FAFSA changes coming...

[MrsPete]

My daughter‘s rent is $10,000 a year, 6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, room/board is almost $15,000, lowest meal plan is over $6000 a year (She was in a forced triple freshman year, no dressers because they wouldn’t fit).

That's outrageous! I just checked current costs at the university from which my daughters both graduated:

The dorm my daughter lived in is currently $2748/semester and her meal plan is currently $1124/semester ... so $7744/school year for room and board. Nice and neat, just one bill.

The apartment she lived in later is $1175/month. That's a 2 bedroom /1 bath shared with a roommate. So rent alone was $7050/girl for 12 month time period. PLUS deposit, credit check fee, electrical, internet, water, garbage, and mandatory renter's insurance. And, of course, groceries and transportation to campus. It was a nice-sized apartment.

I also checked the current cost of the apartment complex where my older daughter lived. She lived in a 2 bedroom /2 bathroom with a roommate. Rent is now $1170/month, meaning that rent'd be $7020/girl for a 12-month time period. PLUS a $300 non-refundable deposit every year, which the residents refer to as the FU Fee. But this one is a better deal because it is all-inclusive: no additional costs for electrical, etc. But it was a tiny place -- could only fit a twin bed in the bedroom, and the living room had only a love seat + one chair. No dining table.

I do recognize that this isn't an apples-to-apples comparison. The dorm was more convenient to classes and campus activities and had a laundry room in the basement. The apartment was quieter, provided more privacy, but required transportation to campus and didn't have laundry facilities. Pros and cons both ways.

 

[havaneselover]

That's outrageous! I just checked current costs at the university from which my daughters both graduated:

The dorm my daughter lived in is currently $2748/semester and her meal plan is currently $1124/semester ... so $7744/school year for room and board. Nice and neat, just one bill.

The apartment she lived in later is $1175/month. That's a 2 bedroom /1 bath shared with a roommate. So rent alone was $7050/girl for 12 month time period. PLUS deposit, credit check fee, electrical, internet, water, garbage, and mandatory renter's insurance. And, of course, groceries and transportation to campus. It was a nice-sized apartment.

I also checked the current cost of the apartment complex where my older daughter lived. She lived in a 2 bedroom /2 bathroom with a roommate. Rent is now $1170/month, meaning that rent'd be $7020/girl for a 12-month time period. PLUS a $300 non-refundable deposit every year. But this one is a better deal because it is all-inclusive: no additional costs for electrical, etc. But it was a tiny place -- could only fit a twin bed in the bedroom, and the living room had only a love seat + one chair. No dining table.

I do recognize that this isn't an apples-to-apples comparison. The dorm was more convenient to classes and campus activities and had a laundry room in the basement. The apartment was quieter, provided more privacy, but required transportation to campus and didn't have laundry facilities. Pros and cons both ways.

My dd is leaning toward Georgia tech. Meal plan and dorm are $12k. Same for uva. None of the schools we looked at are anywhere near $8k/year. And these are all public universities.

 

[MrsPete]

My dd is leaning toward Georgia tech. Meal plan and dorm are $12k. Same for uva. None of the schools we looked at are anywhere near $8k/year. And these are all public universities.

NC universities are (relatively) low priced. Of course, NC incomes are also low.

 

[havaneselover]

NC universities are (relatively) low priced. Of course, NC incomes are also low.

NC schools are a steal. I have a few friends whose kids got into unc in state this year (one who is going to attend an $85k private school with no aid). I’m super jealous because my in state options are so much more expensive.

 

[barkley]

i cannot believe how much the mandatory meal plans run at colleges. i was curious and just looked up one of the ones near us-for a semester which runs just shy of 15 weeks, the lowest priced plan is for 16 meals per week (full, snacks, whatever you get when you swipe your card during an individual dining commons visit) runs $3140 that kills me! i don't spend that much on 3 people eating 3 meals per day plus snacks. none of the unused meals roll over (though i imagine with many kids they have to buy more if they want at least 3 meals a day since they will be 5 meals short per week).

 

[mjkacmom]

NC universities are (relatively) low priced. Of course, NC incomes are also low.

They are low priced - if you live in NC. If you live in NJ, you are either paying $30,000 a year, or paying more to go OOS.

