High School class of 2011

[Nancy]

New York parents (are there any besides me on this thread?): Did you apply for TAP yet? Do you happen to know the income cut off, and if it goes by the number from the NYS tax return?

I haven't done it yet because I don't think she'll be going to a NY State school and my other daughter is out of state too. I did do it for the older one and she got 250.00 in TAP money going to a community college..but we waited until almost last minute to do it. Not sure what income guidelines are or if there even is any. We do not qualify for any Pell grants and almost no financial aid..so I think the the TAP is set up different. I think it is something to do sooner rather than later.

Here, I just found this on the TAP



What Determines The Amount Of The Award?
The award amount is determined by:

* Academic year in which first payment of TAP or any state award is received
* Type of post secondary institution and the tuition charge
* Combined family NYS taxable income and Federal, State or local pension income (for 2010 academic year add private pension and annuity amount excluded in 2009), if applicable.
* Financial status (dependent or independent)
* Other family members enrolled in college

 

[DisneyNutMary]

Thanks for the info Nancy. My son does not qualify for much aid because the scholarship he got covers tuition, and our EFC covers the room and board. But I was hoping for some TAP, because honestly, my EFC is way more than we can afford and still pay our mortgage, and feed our other kid.

And, lately I have come to love the people who insist on telling me that books are going to cost me $1000 a semester. Why must they tell me? Its not going to change the cost, and I need to figure out how to cover room and board brfore I panic about books

ctinct, I'm sorry you're going through so much drama with guidance. Really, this is a computerized world, it's not like they are waiting for somone to type up the info on each individual transcript.... it's all done at the touch of a button.

 

[golfgal]

Our taxes are horribly complicated, DH has a CPA and we pay someone else to do our taxes for us...worth every penny and then some.
Oh, and another thing the CSS wants to know? "How much assistance is the student going to receive from relatives?" Really? REALLY?!? I HAVE NO IDEA!
DH & DD are all for ditching it, I'm not completely convinced yet though....I hate for DD to not get accepted to a school because I wasn't willing to sit down for hours and hours and get frustrated over all these intrusive questions...hey, wait a minute, hmmm...let me think about this ...
Yeah,
*all* retirement funds,
*all* pensions,
*all* stocks,
*present market value of home* (oh that will be fun to spend time resarching...yeah sure lots of equity that we really want to tap to fund college....*not*)
*all* investments including commodities and precious metals

HEY!!! Thinking of precious metals... Maybe I'm also supposed to count up the PAWN-VALUE of my jewelry?!?, y'know, go on Pawn Stars and ask Rick or The Old Man or Big Hoss or Chumley

agnes!

If you don't know for sure that some people are going to help, that answer is none. Some kids go to college knowing that their grandparents are going to pay for college, for example, in your case, none. They don't mean the occasional $20 for beer and pizza money.

Well, *that* didn't go well. Got there, listened to one of the admission muckety-mucks give an uninspiring talk, sat in a room with no ventilation, felt like I was going to pass out, the muckety-muck (they were in charge of Admissions for a certain segment of the student population) was done after about 15 minutes, tour-guides started showing up about ten minutes later AND YET for some stupid reason all of us were supposed to wait around for over 30 minutes doing *nothing* so we could take a one-hour+ walking tour...

I don't think so.

Oh, and was finally able to find out the total cost is...had to dig for the info on the website too, wasn't divulged (of COURSE) at the muckety-muck's 'informational session' .


Ready?


$50,000+

The CSS is such a joke, we will not qualify for any need-based aid and I refuse to mortgage my & DH's so-called "golden years" just so DD can get an outrageously-expensive education.

Oh, and this is another laugher... The Muckety-Muck said their school had the only (certain type of program) in the country... Ummm, not so Sherlock. DD has already applied to and been accepted at the #1 school in that field, *and* she's already applied-to and been accepted at another school with that major/field of study *PLUS* there were several other similar programs that we know about that DD did NOT apply to. Revealing your ignorance about the competition to a new program (that your school just rolled out within the past two years) is not the way to grab my heart and pocketbook.

agnes!

