshman enrollment” for lots of schools. </p>
<p>Does most pay full or get aids?</p>
<p>Endicott is right. In some parts of the country (Long Island, parts of CA) the cost of living is much, much higher than other places. Where we live the AVERAGE home price is over $400K. We live here because it’s where my husband’s job brought us. Our incomes are higher, but we’re living a regular middle class life on that income. For example, a life that costs $50K a year in St. Louis, costs $85K a year here. Housing is 200% higher! So just because our income is higher, and the value of our home is more, doesn’t mean we’re actually wealthy. The financial aid packages are ALL disappointing and no one wants to hear about regional COL.</p>
<p>Ran the FinAid calc on our income we live in one of those higher COL areas, then reran the SAME numbers in a lower cost state, </p>
<p>Living in NY the EFC is an average of 5K less than a lower cost state.</p>
<p>Ran the same income in
OK
KY
Colorado
NJ
CT
California</p>
<p>We have a lower EFC living here, so albeit a smaller EFC living here, paying higher overall costs to live here, our EFC is about 5K lower based on $$$ to $$$ comparison, so it appears they do make adjustments based on where you live. </p>
<p>So if ones income is not geographically altered, your only overall benefit living somewhere else is housing cost is lower.
A ford focus costs the same in NY as it would in Ky.</p>
<p>I really don’t think many people actually pay the full price.</p>
<p>samiamy, the EFC difference is attributed to state tax rates. The formula uses the rate for each state: <a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/111408EFCFormulaGuide0910.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/111408EFCFormulaGuide0910.pdf</a>. Page 17 of the pdf.</p>
<p>Kelsmom - Are there any tables for how states arrive at their efc number?</p>