Reply to For UMC families.. how much did you end up paying OOP for college?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We got nothing from FAFSA or schools. We pay full freight fir two in college, one one the six year plan ( not that uncommon) and headed to grad school[/quote]

[b]FAFSA is a form that you fill out. It is not a source of funding. Schools are the sources of funding.[/quote][/b]

No, you are wrong.  The Department of ED provides the loans.  When someone says they "got nothing from FAFSA or the schools" what they are saying is that their EFC was 100 percent so the only benefit they received from either the fed government or the schools was the $5500 unsubsidized Stafford loans which come from the federal government.  As early as possible (now Dept of Ed allows filing before senior year) the parents should file with FAFSA, which is a program in the Office of Postsecondary Education at the Department of Ed. This wiki explains it clearly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAFSA.

Most colleges and universities will not begin talking to you about financial aid or student aid without filling it out the FAFSA (or some schools use the CSS Profile instead).  The FAFSA determines your family's EFC (Expected Family Contribution).  The OP is asking what Upper Middle Class families are receiving from colleges and paying, so the EFC is determinative.  Many UMC and MC families are now receiving 100% for EFC meaning they are expected to pick up the entire bill for their children's education even if they pick a school at $84K a year (plus the $5500 unsubsidized loans from the feds, which students should take out because they have to sign the paperwork so it gives them some teeth in the game). The $5500 BTW increases a bit all four years.

The EFC is sent to ten colleges of your choice.  The financial aid office at the college looks at the EFC of the accepted student and knows immediately if the fed. government is providing this student with a Pell Grant, a FSEOG, a Stafford Loan, a Federal Work-Study Program, unsubsidized Stafford, etc.  Then the school decides if it can add to that amount via financial aid out of the school's own pockets (this is different from merit aid).  Then the school might tack on its own work-study program, and finally the school might offer some merit aid to get the package up to the difference between the EFC and the tuition, room and board costs of that school.

So, for example, taking a recent example here on DCum, if a parent fills out the FAFSA and gets a EFC of $67,000, then the difference between the $84K a year and $67K falls to the parent to pay (minus the $5500 unsubsidized Stafford loan.  A college might see that and offer some financial aid to fill the gap or it may not.  Colleges are finding themselves increasingly strapped to meet the needs of students coming in with low EFCs which is why you are starting to see smaller, less prestigious colleges shut down.

Or a parent may get an EFC of $100K so all of college is paid by the UMC parent (minus the $5500 loan).  Some parents in those situations find themselves financially strapped because the cost of a higher education has outpaced inflation, so savings doesn'tcover the difference, or the parents have other financial problems, like taking care of SN kids or elderly parents.  In those situations, parents wisely say the child has to go in-state, or community college, or the family has to refinance a house or take out high interest loans to make ends meet.  This is why it is important to do the NPC (net price calculators) on the school's websites and the FAFSA as early as possible so they know exactly what their EFC may be so they can plan.  It's not fair to the student to dangle a $80K slac in front of them when the family simply can't afford it.

Finally, as to merit scholarships, schools' resources are going to fill in the difference between the EFC and actual cost of attendance.  Since resources are diverted to financial aid, merit aid is drying up at the more "elite" schools because, quite simply, those schools don't have to offer merit aid to fill their classes with the type of student they want.  They would rather divert those resources to financial aid.  While some are saying on here that HYP offers great merit aid, those are capped at certain HHIs which is lower than most people posting on this board.  This is clearly spelled out on the school's websites.  For the rest of the applicants, they wiill receive no merit and no financial aid if the EFC is at 100%.

The rare instance of merit scholarships will happen when a school wants to trade merit for something unusual that your child has.  So, if you drop to second or third tier schools, and your child has outstanding test scores or a particular instrument, or special URM status, then the school may offer merit because your student offers something statistically that that particular school needs in order to boost statistics when reporting to USN&WR.  For example, some small schools in the south contacted my DS outside of the application process because they had purchased the "males with ACTS over 35" list and were contacting those and offering $25,000 off cost of tuition in order to get his high ACT.  However, in those situations, often in-state flagship is still cheaper even after subtracting the $25K.  This will happen with extremely high SATs and SAT II scores.

The result of the foregoing is that many UMC and MC parents find themselves surprised at the junior and senior year of high school to learn just how expensive universities have become, that their EFC is very high, their college savings are inadequate and that it is unlikely that they can afford to send Jr. to a SLAC or HYP because they don't have $360K in after tax dollars lying about.  Add to this problem is the fact that many schools now take 5 or 6 years to finish (that's why you will see percentages given for 4th, 5th and 6th year graduation rates), you are talking $500K per child.[/quote]

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