The fact that the college had to hide it's costs would have been an instant no for me. Is this a "for-profit" type school or why so secretive?

Thanks for the info Nancy. My son does not qualify for much aid because the scholarship he got covers tuition, and our EFC covers the room and board. But I was hoping for some TAP, because honestly, my EFC is way more than we can afford and still pay our mortgage, and feed our other kid.

And, lately I have come to love the people who insist on telling me that books are going to cost me $1000 a semester. Why must they tell me? Its not going to change the cost, and I need to figure out how to cover room and board brfore I panic about books

ctinct, I'm sorry you're going through so much drama with guidance. Really, this is a computerized world, it's not like they are waiting for somone to type up the info on each individual transcript.... it's all done at the touch of a button.

We haven't spend $1000 for the YEAR on books. First semester DS18's books were about $350 and then we wized up. We bought every book on the list because they were "required". DS said he didn't need half of them. This semester, other than this Chinese class, he waited until classes started to buy books. He was able to borrow a couple books from friends (nice when they are freshman all taking the same classes pretty much) and only had to buy one textbook-used from Amazon. Total cost $99 for that textbook and his text and workbooks for Chinese.

 

[linnylu]

This waiting game is tough. DS is waiting on the scholarship information for his 1st choice school. He knows he can only go if he gets decent money from them. The presidential scholarship day was January 15th, but they don't send out award amounts until their whole financial aid package goes out.

We did not file the FAFSA, but a pp made me wonder about work study. I was under the impression there were income restrictions for work study- if our EFC was high, ds would not qualify for work study. Is this not the case?

DS is also waiting to find out about a special admission to his 2nd choice school. He was admitted into their pre-pharm program, but the contingent admission would move the school up on his list. They don't send out that information until March either.

 

[golfgal]

This waiting game is tough. DS is waiting on the scholarship information for his 1st choice school. He knows he can only go if he gets decent money from them. The presidential scholarship day was January 15th, but they don't send out award amounts until their whole financial aid package goes out.

We did not file the FAFSA, but a pp made me wonder about work study. I was under the impression there were income restrictions for work study- if our EFC was high, ds would not qualify for work study. Is this not the case?

DS is also waiting to find out about a special admission to his 2nd choice school. He was admitted into their pre-pharm program, but the contingent admission would move the school up on his list. They don't send out that information until March either.

Work study can only be granted through the financial aid program. Don't rely on the EFC from the FAFSA site to be your guide as to whether you will qualify or not--EVERY college has their own way to calculate and by not filing the FAFSA form you may have disqualified him from getting ANYTHING, even merit scholarships. They need that information sometimes even for merit aid. Also, if they want your son badly enough, they will come up with the money but can't do that if you don't fill out the financial aid form. Every student that fills out the form can "qualify" for an unsecured federal student loan so having access to that, even if you don't "think" you will need it is worth filling out the form.

 

[Jeafl]

This waiting game is tough. DS is waiting on the scholarship information for his 1st choice school. He knows he can only go if he gets decent money from them. The presidential scholarship day was January 15th, but they don't send out award amounts until their whole financial aid package goes out.

We did not file the FAFSA, but a pp made me wonder about work study. I was under the impression there were income restrictions for work study- if our EFC was high, ds would not qualify for work study. Is this not the case?

DS is also waiting to find out about a special admission to his 2nd choice school. He was admitted into their pre-pharm program, but the contingent admission would move the school up on his list. They don't send out that information until March either.

We are in the same position here. My son is waiting to hear from the last of the 5 schools he applied to. Of course it is his first choice school he is still waiting for.

He had to take the SAT subject tests in Chemistry and Math Level 2 just for this school. He got his results yesterday online and he did outstanding in chemistry but only slightly above average in the math one which is really worrying him. I feel so bad for him because normally he does great in math. I have no idea what happened, and neither does he.

