Important Financial Aid question! help!

cptofthehouse
Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:11:33 +0000

With the EFC you have reported, you are eligible for about $5000 in PELL grant and subsidization of part of your Stafford loans. That is what the federal government would give you. In addition, if your state has low income grants and loans, such as NY’s TAP, you would likely get some of that. The rest is up to the schools to which you applied.

All the EFC does is guarantee you the government money. As a general rule, the more generous schools tend to want another financial aid form, usually PROFILE and they do their own calculations for need. It seems to me that you may not have applied to schools that guarantee to meet need, nor do they tend to meet much of a student’s need at all. That usually points to out of state public schools? What schools are on your list, and what have they offered in terms of aid?

FAFSA is the name of the form and calculator of your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and does not give anyone any money. You need to talk to the financial aid departments of the schools where you applied. At very least, you would get the PELL and the Staffords from those schools. You can also ask about any other sources of money they might have, given your low family EFC. Yes , you can also contact the departments.

However, with a family EFC of that size, and you being the one who has to pay for the college, the gap is awfully large if you are looking at going away to school. For most situations, the PELL and the Staffords will cover most if not all of your expenses for a local college if you commute.That does not necessarily mean a junior or community college, though some of those can often provide what a student needs at low cost and convenience. Depending on where you live, there may be some low sticker price privates, or state schools that have 4 year programs. You might start out commuting and in future years, find off campus accomodations.

Where do you live? What instrument do you play? Have you discussed future music training with your music teachers at school? They may have some suggestions for you. With a little more information, perhaps someone can give you some more ideas.