<p>Back in freshman year, my friend told me that since my family income is low I would be able to receive a lot of financial aid and I would be able to go to any school that I wanted.</p>
<p>I believed her and I applied to a whole bunch of out of state schools, while not giving any attention to my in-state school applications. I figured it wouldn't matter if I didn't get accepted to my in-state schools because I would receive enough money to go out of state. Now I'm starting to believe that was a really stupid idea.</p>
<p>These are my family's basic stats:</p>
<p>4 members
only 1 child in college
income is around 40,000
U.S. permanent resident</p>
<p>I know the best way to tell if I would be able to afford college out of state is to fill out a FAFSA and figure out the EFC. </p>
<p>I tried to figure out my EFC really quickly, just by using the income, number of family members and it came out to be 1,500. Although it might not be very accurate.</p>
<p>Is it possible to tell if I would be able to afford going to school out of state just by looking at my family's basic stats? Would I be able to receive financial aid?</p>
<p>The EFC does not mean that is all you will pay. It is just a number used to calculate your need and your eligibility for certain federal aid. It does not mean your full need will be met.</p>
<p>Really it depends on the school and it’s aid policies. You will be able to receive some financial aid. However it is unlikely your full need will be met unless you applied to schools that promise to meet full need. Most do not. If you applied to mostly OOS public universities then it is very unlikely your need will be met. Many public universities cannot meet full need even for their instate students. Many of them have little institutional aid (their own money) and the main source of aid is federal aid, and sometimes some state aid (which is generally reserved or instate students). Federal aid is very limited and will not pay the full cost of most 4 year public colleges for instate students, let alone OOS students. </p>
<p>The major federal grant is the Pell grant. The maximum Pell grant 2009-2010 was $5350. To get the maximum would require an EFC of 0. With an EFC of 1500 you would have received about $3850 in Pell. Another federal grant is the ACG which is $750 for a freshman (requires Pell eligibility and some academic criteria). The other federal grant, the SEOG, is harder to get and is often only awarded to students with 0 EFCs. Outside of federal grants there is work study (maximum varies from school to school - the average numbers I hear are $3400-$4500). Then there are loans - the main federal student loan is the Stafford ($5500 maximum for a freshman). There is also a loan called the Perkins. It is fairly hard to get.</p>
<p>Other than the above you would be relying on the school for aid from their own funds. it is quite unusual for schools to give very generous need based aid from their own funds to OOS students. You would probably need a large merit award (based on your stats rather than financing) to make it affordable. My daughter has a 0 EFC and her full need is met at her Instate university, but only because she has an excellent merit based scholarship that considerably reduces her ‘need’.</p>
<p>You should definitely try to apply to some financial safeties (such as your State Universities) so that you do not find yourself without affordable options come decision time.</p>
<p>It would totally depend on what schools you are talking about. If you mean top private colleges that meet 100% of need and you have the stats for them, yes, they should be affordable with your family’s income if there is not a lot of home equity or other assets.</p>
<p>If you mean out of state publics and privates that don’t guarantee to meet 100% of need, that’s a whole different story. Your friend gave you dangerously wrong advice.</p>
<p>Give us your schools and we can be of more help.</p>
<p>OP–a couple of things are not 100% clear from your post. Perhaps I’m just reading too much between the lines. Did you actually apply to your state schools? If not, you need to do so ASAP. Also, until you actually fill out the FAFSA and send it to your schools, they won’t be able to give you an accurate financial aid package. Again, do so ASAP. </p>
<p>Maybe you have done these things or know this. Feel free to call it advice from a CC user that has seen too many posts by students that didn’t know these things or were stuck trying to come up with money for a school they could not afford.</p>
<p>With a $1500 EFC, you would not get the full Pell grant. Many schools give FSEOG and Perkins loans to students with the lowest EFC’s so you may not get those either. If you go to school OOS, you will likely forgo whatever state grants you might be eligible for.</p>
<p>The above posters are right…you should definitely apply to one or more instate publics ASAP. And file your FAFSA this week if you can!</p>
<p>You need to apply to some state schools ASAP! Hopefully it’s not too late.</p>
<p>Out of state publics won’t give an OOS student the aid they need. If you applied and get accepted to some elite schools, then you’ll get the aid you’ll need. However, most schools (public and private) do not have the money to give low income students a free ride to college. (If that were true, every poor person with decent grades would be in college!)</p>
<p>What are your stats?</p>
<p>I see you applied to Lehigh and Tufts…where else did you apply?</p>