This is all so stressful, and I just wish we would get all the financial information already so he can make his decision. I know he has time, but we all just want it finished already!

 

[golfgal]

We are in the same position here. My son is waiting to hear from the last of the 5 schools he applied to. Of course it is his first choice school he is still waiting for.

He had to take the SAT subject tests in Chemistry and Math Level 2 just for this school. He got his results yesterday online and he did outstanding in chemistry but only slightly above average in the math one which is really worrying him. I feel so bad for him because normally he does great in math. I have no idea what happened, and neither does he.

This is all so stressful, and I just wish we would get all the financial information already so he can make his decision. I know he has time, but we all just want it finished already!

That is the worst part--coupled with everyone and their brother asking, "so, were are you going to school next year" . I am not looking forward to that part of the college process with the TWINS in a couple years. One is bad enough, but still not as bad as the family of QUADS that will graduate with our twins

We are taking a road trip to visit friends from our old town and I think we will stop at a college along the way. A couple of DD's golf friends are/will be going there so I want her to look at the campus. It's a great school too.

 

[linnylu]

Work study can only be granted through the financial aid program. Don't rely on the EFC from the FAFSA site to be your guide as to whether you will qualify or not--EVERY college has their own way to calculate and by not filing the FAFSA form you may have disqualified him from getting ANYTHING, even merit scholarships. They need that information sometimes even for merit aid. Also, if they want your son badly enough, they will come up with the money but can't do that if you don't fill out the financial aid form. Every student that fills out the form can "qualify" for an unsecured federal student loan so having access to that, even if you don't "think" you will need it is worth filling out the form.

I did call to check with the school and we did not have to fill out the FAFSA for him to be awarded a merit scholarship. We decided not to file the FAFSA and hope I don't regret it. Our EFC was $60,000 (one time work bonus that hit at the totally wrong time) and the school cost was $45,000.

 

[johnsontrio]

I did call to check with the school and we did not have to fill out the FAFSA for him to be awarded a merit scholarship. We decided not to file the FAFSA and hope I don't regret it. Our EFC was $60,000 (one time work bonus that hit at the totally wrong time) and the school cost was $45,000.

The admissions officer from one of the schools DD is interested in told me that they give you an additional $500 for just filling out the FAFSA. Our EFC was 74K and she has been offered a nice merit scholarship. We will piecemeal together her first year with her merit scholarship, a portion of her Grandma's 529 money, a small award from the Archdiocese for her being active in our Parish, and we will cover the rest. We are hoping to get the yearly cost down to around what we were paying for her high school. She is working enough to earn around $500 a month so we will be expecting her to cover her spending money and those things that she wants but we don't want to pay for. I'm not sure there would be any harm in filing the FAFSA. Our school requires it in order to complete your financial offer.

 

[cruisnfamily]

Not sure about how to find the best ones, but by going to the College Board website, or collegedata site, you can input what major you're looking at, along with many other criteria, and it will give you lists of the colleges that have what you want.

Thanks! Just spent a lot of time playing around with that. Very interesting!

 

[geffric]

DS made ressie for the overnight and class visits for ILL.. i told him to make a decision by the end of the month.. i am tired of the waiting..

i also didnt do FASA since EFC was 30 grand.. should i still do it?? I am not eating cat food// or retireing poor so my kid can go to school..

 

[SydSim]

Thanks! Just spent a lot of time playing around with that. Very interesting!

My pleasure. I love how you can narrow the college down to region or the state Not that my child would adhere to any such suggestions!

 

[golfgal]

I did call to check with the school and we did not have to fill out the FAFSA for him to be awarded a merit scholarship. We decided not to file the FAFSA and hope I don't regret it. Our EFC was $60,000 (one time work bonus that hit at the totally wrong time) and the school cost was $45,000.

