The FAFSA will give you eligibility for other funds than just the PELL. PELL is just one of the government financial aid vehicles. You have to complete the FAFSA to get access to any Dartmouth financial aid as well, so it is an integral part of your financial aid process. Your EFC is what is usually the minimum you will have to pay anywhere unless you find a school with a cost of attendance less than that or get enough merit money to cover some or all of it. So that EFC number is important as it is often a bottom line indicator. It’s just that your need cannot be met by PELL according to the numbers you entered.
Oohhhhhhhh. Wow, I feel very ignorant now. Thanks so much for clarifying. My EFC is about 8,000, but the federal government can’t cover the tuition enough to reduce it to my EFC Thanks so much!
*Typo
Foopy. Any need based aid you get will NOT cover your EFC. That is your family contribution, and your family is expected to pay that amount. Any need based aid you receive because of the FAFSA calculations, or because of the Profile calculations a school does will NOT pay your family contribution. The need based aid is to provide assistance between the cost of attendance the balance left after your EFC is subtracted.
With a FAFSA EFC of $8000, you would get a $5500 Direct Loan…and that is it.
FAFSA EFC has nothing to do with Institutional EFC. At the most generous colleges that meet full need many families with 8K Federal EFC will have much smaller Institutional EFC. At Dartmouth these EFCs may be about the same in this income range.
Foopy has a huge issue. He has a parent who is both self employed and owns his own business. It sounds like his parent net income is WAYYYY lower than their gross income. Clearly there are deductions being taken to make that happen. Some of these will be allowed for financial aid purposes…and others will be added back in as income. Colleges all handle that differently.
The Dartmouth link says free TUITION…it doesn’t mention room and board which are north of $10,000 a year. Also clearly stated is the student contribution between $2600-2900…which they exoect the students to earn during school breaks.
Just to clarify my above post…with a FAFSA EFC the only FEDERALLY funded need based aid that is guaranteed is the Direct Loan of $5500. An $8000 EFC is too high for a Pell grant.
This student would be getting primarily institutional need based aid…and unless I’m reading this wrong…a Dartmouth education will not be totally free.
- Dartmouth's tuition is not $65,000 Dartmouth'sTuition: $46,764 Family will still most likely have to pay fees, room, board, travel and other misc expenses. There is also a student contribution from work
- Dartmouth's financial aid policy is as follows:
If your parents are self employed and own their own business, this policy will most likely not pertain to you. Unfortunately the net price calculator also will not be accurate for families with self employed parents, business owners and divorced/separated/blended families.
Op must file the fafsa for federal aid and the CSS profile/idoc for institutional aid
@foopyblue2 What kind of business does your dad have? Does it have a building? does it have assets? does the business have value. What it the gross income from the business?
Foopy…you need to file the FAFSA. You do NOT need to get federally funded aid to be eligible for,this scholarship from Dartmouth. You simply have to complete the FAFSA as part of the application process.
But again as noted…the scholarship is for tuition…not fees, room, board, personal expenses, and the student contribution…all will need to be paid.
Dartmouth will compute what they think your family can pay based on the information provided on the Profile.
If you are expecting a free education from Dartmouth…I do not believe that will happen.
Foopy…do you have a parent who is self employed or am I comfising you with another poster? Please clarify.
and one more thing…with a $75,000 income, how is yoir FAFSA EFC only $8000? That seems a bit on the low side to me.
Ok…I’m going to apologize here. I think I have Foopy comfused with another green card holder. That other student has a family business.
Foopy…back to you.
Your $8000 FAFSA EFC will not give you any grant aid from the federal government. Dartmouth will expect you to pay room, board, fees, personal expenses, and your student contribution. Free tuition is on,y part of the cost of attending the school.
And I still say…$8000 seems like a very low EFC for a $75,000 income.
Two in college when foopy is a freshman?
This topic is interesting to me. I’m glad that @foopyblue2 has gotten how this works now. A surprising number of students and especially parents do not understand what they need to. If you are a high school student or have a high school student who has excellent grades and test scores, you owe it to yourself to investigate the ‘full financial need’ colleges. Here’s a pretty accurate list - http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2014/09/15/colleges-and-universities-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need
All of the Ivy League schools are on that list as well as most of the top LACs in the country along with a few other schools. Good luck Foopy.