<p>FYI…don’t get college advice from young friends. They might have good intentions, but their info is often not accurate.</p>
<p>“Back in freshman year, my friend told me that since my family income is low I would be able to receive a lot of financial aid and I would be able to go to any school that I wanted.”</p>
<p>Your well-meaning friend gave incorrect advice that if you followed it may leave you with no college to attend next fall.</p>
<p>Most colleges can not meet the full need of all students. The students who are least likely to have their full need met are the poorest. Many colleges also will reject students who have very high need.</p>
<p>With the exception of UNC, UVA and perhaps William and Mary, no public universities guarantee to meet the full need of accepted out of state students. Very few publics can even meet the full need of in-state students. Typically, publics meet about 60-70% of students’ need and the need is met by large loans.</p>
<p>The few colleges that are able to meet the full need of all applicants and to do so without giving large loans are places like Harvard, Stanford, Amherst that are the most competitive colleges to gain admission to. Harvard, for instance, has about 30,000 applicants for 2,000 spaces. </p>
<p>Most students go to college within 250 miles of their home. Most students who come from low income backgrounds start college by commuting to a 2-year public university. They finish college by transferring to an in-state 4-year public.</p>
<p>I strongly suggest that if you haven’t yet done this, you apply immediately to in-state publics – including those in commuting distance. The limited amount of aid that such schools provide goes on a first come, first served basis. The dreadful economy is causing many more students to apply to and attend in-state public universities, many of which are rolling admissions, and their admissions standards increase as their classes fill up. If you haven’t applied to your in-state publics, you need to do so immediately.</p>
<p>thank you for all of your replies. Although it is disappointing to hear because I really wanted to go to an out of state school.</p>
<p>I did apply to some in-state schools, the problem is I didn’t really care about the applications because I thought I would be able to afford going out of state.</p>
<p>I know the best way to tell would be to fill out a FAFSA, but if it is possible can someone estimate what I would need to pay if I went to a school with these stats:</p>
<p>Out of state tuition: 25,000
Room and board: 10,000</p>
<p>Some Out of states I’m applying to are University of Washington, Penn State, University of Minnesota, UPitt, Ohio State, SUNY Binghamton, University at Buffalo, since all the tuition rates are different I kind of picked like an average.</p>
<p>My stats:
3.9 (and a couple of other numbers after that) unweighted GPA
5.0472 weighted GPA</p>
<p>1370/1600 SAT
2080/2400</p>
<p>My family stats (as mentioned above)</p>
<p>40,000 income
4 family members
Only 1 in college
EFC ranges from 1500-2000</p>
<p>so with that, could anyone guess (maybe from experience) what I might be expected to pay? Thanks for all your help!</p>
<p>And I will definitely be filling out a FAFSA and applying to more instate schools</p>
<p>40,000 income
4 family members
Only 1 in college
EFC ranges from 1500-2000</p>
<p>*Out of state tuition: 25,000
Room and board: 10,000</p>
<p>Some Out of states I’m applying to are University of Washington, Penn State, University of Minnesota, UPitt, Ohio State, SUNY Binghamton, University at Buffalo, since all the tuition rates are different I kind of picked like an average.*</p>
<p>You’re averaging the COAs for OOS publics at about $35k</p>
<p>Are you the “one” in college? </p>
<p>The only aid you’d get from this OOS publics is limited federal aid. It’s very likely that you’d be expected to pay/borrow for about 75% of that $35k - so you’d be expected to pay for at least $25k per year. Others might suggest differently.</p>
<p>When dealing with most OOS publics, FAFSA is really only useful to find out if you qualify for any federal grants and such. Your EFC at an OOS public is almost meaningless except for that. It won’t tell you what you’ll be responsible for.</p>
<p>What in-state publics did you apply to?</p>
<p>What OOS privates did you apply to beside Lehigh and Tufts?</p>
<p>I hope you tell your friend how wrong he/she was.</p>
<p>Filling out FAFSA will not help in understanding what you’ll be getting. FAFSA will only tell you how much Pell Grant money you’ll qualify for (and that you’ll get a subsidized loan)–but since the max is just over $5K, that’s a drop in the bucket for these schools.</p>
<p>Some may give you some merit money but the bottom line, unfortunately, is you will probably will not be able to afford these schools unless your parents are great savers and can pay a lot more than their $1500 EFC. State schools save most of their money for in state students and all are now seeking full pay OOS students to bolster their budgets.</p>
<p>SUNY Binghamton doesn’t give merit scholarships to freshman, afaik. SUNY Buffalo - you will likely get very good aid here, significant merit money (in relation to cost, that is) up to full tuition, and they are more likely to find you FSEOG, Perkins and work study funds. I believe the SUNY costs for OOS are still very reasonable and well under $35K/year, so this may be an affordable OOS option for you.</p>
<p>I applied to University of Central Florida and University of Florida. I’m planning on applying to FSU also. </p>