Which is all the more reason TO do it. You can ask for a review of your situation from the financial aid office (usually in the summer after awards have gone out) and they will look at your actual tax returns, etc. Since it was one time money, you don't really have access to that money each year and they may reconsider your award.

DS made ressie for the overnight and class visits for ILL.. i told him to make a decision by the end of the month.. i am tired of the waiting..

i also didnt do FASA since EFC was 30 grand.. should i still do it?? I am not eating cat food// or retireing poor so my kid can go to school..

No one is forcing you to pay just because you filled that out. It is what colleges use to show how much they think you can pay. Again, the EFC is NOT the number the college actually gives you on your award sheet. They all have their own formula. At the very least, you will have access to student loans (your child will) that you don't have to cosign and at a reasonable interest rate. Also, some scholarships-through the school and private sources still require the financial aid form to be filled out so if you want a shot at that money, fill it out. It doesn't hurt you in any way TO fill it out and it takes about 15 minutes over the internet.

 

[agnes!]

The FAFSA isn't the hard one, take a look at the CSS.

Seriously... !!!

I'm afraid I'm going to have to try to fill the CSS out .

Keep me in your prayers everyone, DD's one school has a CSS deadline is the 15th...I think I'm going to be sick .

Btw, the FAFSA isn't actually that bad and if it means your kid will get some college funds, then please try to do it. Think of it this way...let's say it takes you three hours to do it and your kid gets $1200 that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise? That means that you got "paid" $400 an hour to fill out that one form.

agnes!

 

[kbeverina]

DS made ressie for the overnight and class visits for ILL.. i told him to make a decision by the end of the month.. i am tired of the waiting..

i also didnt do FASA since EFC was 30 grand.. should i still do it?? I am not eating cat food// or retireing poor so my kid can go to school..

I think I'm the only one who won't let my kid go ahead and make his decision--he's chomping at the bit to accept and be done with it, but I'm making him wait until he hears from the final three schools, which won't be for at least another month.

I just feel like he's written off the final three and might change his mind if he gets in. I've been surprised at the money he's been offered so far so I think he's in better shape than we originally thought.

The FAFSA isn't the hard one, take a look at the CSS.

Seriously... !!!

I'm afraid I'm going to have to try to fill the CSS out .

Keep me in your prayers everyone, DD's one school has a CSS deadline is the 15th...I think I'm going to be sick .

Btw, the FAFSA isn't actually that bad and if it means your kid will get some college funds, then please try to do it. Think of it this way...let's say it takes you three hours to do it and your kid gets $1200 that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise? That means that you got "paid" $400 an hour to fill out that one form.

agnes!

That CSS sounds ridiculous--and I'm dragging my feet at the fafsa, so I feel your pain.

 

[linnylu]

The FAFSA isn't the hard one, take a look at the CSS.


Btw, the FAFSA isn't actually that bad and if it means your kid will get some college funds, then please try to do it. Think of it this way...let's say it takes you three hours to do it and your kid gets $1200 that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise? That means that you got "paid" $400 an hour to fill out that one form.


agnes!

I know it's not that bad to fill out and I will do it when I have 2 in college. But why would a college give a kid money when the family EFC is $60,000 plus and the school costs less? I guess I just really don't understand this.

Instead, couldn't the school look at your EFC and say we are not going to give this kid a penny to attend our school? That's what I wonder about. If 2 kids have very similar stats, and one has an efc of $30,000 and one has an EFC of $60,000- won't they give more money to the kid with the lower efc? It's not like they have to give you anything.

 

[golfgal]

I know it's not that bad to fill out and I will do it when I have 2 in college. But why would a college give a kid money when the family EFC is $60,000 plus and the school costs less? I guess I just really don't understand this.

Instead, couldn't the school look at your EFC and say we are not going to give this kid a penny to attend our school? That's what I wonder about. If 2 kids have very similar stats, and one has an efc of $30,000 and one has an EFC of $60,000- won't they give more money to the kid with the lower efc? It's not like they have to give you anything.

