<p>Wait…you aren’t guaranteed a dime if federal aid even IF you pay your EFC…except for the Direct Loan. </p>
<p>The EFC should be viewed as the minimum you will be expected to pay for college. </p>
<p>These types of threads actually bother me a bit. As noted, the OP has benefited from living where he lives, in the home he resides in, in the town he resides in, and at his school. These benefits are something the OP should be grateful for. He is very fortunate to be able to love where he lives.</p>
<p>Any family can make the choice to live in less expensive places, in less wealthy towns, in smaller homes, etc. would the OP have preferred this lifestyle? Would his family? </p>
<p>The reality is that the FAFSA formula is heavily weighted towards income, regardless of where you live. There will be some consideration as your income taxes, property taxes and the like are more than in the average home (and yes your $800,000 home is WELL above the average).</p>
<p>It’s pretty normal to raise your hackles when you feel threatened. But think about this for a minute. What assumptions are you making? That those of us in low COL have it easy? I don’t know when you consider the income might be half what yours is. Many goods and services cost the same regardless of where you live. That assumption is just as insulting. </p>
<p>What people are trying to point out is that federal aid is for the low income, and you are not low income, regardless of the COL in your area. Those excellent ranked schools in good neighborhoods, house with a yard close enough to the metro not to need a car, etc. are luxuries that the low income could never hope to attain. Federal grant money is for those students. Are they somehow more deserving? No, but we’ve been at this long enough to know that an educated workforce benefits everyone, and so we’ve put our money into a program that we hope helps the public good. If it makes you feel any better, federal grants are small. “Poor” kids aren’t paying for NYU on the taxpayer dime. And private schools? Well, they can do whatever they want with their own money; they make choices about how it’s spent, just like you and your family make choices about how your money is spent. </p>
<p>Lots of us can whine and moan about the variable college tuition pricing. Here’s an extreme (and probably ridiculous) example they gave at a talk at my daughter’s high school that shows the absurdity of the financial aid process. Three families with identical 60k incomes each receive a $400,000 inheritance. Family 1 - puts the money in savings. Family 2 - pays cash for a house. Family 3 - buys a 400k Lamboghini. Two years later, each family has a kid with identical stats who applies to the same college. Who has the lowest net tuition? Family 3. Who has the highest? Family 1. </p>
<p>@Kosovania - It’s probably best if you stop looking for fairness in the financial aid formula. Like life in general, the fairness isn’t there. It’s best if you can accept that you’re not going to get enough financial aid to cover your costs and move on by looking at all your options for minimizing debt. </p>
<p>Yes, but which family is going to have the kid on here whining about how his parents can’t afford that tuition because the FA formulas aren’t fair? Family 3. </p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I sympathize. Until you live in one of these areas (and I have) you can’t understand the tradeoffs between decent schools, halfway decent commutes, taxes, you name it…and just how much everything costs. A friend sold his two-bedroom very very modest bungalow in Berkeley…and not even the good part of that town but the sketchy part…for $800,000 (not a typo) and he had multiple bids on the house (he had listed it at $780,000)…now he’s renting because he can’t find a place he can afford. </p>
<p>If it makes you feel any better, some Profile colleges will ask about cars the family owns . . . and good luck pretending that Lamborghini isn’t worth anything!</p>
<p>No, there’s some baloney in saying the Lambo family gets more. Could be for a Fafsa-only school- but how many really have that much money to give out? The right choice would be put it into retirement, which isn’t considered. Savings = assets on hand. Some Profile colleges do consider home value as a tappable resource (regardless whether it’s negative) and certainly cars, let alone a pricey import. Some of this is FA 101. </p>
<p>I just wanted to say that I, again, don’t live a lavish lifestyle as some others on this tread may think. I feel like I live a normal middle class lifestyle, except that I live in an expensive area. Just a small old house with bedrooms so small I have to live in the basement. Half of my house is outdated without any reno.
I wouldn’t even label my family as upper middle class because we can’t afford most normal amenities.
No car. Never had a car, my parents never bothered to learn how to drive.
