My mom isn’t married but she makes 250k a year but has tons of student loans and is currently paying my brother’s college funds out of pocket and soon will be paying mine, I assume. At this rate with the school, I’m looking to go to the cost will be much higher than his. Is it safe to assume I won’t get financial aid?
You can run the Net Price calculators found on each college website to see if you could get some FA (merit aid) but need-based aid is not likely.
Run the NPCs!
Most likely you will not get any need based FA. You can apply to schools that give Merit aid, without considering family finances. You must run Net Price Calculator for the school you are considering. How many years do you overlap with your brother in college ? You may get some FA when he is attending college. Unfortunately, colleges will not give you FA because your mom is still paying off her own student loans and has other debt, and it is tough to pay 70k.
This is quite common than you think, and you have to carefully compile a list of colleges that you can afford.
@OhAnon - Not to pry, but you mentioned your mom isn’t married… is she divorced? Is your father in the picture? Most colleges will require financial info from your father. But, the colleges do take into consideration if your mother is already paying tuition for your brother.
Actually MOST colleges use the FAFSA only and do NOT require non-custodial parent information. Even amongst the Profile schools, there are plenty that do NOT require non-custodial parent information.
If the non-custodial parent is paying spousal or child support, that does need to appear on the FAFSA form.
With a $250,000 a year income…and two kids in college…maybe this student will receive a tad of need based aid from one of the extremely generous and competitive colleges like HYSPM and the like. But for most colleges…probably no need based aid.
@OhAnon what state are you instate for?
What is your home state?
Your posting history suggests that you’re looking at some OOS publics.
You need to run the Net Price Calculators on your schools’ Net Price Calculators to see what the results are.
What is your MOM saying about how much shey’ll pay per year for college?
If the NPC doesn’t specifically ask if this is a single parent…then it just might not be accurate.
And if the school is a Profile school that requires non-custodial parent info…that might not be reflected on the NPC. Just FYI.
From your other threads it sounds like you’re in NJ. Were you able to raise your 1170 PSAT? If not, you’re probably going to be limited by how much your mom is willing to pay.
If your parents are divorced, see http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2083835-faq-divorced-parents-financial-aid-and-net-price-calculators.html
My older brother will be a senior when I’m a freshman and by the time I’m a junior my little brother will be a freshman in college. I had a feeling about the loans thing l, but I just thought it was worth mentioning.
And yes for those who are asking, my parents are divorced and my father isn’t in the picture and I don’t think he pays child support.
Also thanks for anyone who suggested a net price calculator I didn’t realize this was a thing I probably should have done a bit more research on that side.
Yeah I was able to raise it but I’m still working on raising my SAT to the 1400s range.
As for how much my mom is willing to pay I’m not exactly sure but I should probably ask soon. I’m assuming around 20,000 to 25,000 a year. It’s how much she’s paying for my older brother
Contrary to the common theme on College Confidential, I will not tell you the FAFSA is the greatest when it comes to accurately portraying someone’s financial situation. My parents earn close to $90,000 a year, but they don’t take into account the fact my father had three heart surgeries and was hospitalized on two seperate occasions. They also don’t realize my youngest neice has a disability with constant bills pouring in for her care. Instead, they see $90,000 a year and estimated my family to pay over $17,000 for my education, but they can’t pay a single penny. Nevertheless, please submit your FAFSA. Without it, you won’t even be able to obtain a federal student loan, and at some schools, even scholarships. In some states, there are also grants with higher income thresholds. In Kentucky, students attending private colleges can receive up to $3,000 despite not qualify for the more standard grants. Is there a high chance you won’t receive any aid from the FAFSA? Absolutely, but it’s better to have some chance than no chance, and even better to at least get a little aid even if it isn’t substantial.
Solar, FAFSA is a form, not a source of financing. Nobody claims it accurately portrays every single family in America’s financial situation- it’s a snapshot designed to capture most of the relevant information, and it’s a methodology to make sure that for anyone getting public money (i.e. a Pell grant- which is money paid by the taxpayers of America) their finances square with the requirements of the program.
Every college will evaluate other circumstances in addition to what shows up on the form. But FAFSA doesn’t give out money…
Also don’t assume you get what your brother gets. The fact is some parents can’t make it all equal, and certainly kids are not all equal as students destined for the same uni experience. I would assume your FAFSA EFC from a 250K income will give you a higher EFC than both kids would cost at 50K combined (it might be 65K or so). Do fill it in though with multiple kids in school. Run NPCs and have the money talk with your mum, make sure to apply to your local options. Even a hypothetical SAT in the 1400s isn’t usually going to bring big merit at desirable schools. Have a budget outlined.