It’s probably too late to undo what is done, but our EFC is much higher then we can afford to the point of possibly making college a no go for my son. So here’s the question up for debate. He is a great student, has already received 3 acceptances all with presidential scholarships. With the EFC being so high (almost as much as the full price for 2 of the schools he is thinking of attending) what was the point? Would we have been better of relying on merit based scholarships to help out as much as possible and private scholarships to fill a few more gaps?
He can still go to one of the schools with the Presidential scholarships.
You will pay what the remaining costs are, not your EFC.
EFC is a number determined to see if one qualifies for federal, state, institutional need based aid.
COA - EFC = need
Some schools require FAFSA be filed for merit scholarships, also you cannot take out federal student loans without filing FAFSA.
If you hadn’t done the FAFSA, then your son would be a full-paying student, so your EFC would automatically equal the full cost of attendance at each college.
Your son will,also be able to take a $5500 Direct Loan in his name only for freshman year…because you did that FAFSA.
As noted above…if the cost of attendance for the school won’t go up because your FAFSA is higher. Your son will still get his merit scholarships…and that $5500 loan…and you will pay the balance.
Has he been accepted to a school where the scholarship…plus the Direct Loan…plus whatever you can contribute…will make it affordable?
Personally college is just too expensive no matter what, but with that said, his ‘fallback’ is also the cheapest. He has 2 scholarships to that school which cover tuition plus his presidential scholarship. What he would have left is less than our EFC. The second would probably wind up costing us the whole EFC with his presidential scholarship covering the rest. Not sure how the direct loan would play into these scenarios. His other choices go up in cost from there, which may put them all out of reach.
He can take the $5500 direct loan at any of these schools to help pay for college costs.
Can you afford your EFC?
Our EFC was higher than we could (or planned to) afford. Merit scholarships brought our costs down to equivalent to or nearly equivalent to instate for most of the state schools where she was admitted, two of three private schools gave scholarships that weren’t enough to make the schools affordable. Our goal was to get to an “average” instate equivalent cost or below and she did finally get a large merit offer that did just that. In the end, COAs were below our EFC in all cases even the ones we didn’t feel we could afford. We did do the FAFSA last year in the event that our daughter needed the loan to make things affordable. She ended up not needing the loan.
So the FAFSA is good even with a high EFC if you want/need the loan to make things doable. And yes, when you have a high EFC many have to rely on merit offers for discounting. Sounds like your child did get some merit offers.
Bottom line, no we cannot afford our EFC. I am sure most people feel that way. My son is ready to give up on it all and I’m trying to encourage him to go for scholarships and apply like crazy. It will take a little bit of his time and thought to do it, but he won’t get any help if he doesn’t even try. Even a scholarship of $1000 is something. It all adds up to less he/we owe later.
I believe University of Alabama Huntsville is still awarding their generous merit aid…and your student can still apply. I think.
Basically if merit pays for tuition, then you pay for room and board. That depends on school. Say it’s $10k. The direct loan can pay for $5,500. Student can work this summer to save up money for books, travel, supplies and maybe contribute a few thousand $. Parents can pay the rest or take out parent plus loan.
If student is really low income or depending on state there might be state aid or other fed grants or federal work study.
Local scholarships can help, but are usually only for first year. High school guidance office should have a list.
Aren’t presidential scholarships based on merit? And aren’t they usually the top awards in a school? What schools are involved and how much do you expect to pay?