FAFSA - Expected Family Contribution Question

[druidia]

The loans that are awarded aren't part of your debt; Stafford loans belong to the student applying for aid, so it is their debt, not yours.

If you apply for PLUS loans, those are parental loans. Both Stafford and PLUS loans have an annual cap on the amount they award depending upon the year of college the student is in.

I don't believe they work like conventional loans. As long as you've never defaulted on an educational loan, you are eligible (with a few exceptions...I think felony drug convictons keep you from getting aid).

 

[Serena]

It's simple, they just rob you. They don't even use a gun.

 

[Pugrpooh]

I filled our FAFSA out last week. I thought that with my second daughter entering college in the fall, our EFC would drop quite a bit. But it only went down a couple of thousand dollars. At least she'll be going to a public university and tuition will be about 1/3 of the other DD's.

 

[grinningghost]

I am sorry, but no Sorta like Uncle Sam, taking out all those deductions out of your paycheck they don't care!

Grinningghost, have you thought about selling a kidney?

No - but thanks for the idea!

 

[froglady]

It's not true that you have to do the FAFSA to get any type of scholarship. I've never done a FAFSA, and my son had an academic scholarship for four years.

Same here; DD had an academic scholarship for all four years (and was offered the same amount at another college). HOWEVER, many colleges will not give ANY sort of academic scholarship unless there is financial need, and there is no way we would have qualified.

As one admissions officer stated, ALL of our applicants qualify for any academic scholarship given based solely on academics, so we only give them to the truly needy whose parents have no other financial resources. This was restated (but not as definitively) at most of the colleges we visited.

So, my children would not qualify as financially needy, and they both have college funds so we don't NEED to borrow money. Filling out the forms (in my case) would have been just a waste of time. We were willing and able to send DD to any college that accepted her, and she wished to attend. The fact that she got a scholarship just left more money in her fund to help her pay for graduate school, if she desires, or to provide us with a little vacation fund someday, if she doesn't use it within the next 10 years.

 

[delilah]

My parents refused to complete the FAFSA for me while I was in medical school. Their justification was that I was an adult. However, because of that, I could only get high interest loans, 12% interest rate or higher. It didn't matter that my husband and I were poor as church mice, and my parents had no more money than we did. I wasn't asking them to pay for my tuition or anything else. I made it all the way through undergrad, grad and medical school with no financial contribution from my parents. Now, I am 50 years old, and still owe more than the original face value due to compounding interest at the high rate of the original loan. These high interest loans also needed to be paid back as soon as I graduated, unlike the HEAL loans, which I didn't start to pay back until after residency. My interest rate were so high, that the last year of medical school, I just charge tuition on my visa--it was cheaper that way.

 

[trip]

I filled our FAFSA out last week. I thought that with my second daughter entering college in the fall, our EFC would drop quite a bit. But it only went down a couple of thousand dollars. At least she'll be going to a public university and tuition will be about 1/3 of the other DD's.

Did you have a change in income? Your EFC is set and then divided between eligible students. Example -- if your EFC is $15000 and have one college student, that is what you "could" pay toward cost of education. If you have two in college - you "could" pay 7500 for each.

 

[poohandwendy]

Just finished the FAFSA - I was shocked at what our EFC is!

Will I have to rob a bank to finance my DD's education? Or is it possible that will change?

I guess it's possible that you will rob a bank, but I'd be shocked. You just don't seem like the type. But hey, did it say how much bail money you could afford to pay?

Ours is the same way. They think we are made of money.

 

[BethR]

Did you have a change in income? Your EFC is set and then divided between eligible students. Example -- if your EFC is $15000 and have one college student, that is what you "could" pay toward cost of education. If you have two in college - you "could" pay 7500 for each.

That's what I thought too. At least that is the way that it was when both of our DDs where in school in 2001-2005.

 

[Snowysmom]

Many colleges want you to fill out the FAFSA even for merit based scholarships. We did not get any financial aid for older DS at a public university but he was awarded a small merit based scholarship for his last year and a FAFSA had to be filed for it. So even if you think you won't qualify for aid, it is a good idea to fill out a FAFSA because you never know. Next year we will have younger DS in undergrad and older DS in medical school (hopefully.) Our EFC went down a little, not much. Plus, older DS will have to take out loans and hopefully get some grants because we will be helping younger DS with undergrad just like we helped older DS in undergrad. We will have nothing left for older DS. Colleges think we are ATM's just for their use. Some colleges will take into account how much your mortgage payment is but they do not care what your other debt is such as cars or credit cards. Isn't financial aid fun?

 

[DancinDaisyDuck]

I would advise against taking out private loans. The interest rates are sky high, not capped, and it's difficult to find consolodation for them. I know the FAFSFA seems daunting or superfluous, but if you are expecting to receive any financial aid at all, just fill it out. The fin aid offices uses your EFC to award institutional aid (like private scholarships or merit-based aid), campus based aid (like Federal Work Study, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants and Perkins Loans), and Stafford and Parent PLUS loans. Don't be too hasty and think the EFC your FAFSFA gives you is what you're going to have to pay.

The problem with federal and state financial aid programs is that there's just not enough money budgeted to go around. Tuition prices have increased faster than the rate of inflation, which has caused loan ammounts to increase. Programs like the Pell grant have decreased in purchasing power as well, for example, in the early 1980's at least 75% of tuition would have been covered by a Pell Grant, and now a student is lucky if a Pell award buys their books.

Think of it this way: higher education is an investment in the future. Although the return on investment is slow, people with associates and baccelaureate degrees make significantly more money than those who don't, college educated people tend to live longer, have healthier kids, and are more civic minded. There actually is research out there to support this: Check out some articles written by Perna, Dee, and Bowen to see what I mean.

The long and short of it is simply this. Fill out the FAFSFA. What's it going to hurt?

 

[arminnie]

The aid office has the ability and means to make some adjustments if they feel it is necessary.

A friend of mine got $10,000 more in aid (not loans) for her son after she visited with the office at Harvard.

I have no idea how much he is getting total, but she did tell me that it was so worth it to go discuss the situation in person.