Thanks so much everyone! Our family doesn’t own a business. I think the reason our EFC is so low is we don’t have a lot of money put into assets. Both of my parents got a raise in 2014 which is why our income is now $75,000 instead of where it used to be. So nice I can count on a wonderful community to answer questions, thanks to all again!!!
Actually…even with NO assets, I think an $8000 EFC on a $75000 income sounds low. It sounds about half of what I would guess if I were guessing.
I absolutely could be wrong…but that seems like a low efc for that income.
Foopy…just remember…the cost of room and board alone is over $10,000 at Dartmouth. And the student contribution is exoected as well.
The most important thing you need to find out is what your family can actually pay for you tomattend college each year. Your EFC or commuted family contribution isn’t as important as knowing what your family WILL contribute annually. For example, if a college says your family contribution is $10,000 a year, but your parents say they can only pay $5000, you have an issue. OTOH, if the college says your family contribution is $4000 and your parents say they can give you $5000, you are fine…these assume the schools meet full need.
And lastly…if you really end up with a GPA and SAT or ACT score that would make you a competitive applicant for Dartmouth, you should also be looking at schools where you could get significant merit aid.
You are smart to be researching this now. But do keep in mind that many of the schools referenced in the post above about schools,that meet full need accept very low %ages of applicants. Let’s say on average, about 10% get accepted. That means 90% don’t. Sure, they have very generous need based aid, but only for the small percentage of accepted students. In the 10% who are not accepted, a very good number have outstanding stats also.
If I am not mistaken, it would be $8,000 total at Dartmouth. This would include tuition, books, room, and other expenses. I would upload a screenshot of the calculation, however I don’t think you can do that on college confidential comments. Here is my attempt to write out what it says.
ESTIMATED COST OF ATTENDANCE
Tuition & Fees- $48,038
Room & Board- $14,059
Books & Supplies- $1,176
Transportation- $871
Personal Expenses- $2,010
Estimated Total Cost of Attendance- $66,174
ESTIMATED GRANT/GIFT AID
Darmouth Scholarship- $55,710
Estimated Total Grant/Gift Aid- $55,710
ESTIMATED NET PRICE- $10,444
ESTIMATED SELF HELP
Student Work- $2,450
Estimated Total Self Help- $2,450
ESTIMATED REMAINING COST- $7,994
Of course every institution has its own policies.
Foopy…you need to earn that self help money. So your net cost is actually $10,444. If that ends up being accurate in two years…great. But that is for THIS coming school year…and you are a HS sophomore.
My D’13 is not attending but was admitted and received a FA award from Dartmouth. The $8K EFC sounds right to me on a 75K income.
@foopyblue2 is correct. Dartmouth pads the student budget with about $4000 for Books, Transportation, & Personal Expenses and awards FA on the whole budget. If you are thrifty you can spend way less then the $4K on those expenses and save money. At both Dartmouth and Princeton (where D attends) the real cost to the family was less then our EFC and both schools will apply outside scholarships toward the self help portion.
Yes, Dartmouth is very generous for this income bracket, not too many colleges are. Foppy you are correct that the other costs are covered too when your financial package is calculated at ‘meets full needs’ schools. But Dartmouth is one of a handful of ‘super aid’ so the amount they expect your family to pay is less than most other schools will ask, even if they say they ‘meet need’. And some ‘meets need’ includes loans. The only additional you will have to consider is if you have to purchase health insurance, if yours doesn’t meet requirements of Dartmouth. That can add 2k per year. Also your transportation home may cost more depending on where you live and how often you go.
Also foppy, I just want to mention that no school expects you to pay 65k out of current income and live on 10k. They expect that if you are intending to go to an expensive school that you have some savings for that, use some current income and be willing to take some loans. So many people who are paying for those colleges often have 100 to 200k saved for that.
But I didn’t have that either and my daughter went to Brown and they also picked up most of the costs.
Just a correction from what @thumper1 said, she meant the 90% of students who don’t get accepted to Dartmouth still must have backups and other places to apply. You can’t just bet on a selective school admission, you can see what you can pay for at instate colleges and look for merit aid.
Thanks for catching that BrownParent. Yes…90% or so do not get accepted to these meet full need schools…and they do need a back up plan.