<p>Hey everybody,
My parents recently filled out the fafsa paperwork and got an EFC of 15k (pretty much what we expected and what my parents already told me they are willing to spend). I am wondering how much aid I can expect from these schools. The total COA at the following schools where I have been accepted (all OOS):
University of Arizona, COA 36k/year - 3k scholarship = 33k/year
Arizona State University COA 33k/year - 8k scholarship = 25k/year
Louisiana State University COA ~20k with 4.5k scholarships (cost will be ~15k if my SAT goes up 10 points)
Tulane University COA (not admitted yet): 52k :O.
Trinity University COA (not admitted yet): 40k
Also, when can I expect to hear back on this from the colleges?
Thanks a lot for the help, :D.</p>
<p>Only the state schools UVA and UNC meet full need for out of state students, so you most likely won’t get institutional aid to cover the gap between your cost of attendance and EFC from the state schools. </p>
<p>Someone else can probably tell you what federal aid you are eligible for with that EFC.</p>
<p>If you submit all the financial aid documents on time, you might get your financial aid package in your acceptance letter. </p>
<p>Will your parents be able to pay more than 15k when your COA increases in subsequent years?</p>
<p>Federal aid with a 15,000 EFC would be loans and possibly work study.</p>
<p>For the OOS schools that do not promise to meet full need you are likely to have a lot of loans and still have a large gap.</p>
<p>If your SAT/ACT scores are fairly consistent with the schools, then you should expect the best offers out of Tulane and Trinity. Those two schools have pretty generous track records. I wouldn’t doubt that your package will leave you something close to your EFC as a bill. But much will depend on if you match up to what they are looking for.</p>
<p>@ college_ruled: My parents say that they only can afford 15/year, however, my mom will have a PhD in December, and hopefully she will have a higher paying job after getting it, if not, she can move to full time instead of part time work (she’s a professor at the university here), so after the first year they should be able to afford more. And Since I already heard back from the 3 publics I applied to, I can’t get the fafsa notice in my acceptance letter. I forgot to list University of Texas though! But I assume it’s the same way (cost is higher than any other public I applied to though).</p>
<p>I rather suspect that with your GPA and SAT scores, Tulane will be unaffordable for you. They might give you a decent package of non-scholarship aid to close the gap, but taking out loans of those amounts would be a mistake, I think. I don’t know much about Trinity’s merit aid.</p>
<p>Trinity reports meeting 100% of need and Tulane reports 96% of need met. You will probably get some very nice packages from both of those schools. </p>
<p>However, they are both profile schools which means that they have their own formulas for calculating need. For example, the profile asks for the value of your home, while the FAFSA does not use the equity in your home to calculate need.</p>
<p>Unless a school say that they meet need with little or no loans, reports of 100% or 96% of need met means nothing. Such packages could have huge Plus loans in them plus full Stafford.</p>
<p>The better the stats, the better the FA packages at many schools that put loans and gaps in FA packages. Sad, but often true.</p>
<p>Agree with mom2collegekids. Those loans are killers after graduation.</p>
<p>BTW mom2college, I stumbled across a post you made a couple of months ago (Dec 16 actually) where you said
I know you meant the DHS for full tuition, but all students are automatically considered for scholarships based solely on merit that go up to $25,000. That’s about half the COA. Personally I would call that a big scholarship.</p>
<p>Fortunately the student applied anyway and just got accepted, and has a family income of about $40K which would qualify for Tulane’s no loan policy, so will come out about the same if they decide to go there. Anyway, just saying for future reference for you.</p>
<p>OOPs, I guess I should have clarified. Both of those statistics are the amount of need met without PLUS or alternative loans. </p>
<p>As of last year Tulane has a “no loan” policy if family income is under $75K. However, based on the OP’s EFC my guess is that the family income is slightly above that cutoff. </p>
<p>My son was accepted 2008/2009 I felt that Tulane’s package was very fair, and my son’s SAT’s were only at about the 25th percentile. When we examined our package, it looked like they added about 5% of the equity in our home to our EFC. I thought that was fair.</p>