Good suggestion. I was a (very) part time professional dancer and choreographer, and a number of my teachers came out of Irvine. They were not as generous in f. aid as UCSD was for my son. The difference was about $1500 or so. Still, this might be a good school to add to the list.
@sbjdorlo the average amount of need met by a school (that doesn’t guarantee to meet full need for all) is MEANINGLESS. Say your friend finds a school that meets an average of 80% of need. Well…some students will get a lot of aid…and some will get none.
PLUS…all this means is th %age of average aid met…so…if. A stude ton,y qualified for a $5500 Direct Loan…and got that only…and that was all of their need met. that student would have 100% of their need met.
This does not mean that 80% of every student’s need will be met. That is NOT what this means…at all.
These parents are divorced. The net proce calculators will not be accurate…period.
Many of the private schools will require the non-custodial parent finances. All will require the mim’s spouse’s finances…both on the FAFSA and Profile.
If the total family contribution is in the $5000 range, then the total income would be very low.
Did the dad include all of his income? And assets?
If the dad earns $100,000, the family contribution on that amount alone would be $30,000 a year…or more…most likely.
Actually a $5000 FAFSA EFC based on the custodial parent income would qualify this student for a small amount of the Pell Grant…about $700 a year. This would be considered low income.
Right. Our EFC last year was around $4500, and we qualified for a Pell Grant (son got $1300).
I don’t have all the financial details. I think the dad is going on what he knew a couple years ago after consulting with a friend of mine that works in financial aid.
Good point on not looking for the best dane program at a UC. My MIT senior was a competitive chess player, baseball player and violinist in high school. At MIT, he plays flag football and softball IMs, he is now into music production rather than violin, and I’m not sure he even plays chess on a regular basis. So yep, things definitely can change!
Low income by the standards of this forum, but experimenting with the https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/f4cForm indicates that a single mother with 3 kids (2 in college) in California with an income of $74,000 would result in the dependent student getting a $725 Pell grant.
$74,000 is above the median household income in the US, and probably well in the middle income range for households headed by people of the age with high school or college age kids.
For a single mother with one kid who is in college, an income of $53,000 results in a $925 Pell grant. That is still in the middle income range.
- UC Davis- I think you can minor in a different college. The graduation general ed rquirements are different for each college. Majors in the School of Ag and Enviromental Sciences don't have a foreign language requirement. This was important in our case due to a learning disability that made passing any language classes near impossible. It is just worth some research as to apply as a Poly Sci major and minor in Sub Ag or vice versa.
Re Davis: there are some majors in the Ag school that can essentially equate to poli sci. Here’s a list of undegraduate majors in A&E school - http://admissions.ucdavis.edu/majors/majors_by_c_and_d.cfm
Note these options:
- Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning
- Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems
- Community and Regional Development
- International Agricultural Development
They seem to align very closely with this student’s interests – perhaps more so than what she thinks she would get with a poli-sci major.
It might be a good idea for her to write about her specific interests in her personal statement and consider applying to Davis A&A as “undeclared/exploratory” - see http://admissions.ucdavis.edu/majors/undeclared.cfm
(Basically that would make a lot of sense if her answer to which of the 4 majors I listed would interest her is something along the lines of “all of the above”)
I don’t know how they calculated our Pell Grant, then. Last year, our income was 74K, three kids and two in college, and my son got $1300. So maybe they’ve reformulated since then. And I agree-we are not low income. This year, we’re making less as my dh has a lower paying job, but we will only have one in college. But nope, we are far from poor.
What will totally help my middle son–which has already completely helped my oldest–is the 6K a year Corporate NM Scholarship. We’ve paid less than 9K out of pocket total for my son’s four years at MIT, thanks in large part to the generous need-based aid and the Corporate NM scholarship. We have been incredibly, incredibly blessed beyond measure.
Great info, calmom. I don’t know how much of the UC app she’s done. Since UCD wasn’t originally on her list, she’s probably not looked much. I’ll share what you posted with her. Thank you so much!
The main problem for UC is that she has to do one personal statement for all campuses … so she has to balance the pros and cons of writing a personal statement that seems more geared to a campus that isn’t her first choice.