<br>
<br>
<p>How much is the “forced pension” contribution? Is it more than $10k per year for the “forced” part? (and what we mean is…we’re not talking about contributions that your mom feels obligated to contributed to for her retirement…we mean the amount that her company absolutely requires her to contribute.)</p>
<p>Sounds like your mom would have a high EFC anyway with an income higher than $100k and with ONE adult in the family (the calculations are harsher when their is only 1 parent in the household). </p>
<p>Anyway, you have found out early that your dad’s income will be used at many of the best schools, so now you know those won’t work.</p>
<p>So, come up with a list that only uses your mom’s income.</p>
<p>ALSO…very important!</p>
<p>1) Find out how much your mom WILL pay each year towards college. (with her income, you may not qualify for as much as you think).</p>
<p>2) ONCE YOU KNOW how much your mom will pay each year…then identify 2-3 schools THAT YOU LIKE that will FOR SURE give you enough merit money so that your mom’s contribution can pay the REST of the costs.<br>
So, if your mom says that she can only pay $15k per year, then that would ONLY cover room, board, and books…SO, you would need a full tuition merit scholarship to cover the tuition portion. And you could take a small student loan to cover any small things that aren’t covered.</p>
<p>3) YOU can only borrow $5500 as a frosh, so you can’t borrow your way thru college to cover what parents won’t pay.</p>
<p>4) You can’t apply a merit scholarship to reduce your EFC. The ONLY way a merit scholarship can reduce your EFC is if the award is SO HUGE that it covers ALL of need and then the rest can reduce EFC. </p>
<p>So, if…</p>
<p>school costs $50k
EFC is $25k
mom can only pay $15k
You may wrongly think that getting a $10k per year scholarship will reduce the EFC to $15k…no it won’t. That $10k would get applied to the $50k cost. </p>
<p>But…if
school costs $40k
EFC is $25k
mom can only pay $15k
getting a $25k per year full tuition scholarship will reduce the amount that mom pays to $15k</p>