THe EFC is just an 'estimate' for parents to use. When you are in a situation where you have a one time blip in your income, like you are seeing, they can take that into consideration. What is your EFC without that bonus?? Our EFC was 3 times what DS's school cost yet we still got some money from them-plus access to student loans-which we require the kids to take at least one because we want them to learn how to pay bills and it is good for their credit rating.

You don't have to fill it out but it is in your best interest to do so.

 

[cruisnfamily]

How does everybody know their EFC if they didn't do the FAFSA? Isn't that how you find it out?

And by the way, I had heard all these stories about how tough the fafsa is and how long it took, etc....it probably takes less time to actually do the thing than debate it on here. It definitely took less than 1/2 an hour. Even if we don't get anything from it, I figure it was worth my time to give it a go.

 

[DisneyNutMary]

The FAFSA isn't the hard one, take a look at the CSS.

Seriously... !!!

I'm afraid I'm going to have to try to fill the CSS out .

Keep me in your prayers everyone, DD's one school has a CSS deadline is the 15th...I think I'm going to be sick .

Btw, the FAFSA isn't actually that bad and if it means your kid will get some college funds, then please try to do it. Think of it this way...let's say it takes you three hours to do it and your kid gets $1200 that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise? That means that you got "paid" $400 an hour to fill out that one form.

agnes!

Agnes, I do not envy you, I am so happy no school has asked us to fill out the CSS, good luck getting through it.
I like your reasoning on the FAFSA, where else can I make $400 an hour and all I did was fill out my name and address, plus some financial info?

I know it's not that bad to fill out and I will do it when I have 2 in college. But why would a college give a kid money when the family EFC is $60,000 plus and the school costs less? I guess I just really don't understand this.

Instead, couldn't the school look at your EFC and say we are not going to give this kid a penny to attend our school? That's what I wonder about. If 2 kids have very similar stats, and one has an efc of $30,000 and one has an EFC of $60,000- won't they give more money to the kid with the lower efc? It's not like they have to give you anything.

There has to be more than just the EFC that colleges take into consideration. My EFC was much lower than all of you, but nothing I can easily afford if I still want to pay my mortgage, bills and feed my other kid. But I am sure if I had not taken a huge pay cut in the past two years (yay sucky economy) my EFC would be higher, and still more than I can reasonably afford. We tend to live to our income- the more we make, the higher our expenses are- for example, when I made more, I was working a corporate job, that required a better level of dress than my retail job now does- better clothes cost more money yearly, etc.
Outside of some exceptions (ahem, Penn State, I'll try to remember to post the e-mail they sent me) I don't think most schools expect parents to put out that full EFC.

How does everybody know their EFC if they didn't do the FAFSA? Isn't that how you find it out?

And by the way, I had heard all these stories about how tough the fafsa is and how long it took, etc....it probably takes less time to actually do the thing than debate it on here. It definitely took less than 1/2 an hour. Even if we don't get anything from it, I figure it was worth my time to give it a go.

Cruisnfamily, it took me an hour to do the estimated fafsa... because I had to keep stopping and asking my husband questions- we did it based on our W-2s, not our 2009 tax return. Then the update after our 2010 taxes were done took 15 minutes. It really is easier and faster than people make it sound, if you have all your info at your fingertips when you start it. And, of course, if you are a reasonably quick typist.

 

[agnes!]

I got the CSS in earlier today, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... apparently different schools ask for different things, so for this one school we didn't have to confess how old our (very old) cars are and DH & I estimated everything the best we could.

Now we just have to wait... DD has gotten acceptances/declines/whatevers from three of the schools, are supposed to hear from the others near April 1st. Now we just need to hear what merit-aid (yay!) and need-based aid lmao we will be getting from everyone since some of the schools give out the money separate from the decisions.
agnes!