looking for good college matches

Gumbymom
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 04:40:21 +0000

@mel098:
Before you start looking at colleges, you need to find out your EFC (minimum estimated family contribution) and what your parents are willing to pay. No school will be a safety if it is unaffordable.

FASFA does not provide financial aid. All it tells you is if you are eligible for Federal aid. The schools will determine your costs so run the Net Price calculators on any schools of interest.

For example, San Diego State for a out of state applicant will cost $36-40K/year to attend with no financial aid available other than the Federal aid you could qualify. As a student, you can only take out loans totaling $27K for 4 years and federal aid such a Pell Grants (maximum $5980 only if you are low income). SDSU will give no other aid/grants/scholarships since you are not a California resident.

Please do you and your parents a favor and have the money talk before you start getting hung up on any particular college(s). The reality is most college decisions will be based on affordability.

Unless you get that SAT up as stated in the above post, you may be limited by not only your budget but your stats.