Yes I received merit aid and that will help me with college, but I would still have most likely 70-80 thousand in loans for an undergraduate degree, even for instate tuition. </p>
<p>I was just wondering that people in the same situation, which seems like a large amount of people across the United States on how they afford college. What if the person has average grades? Like if the person had a 3.4-3.6 gpa and average test scores, and they had the similar situation as me? They probably won’t receive any fin aid, and not enough merit to cover college tuition. I would feel like it’s unfair to that person. I have high enough scores and gpa to give me enough aid for some lesser known private colleges, but public schools I don’t receive any merit, so I would still have to pay 80k in loans for four years, to just experience a normal college experience. </p>
<p>^ You need to understand FAFSA just tells the gov’t whether you qualify for a Pell Grant. You don’t, nor would you in another location. The way people around the country afford school is to go in-state, look for merit aid, or start at a CC. And the “normal college experience” is to start at a CC and move to a four year after that while working. It’s just not the “ideal college experience” which students expect.</p>
<p>And here’s the rest of the story: all three kids applied to NYU. Cost per year for Kid 1 and Kid 2: $45,000. Cost per year for Kid 3: $35,000. Which kid can actually afford to go to NYU? Just Kid 1. </p>
<p>If you’re relying on a low EFC from FAFSA to pay for college, you’ll most likely be disappointed.</p>
<p>OP, students like you describe–and those with higher stats and thinner wallets–start out at community college and then transfer to four year schools to finish. I agree that it’s frustrating, but at the end of four years they’ll have a bachelor’s degree without massive debt.</p>
<p>As a new poster, you’ve probably missed all the prior discussions on what people do when they can’t afford college costs. Watch out for some entitlement thinking- anywhere in the VA-DC-MD area, the reality is that you’re not that far from people with small bedrooms, lousy housing, public transpo, all sorts of issues. Heck, I graduated from one of the primo hs in that area and you should see their reports on SES today. D1’s bff went to a hs not far from TJ and kids there endured a world of difference, despite lots of high property values. </p>
<p>It should be clear by now that many people, from all walks of life, regardless of where they live, and no matter whether they are living in a hut or a McMansion, are struggling with the cost of college. Everyone is facing the same question of whether it is worth taking on enormous amounts of debt in order to finance college. </p>
<p>I don’t spend time at all thinking about the fact that my kids are not eligible for Pell Grants, etc. What good would that do anyway? In some ways, I am glad that they are not, because I did grow up in a poor enough family to qualify for a Pell Grant, so it is some evidence that I have been able to achieve a little bit of success from one generation to another that my kids don’t qualify. Of course, the trouble is that the cost of college has grown exponentially since I went to college. A Pell grant in my day actually made a difference. These days, not so much. I was able to work enough during high school and then in college to pay my way through, no school loans needed. My kids could do this, too, by sticking with living at home and going to the in-state public university (they would have to commute.) The actual tuition of a Florida public is still pretty reasonable (its the room and board that will send the budget into shock.)</p>
<p>Very few in my socioeconomic community went away to school for the residential college experience. They lived at home, commuted to the local university, earned their degrees, got jobs, are living happy lives (until they realize how much more difficult it is going to be to pay for their own kids’ college.)</p>
<p>I am no Suze Orman, and you weren’t asking about advice for your parents, but if they had any opportunity and desire to leave the DC-VA-MD area, I would tell them to sell that house (I hear it’s one of the hottest markets up there), bank the proceeds, and find a cheaper place to live as soon as they can. </p>
<p>The speaker was only correct for fafsa-only colleges. But then most fafsa-only colleges don’t meet full financial need.</p>
<p>For most CSS Profile colleges, 1 & 2 would be the same, since cash and home equity count as an asset. But note, some Profile colleges also ask for auto values, so that Lambo might get figured in as well.</p>
<p>I appreciate your situation and I have to tell you most graduating students (and their parents) are in a similar situation learning alot about finances, life, and fairness in a very short period of time!</p>
<p>One thing that wasn’t mentioned in this thread or many other threads like this I have read is the fact that paying a mortgage is not an expense like food, transportation, etc, but is actually an investment where you are building up equity in the property. The money doesn’t disappear, but it is going into the home. The $3500 a month might feel like an expense when your parents write the check, but it is payment on a loan that was made so your parents can own the $800,000 home! At the end of their loan, they will have an asset worth $800,000 plus appreciation (hopefully!). </p>
<p>So how is this really different than putting $3500 a month in a bank account for 20 or 30 years? Why should the average price of a 1800 square ft home in an area affect the amount of income a college should consider for financial aid? That home you describe sounds a lot like the home I own - modest, good neighborhood, schools etc, but in my area that home is worth about $150,000. I pay nothing close to $3500 a month towards the mortgage,but at the end of my loan, I will have an asset only worth $150,000 plus appreciation (hopefully!). The rest of the $3500 a month I could put into a bank account. Assuming your home appreciation and my home appreciation and bank account gains are the same, I would also end up with $800,000. So why should you get more aid than my kid? I understand this is a gross simplification ignoring property taxes, tax rates, deductions, maintanence cost etc, but you should get the idea.</p>
<p>This is really an issue of not having liquid assets available to pay the college bill and having to tap into other less liquid assets (the property). It is similar to the problem small business owners have when applying for financial aid - they have assets, but they are all tied up in the business and hard to liquidate. While I sympathize, why should my kids be penalized because I invested in ExxonMobil stock instead of my own small business?</p>
<p>This is why using income without consideration towards home values is actually fairer. </p>
<p>For the sake of the discussion lets say something happened and your families income dropped by $30,000 a year. Would you become homeless and starve? Or, would your family adjust and maybe move and cut expenses? </p>
<p>If your family makes $150,000 a year and you cannot afford college then it is because your parents spent the money they should have been saving for your education. If they had saved 5% of that income over the last 18 years then college would be paid for. This is water under the bridge now and you need to move past it and make your own plans now. </p>
<p>If your parents are not willing to lower thier lifestyle you will be paying for college yourself. Look at community colleges you can attend while living at home. Financial aid is meant to help people who lack options. Not people who did not to plan. </p>
<p>And remember, for many kids, the quality of the hs is what preps them to succeed at a variety of colleges. Maybe this was the right choice for your family, a great educational experience for you. But it just comes at a cost- both today and in what you can afford for college. </p>