Rob S

Can someone please tell me what that means? Thank you.

GreenDayFan

it means you would only be expected to contribute $583 and that you're probably going to be getting a lot of financial aid. Basically.

swimcatsmom

It will depend on the school you are going to and what sort of funds they have.

At schools that have large amounts of their own money to hand out you may only have to come up with $583 and may get a lot of financial aid in grant form. These schools are in the minority and are the most competitive to get into.

The majority of schools do not have large endowments with which to give their own financial aid. At these schools you will qualify for some federal grants such as the Pell grant. The rest of your aid will be in the form of loans, work study and you may possibly have a 'gap' which means unmet need.

Other schools fall between the two extremes and have some grant money of their own to award.

GroovyGeek

A bit more detail: it means that the government thinks that your parents can only afford to spend $583/year on your education. You can expect to get substantial amounts of financial aid, but at most schools that may not cover all your expenses. Depending on your academic performance and test scores, some schools will cover tuition + room & board plus a stipend plus laptop and book allowance, others may cover tuition only, others may offer a package that expects you to contribute $5-10k/year towards your own education through subsidized loans, yet others may offer less. It depends A LOT on where you are admitted, what your scores are, and what your socio-economic circumstances are.

With such a low EFC you will also be eligible of a lot of the need-based outside scholarships. Many states offer their own, but you can go to sites such as FastWeb.com, ***************** to search for others.

Bottom line is, you will likely get a lot of aid, and you should not disqualify schools just because their estimated cost of attendance looks stratospheric. If you are good enough to get in, you will likely be getting substantial aid. Up to $10k/year in loans is manageable, the less the better. I would advise you to automatically forget about any school where you have to take on more than $10k/year to attend.

Good luck!

Rob S

You have all been very helpful and informative. Thank you.

familyoutdoors

Our EFC = $0. Should be just expect lots of loans? My son wants to go to school OOS (California or Hawaii). Will schools like the UC's give good aid?

alamemom

The UCs reserve most of their financial aid for California residents. A private university that guarantees to meet your need would be much more affordable, but they tend to be very selective.

thumper1

>>it means you would only be expected to contribute $583 and that you're probably going to be getting a lot of financial aid. Basically.>>

Well....not exactly.

A lot depends on the school to which you apply. If the school meets full need, you will get need based aid to attend. If the school doesn't meet full need, you could face a huge gap between your EFC, financial aid and the cost of attendance. In other words, your financial aid may not cover all the costs beyond that $583. Remember also, that most of the schools that meet full need are also amongst the MOST competitive schools for admission (accepting about 10% of applicants...meaning they deny acceptance to 90% of those who apply). The first hurdle is getting accepted at one of those schools.

Re: Public Universities. Most do not meet full need...not even close. The federal monies you would receive with a low EFC will NOT cover the cost of attendance as an out of state student. Most of these pubic universities have limited institutional funds (need based money awarded in addition to the federal money) and that institutional money is used for two things...first and foremost, their instate students...and secondly to recruit highly sought after applicants.

emeraldkity4

Our EFC = $0. Should be just expect lots of loans? My son wants to go to school OOS (California or Hawaii). Will schools like the UC's give good aid?

WICHE - Student Exchange Programs

MidwestMom2Kids_

Generally speaking, students with low EFC's pay less per year at a private school than they would at a public school.

thumper1

>>Generally speaking, students with low EFC's pay less per year at a private school than they would at a public school.>>

Again...it depends on the school, the cost of the public university, and the %age of need the private school needs as well as the cost of the private school. I know the poster said "generally" but YMMV...it really might. Schools disbursing need based aid have wildly varying formulas. Also many many more public universities will end up costing LESS than most privates. Remember that each state has a flagship U, but may have a lot of other smaller, less expensive public universities as well.

Northstarmom

Please note this important fact: Just because your EFC is low does NOT mean that you can expect excellent financial aid from colleges.

Most colleges in the country can not afford to meet the full need of high need students like you. Many colleges even consider financial need as part of their admissions practices, and will reject students with extremely high financial need.

The relatively few colleges that guarantee to meet 100% of students documented financial need -- and that also do this without saddling the students with enormous loans -- are top colleges like Harvard and Princeton, which are some of the most difficult colleges to gain admission to. For instance, Harvard accepted fewer than 8% of its applicants this year.

Consequently, when considering colleges to apply to take a very careful look at the college's financial aid and admission web pages. Don't bother applying to colleges that, for instance, are noted for providing much less financial aid than students need.

It is worth it to pay the $15 to access the U.S. News premium college on-line site, which provides detailed financial aid and admissions (and other) info for thousands of colleges.

Also, do not apply ED because even though colleges say they will release students from ED commitments if the students didn't get enough financial aid, it is very hard to get released. In addition, applying ED prevents your being able to compare financial aid offers since once you get an ED acceptances, you have to withdraw your other applications.

Make sure that you have at least one financial safety. That means a school that you know you'll be admitted to and can afford. For many students, their financial safety is their local community college, many of which provide guaranteed transfers to in-state public universities as long as students meet the public universities' admissions requirements.

Do NOT assume that 4-year public universities will be cheaper than private universities for you. Virtually all public universities can't afford to meet the full need of high need students.

And don't bother to apply to out of state public universities as public universities give the bulk of their financial aid to in-state students. It's highly unlikely that you'd get a good financial aid package from any out of state public. Due to public universities' not having large financial aid resources, you may have great difficulty getting an excellent financial aid package from your in state 4-year public universities.

Take the time, too, to read the excellent advice pinned to the top of this board.

bluebayou

The UCs are NOT generous to OOS kids. Heck, they aren't even generous to instate kids. For example, cost of attendance (COA) instate is ~$25k. An instate family with zero income would be expected to contribute at least $10k, and the rest would be grants, or about $15k. But, the numbers are the same for OOS, except that the OOS kid must also pickup the additional OOS fees. The OOS COA to a UC is ~$45k; the state would contribute at most $15k in grants, leaving a self-help gap of at least $30k.

UVa is one public that does provide good finaid to OOS kids.

Good luck.

momray

bluebayou is correct....UVA is a public that provides for low income students through AccessUVA. However, most of the schools that have such program also have tougher admission standards.

somemom

The UCs do not have such a program as access UVA, and I can attest I have seen the access UVA package for an OOS and it was a great package.