<p>The problem is that if I were to stay in Florida, I would want to go to UF. But because I was planning on going to an OOS school, I screwed up my UF application and now I doubt they’re going to offer admission to me.</p>
<p>The OOS private schools I applied/am applying to are: Lehigh, Tufts, Union, Goucher, Allegheny, University of Miami, Northeastern, and I don’t think I’ll be admitted to Lehigh or Tufts.</p>
<p>The 25,000 that I might be expected to pay if I were to go OOS, is that including loans and scholarships from the school?</p>
<p>I go to Northeastern and i can tell you that they do not have 100% met need. They can get pretty close to it and with your stats you might be able to pull a merit scholarship. What are your SAT stats?</p>
<p>Most of the recent post are correct. As one who have a efc of 0 myself I know typically out of state publics will give larger loans than in-state. I’am in a horrible situation myself, although all the schools I’ve applied to are great there is no financial safety. I myself only applied to one in-state public school.</p>
<p>*The 25,000 that I might be expected to pay if I were to go OOS, is that including loans and scholarships from the school? *</p>
<p>Which OOS publics do you think that you might get merit scholarships from? And, for what amounts? I don’t think Penn St gives OOS merit. If UWash does, it would be very minimal. </p>
<p>Remember, no bank is going to let a young student borrow $25k per year in loans. You’d need a co-signer and since your family is low income, they wouldn’t likely qualify.</p>
<p>*But because I was planning on going to an OOS school, I screwed up my UF application and now I doubt they’re going to offer admission to me.
*</p>
<p>I agree with all of the earlier posters who say that you will not be able to afford the public out of state schools that you applied to. Mom2 is also correct in saying that it will probably cost you about 25K out of pocket - that will be after any Stafford loans and Pell Grants are applied.</p>
<p>On a positive note, some of the private schools you applied to meet a decent AVERAGE percent of need. Tufts (100%), Leihigh (96% - but high average debt upon graduation - 31K), Allegheny (95%) Union (are you talking about the one in Schenectady??? if so, 99%)U miami meets about 86% and Goucher about 81% - both are probably not high enough. Northeastern is a very low percentage.</p>
<p>Remember, these are averages. Students with EFC’s in the 40K area can get 100% of need met with work study and loans, and they are included in the average. SO a student with a low EFC may get a much lower percentage of need met. However, I think you may have a shot at being able to afford four of those schools, if you work full time over the summer and part time during the school year. </p>
<p>DOn’t forget that some of these are profile schools and you need to fill out the CSS profile, which asks for additional financial information, and how the private schools use this info to determine your need is different from the FAFSA. For example, if your parents have a lot of equity in their home it will raise your institutional EFC, and could vary widely from each school. </p>
<p>WIth the exception of TUFTS, your stats are above the 75th percentile for all the private schools you applied to. Some schools may give you preferential packaging. Hopefully you get accepted to all the privates you applied to, and get some nice aid.</p>
<p>I don’t want you to get your hopes up too high, but I also don’t want you to feel totally depressed for the next five months… FYI, even most of us with higher EFCs had to wait until the final packages came in before our kids could make a decision on where to go. Out of eight acceptances, my son was down to two schools that he was able to pick from based on finances.</p>
<p>Union, Goucher, or Allegheny might be quite generous with your stats. I have seen generous packages from those places for students with lower stats than yours. Wait and see–and save money!</p>
<p>"I applied to University of Central Florida and University of Florida. I’m planning on applying to FSU also. </p>
<p>The problem is that if I were to stay in Florida, I would want to go to UF. But because I was planning on going to an OOS school, I screwed up my UF application and now I doubt they’re going to offer admission to me."</p>
<p>You need to apply ASAP because admissions standards rise as those rolling admission schools fill up. Aid also is on a first come, first served basis.</p>
<p>Do apply for Bright Futures. You may qualify for major help with your tuition. Don’t take even your GC’s word that you don’t qualify. Take the time to fill out the info. You may find out later that you qualify.</p>
<p>Well I basically screwed up my UF application by not writing the essays and short responses well enough. I wrote my essay literally 30 minutes before the deadline. And my short responses have some grammatical errors, and I unintentionally sounded a bit arrogant. So I think I reduced my chances of being admitted.</p>
<p>And I have a couple of more questions about the financial aid for OOS. My parents don’t have any money saved up for my college, because we had some situations in the past that prevented us from saving up.</p>
<p>I know it all depends on the circumstances, but, from your own experiences in paying for college, is it POSSIBLE that I could afford going OOS if I participate in the work-study program, work during summers, and find part-time jobs, if my family would be able to pay about 10,000 a year?</p>