first time FAFSA shock
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Anonymous
| The EFC is one quarter of our adjusted gross income. Is this "normal"? One quarter?! |
Anonymous
| And many schools do not necessarily meet your EFC. Welcome to reality. |
Anonymous
Yes, college is expensive. |
Anonymous
| That sounds lower than what some of my friends experienced. Theirs was closer to 33 to 40%. |
Anonymous
| Focus on state schools and schools that offer merit aid (where your child scores in the top 75% of applicants) |
Anonymous
Our EFC is 20-25%. No federal aid, except loans. |
Anonymous
| Once we knew what our EFC was, we decided as parents what we could afford. We then researched schools. My son gave us the criteria that he wanted -- competitive, low or zero Greek life, urban, medium size schools or bigger, chemical engineering program. We ran the net price calculator for all of the schools that he might be interested in. We put them on a spreadsheet. We then eliminated all of the schools that were outside our price range. We gave that list to our son. He asked about a few other schools that he might be interested in, and we ran the numbers for them, and added them or eliminated based on price. That gave us a list of around 35 schools. DS then did virtual visits or researched all of them. We now have a list of around 10 schools that are pretty good matches. |
Anonymous
| being 'rich' enough to not get aid, but not rich enough to actually be able to afford school is common in high COL areas and sucks, but it is what it is |
Anonymous
Sounds like it. Whew. 40% of your income (like one PP said)? Insanity. I knew college was expensive, and I know about finding merit aid etc, and going state, but somehow it all just hit me at once. This system of ever-rising tuition prices is just whackadoodle! |
Anonymous
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This is the reality parents need to realize and not get their kids hopes up of going to the most competitive elite schools and graduate with a ton of debt.
Debt free and happy vs. tons of debt and not so happy |
Anonymous
Or at least a very small amount of debt. I don't mind it if my kid feels like they have a little "skin in the game" so to speak. But agree about not letting them take out huge loans to go to an elite school! |
Anonymous
| How do you find out your EFC? |
Anonymous
When you fill out the FAFSA. |
Anonymous
I did fill it out--didn't see an EFC. Does it get sent to you later? |
Anonymous
Remember, the idea is that you saw this coming and were saving for it. Not that you pay it from each year’s earnings. |