 

[havaneselover]

They are low priced - if you live in NC. If you live in NJ, you are either paying $30,000 a year, or paying more to go OOS.

Well in state engineering tuition and room and board at uva is $41k so I get it. Our in state options are $$$ which makes going out of state less painful. One of my friends whose dd got into unc seems to think paying full tuition there is so steep and I think she has no clue what a tremendous value it is.

 

[mefordis]

Should I fill out FAFSA even if we are paying for our daughter's tuition? We wouldn't qualify for any aide and we are not taking out loans.

 

[Donnainnj]

Should I fill out FAFSA even if we are paying for our daughter's tuition? We wouldn't qualify for any aide and we are not taking out loans.

If there is any chance of scholarships you might want to fill it out. My daughter's UFC scholarship required it.

 

[crisi]

Mine moved into an apartment this year - three sharing a two bedroom apartment. Rent is $1200 a month total. Ours has one bedroom - the other two are partners and share a room - so we pay half the rent. They pay their own heat, internet, etc. We save about $1500 a year by having the apartment. Oh, there is a washer dryer in unit - and they have GREAT storage and parking. And its a two block walk to a very small campus.

 

[ford91exploder]

Also pay attention to the completion rates at the 2 year school - and acceptance rates when moving to four year schools. That will vary a lot from school (and system) to school (and system).

The other thing is that if you are expecting a social aspect to schooling (which we definitely were - our experience is the friends we made at college age were the friends we've kept), then finding friends in your Junior year when everyone else connected as Freshman is tough. College is about so much more than just getting qualified for the job market or grad school. For both my husband and I, that was the LEAST valuable thing about our educations.

I was in electronic engineering, when I went to school that guaranteeed that you would not have a social life between the hard classes, and the labs plus the other stuff like inorganic chemistry + regular and nuclear physics as required courses. Eating was frequently optional - parties you are kidding right...

 

[crisi]

I was in electronic engineering, when I went to school that guaranteeed that you would not have a social life between the hard classes, and the labs plus the other stuff like inorganic chemistry + regular and nuclear physics as required courses. Eating was frequently optional - parties you are kidding right...

Yep. I didn't go pre-med because I took a pre-med preview my Junior year in high school. And said "nope, I do not want to be locked in a room for four years to get into med school." But those types of degrees are usually not the ideal degrees to spend two years at a Community College and transfer - you may have to apply after your Sophomore year for the program, they may not accept core courses from outside schools, and the community college may have not taught with the rigor you expect. Not that it isn't ever done successfully.

 

[ford91exploder]

Yep. I didn't go pre-med because I took a pre-med preview my Junior year in high school. And said "nope, I do not want to be locked in a room for four years to get into med school." But those types of degrees are usually not the ideal degrees to spend two years at a Community College and transfer - you may have to apply after your Sophomore year for the program, they may not accept core courses from outside schools, and the community college may have not taught with the rigor you expect. Not that it isn't ever done successfully.

In my state they are considering combining the community college and university system to correct the issues you mention.

 

[ford91exploder]

I do think a lot of people discount this. It didn't matter for our older son--he has Asperger's, plus other things, and in a room full of introverts, he'd be the most introverted. He's also on the 8-year school plan. He successfully transferred from community college to the local State U, still lives at home, he's fine.

OTOH, DD17 got accepted to the same State U. I doubt she'll go there, but we're encouraging her to try to look at it objectively, and not just "the school up the road" (which it literally is). We told her, if she chose to go there, we would pay for her to live on campus for the full immersion experience.

My wife’s parents did the same thing but in order for them to pay for each semester she needed to have a B- average or better, never hurts for kids to have skin in the game.

 

[platamama]

Does anyone have experience with a website called Edmit? I'll be filling out my first FAFSA this fall. When I do the NPC for colleges we're starting to look at, it's full pay across the board. But on Edmit, when I enter DD's stats and our income/savings, I get much lower estimate of costs. Supposedly, Edmit pulls data from various sources:

"We use a lot of different sources of data, including:

• Government data, including the College Scorecard and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which are maintained by the Department of Education, and data from the US Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Information from colleges and universities about admissions requirements, scholarships, and pricing
• Data owned by private companies or research organizations, including Peterson's (the Common Data Set), Payscale, and the Princeton Review
• Data from students themselves on what scholarships and financial aid they actually received"

I'm just confused by the big discrepancy of what we might pay.

