How does financial aid work at a realy expensive school

[MrsPete]

And of course there are the "performance" requirements. I'm not funding him to live "la vida loco" so my kids know that you screw around and you'll find yourself back at home quicker than you can say "go Lions". stuff like that.

Yeah, we're on the semester system in our house. We'll gladly pay for first semester . . . but subsequent semesters are all based upon passing classes. They know we'll pay for four years, and we expect them to move significantly closer to graduation with the end of each semester.

My girls are good students, and I have no reason to think they'll go away to college and lose their focus and flunk out; but, if they do, we'll not continue to fund failure. If that happens, we'll create a Plan B. If it's that they fail one class, they might have to pay for just that one class during summer school. If they fail everything, it might mean moving home and going to community college, or it might mean taking some time off. It'd depend upon what happened.

Oh, huh. I know someone did the switch like that, just had to show a bill came to them or whatever to establish after a year, so I figured that's how it worked all over. Guess it must be by state then? Geez.

Oh well, sorry, my bad!

Nah, it's never worked like that here. To be a resident for in-state tuition purposes, you must be a permanant, tax paying resident. If you're still financially dependant upon parents in another state, you're not likely to be granted in-state tuition.

In fact, when my daughter received her acceptance for her #1 school, we noticed that she'd been classified as an out-of-state resident. That's clearly wrong. She was born in NC. Both her father and I were born in NC. Both her father and I graduated from NC universities. Both her father and I have work histories in NC stretching back three decades. Her father called to get it straightened out, and he said they grilled him pretty carefully, asking him dates and so forth. He said he felt like they were trying to catch him in a lie.

 

[arminnie]

I went to two very expensive schools - Tulane and Stanford.

There is no way I could have gone to my state schools. They just did not provide the financial aid that I needed.

My parent's contribution to my undergrad was $100 a year - just a token. My parent's income was not considered when I went to B school as I was an adult.

I basically never paid tuition. I'm okay with borrowing - BUT and this is a big BUT if the total amount borrowed is less than half the first year's salary.

There is no way I could have afforded to go to the University of Arkansas for undergrad or Texas for business school. So I have these fabulous degrees for less than homegrown degrees.