 

[havaneselover]

Does anyone have experience with a website called Edmit? I'll be filling out my first FAFSA this fall. When I do the NPC for colleges we're starting to look at, it's full pay across the board. But on Edmit, when I enter DD's stats and our income/savings, I get much lower estimate of costs. Supposedly, Edmit pulls data from various sources:

"We use a lot of different sources of data, including:

• Government data, including the College Scorecard and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which are maintained by the Department of Education, and data from the US Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Information from colleges and universities about admissions requirements, scholarships, and pricing
• Data owned by private companies or research organizations, including Peterson's (the Common Data Set), Payscale, and the Princeton Review
• Data from students themselves on what scholarships and financial aid they actually received"

I'm just confused by the big discrepancy of what we might pay.

I just tried it for Virginia Tech where DD has her aid offer. My edstimate was $21,800. DD was offered $0 in aid and our EFC was $30,400 and our tuition, room & board, etc. was $30,200. So it's not very accurate for me.

 

[platamama]

I just tried it for Virginia Tech where DD has her aid offer. My edstimate was $21,800. DD was offered $0 in aid and our EFC was $30,400 and our tuition, room & board, etc. was $30,200. So it's not very accurate for me.

Thank you for checking, I appreciate it! I'm trying to understand what we can expect to pay, and just starting my research into it. I tried college confidential and didn't find much info there.

BTW congrats to your DD on GT! It's on our radar too, so if she ends up going there I'd love to hear what she thinks of it. I've read good things about VT too, you have good school options in VA.

 

[havaneselover]

Thank you for checking, I appreciate it! I'm trying to understand what we can expect to pay, and just starting my research into it. I tried college confidential and didn't find much info there.

BTW congrats to your DD on GT! It's on our radar too, so if she ends up going there I'd love to hear what she thinks of it. I've read good things about VT too, you have good school options in VA.

So I'm sort of a weird case because I'm divorced. And I'm confused because my college funds are for both kids but it seems like they think the funds are completely to be spent for dd (at this point this might be a non-issue because DS is so immature). Also, $2,000 of the $30,200 is an extra fee for engineering which probablly isn't figured into the edstimate. I assume it's looking at base tuition.

And thank you! We are going to look at GT next weekend. So far she seems to be leaning toward GT. I think she wants to get out of state and her dad and I told her we'd make it work. I'll keep you posted.

 

[WVMomof3]

Does anyone have experience with a website called Edmit? I'll be filling out my first FAFSA this fall. When I do the NPC for colleges we're starting to look at, it's full pay across the board. But on Edmit, when I enter DD's stats and our income/savings, I get much lower estimate of costs. Supposedly, Edmit pulls data from various sources:

"We use a lot of different sources of data, including:

• Government data, including the College Scorecard and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which are maintained by the Department of Education, and data from the US Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Information from colleges and universities about admissions requirements, scholarships, and pricing
• Data owned by private companies or research organizations, including Peterson's (the Common Data Set), Payscale, and the Princeton Review
• Data from students themselves on what scholarships and financial aid they actually received"

I'm just confused by the big discrepancy of what we might pay.

I have found the NPC to be pretty accurate. The problem I had was the NPC is really just for year 1. It is hard to estimate how much aid will change after that. One school DD1 really looked at we saw so many people on college confidential say not to expect the same amount of aid after year 1, so she eliminated that one. She ended up at a state school with scholarships. Scholarship makes it so much eaiser as you know what to expect from year to year. Other 2 go to schools that don't really have many scholarships. So far DD2's aid has been fairly consistent, won't know about DS 2nd year for a few months. I am scared what will happen to DS after he is the only one left. We will have 2 years of that, and existing students aid packages don't come out until summer each year so you have little time to prepare.

 

[QueenIsabella]

My wife’s parents did the same thing but in order for them to pay for each semester she needed to have a B- average or better, never hurts for kids to have skin in the game.

You're right, but I don't expect it to be an issue for my DD17. She just got accepted to the Honors College at the local State U, and she's a real school nerd--she's the one you go to if you need a bandaid or a pencil.