<p>I am an in-state student with an EFC of over 25k. This is an issue because my EFC is higher than the cost of attendance not allowing me to qualify for need-based aid. However, my family cannot afford close to this amount for me to attend. Are there any ideas of how I can obtain grants or something of that sort to help pay? Loans aren’t really a solution because I will eventually have to pay them back.</p>
<p>Yeah, I understand since I’m in a similar situation. The only thing that I can suggest is to apply for private scholarships and departmental scholarships (once you are a student). Did you apply to any schools that accept the CSS profile? That might get you more money than the FAFSA, I think. Good luck!</p>
<p>I did apply to a few schools that wanted a CSS profile, but sadly my financial aid was not enough for me to be able to attend. I thought that by giving more information through the CSS that they would have seen that my family could not afford our EFC. Guess that wasn’t the case…</p>
<p>ROTC? Work the summer, work the school year? CC -> college?</p>
<p>I plan on working throughout the summer, and hopefully I will find a job on-campus in the fall. I don’t qualify for federal work-study though, so I’m a little worried that there may not be as many on-campus jobs available for me to apply to.</p>
<p>College Park is also near a lot of restaurants and stuff like that, so that’s an option. ROTC is good too, but that only pays for tuition, I think, and you should see if that’s worth 4 (potentially 8) years to you first.</p>
<p>If you EFC does not represent your families ability to pay because of some extraordinary circumstance and not just high living expenses and debt then you can certainly file a financial aid appeal. However, you really need to do an honest self-evaluation of why your family cannot provide more financial support. The EFC is not a measure of what you can afford but a standardized measurement of what your family should be able to contribute. There are huge gaps between “can” afford and “should” contribute. I am in the same situation because of recent job promotions which has increased our EFC significantly over where it would have been just 2 years ago.</p>
<p>Received the financial aid notification from UMD-CP. Not good news. Certainly glad that we had already decided against attending. UMD is a good school but not at the out of state tuition with our net cost of 41K a year. Son will attend UMaine instead and enjoy graduating almost debt free.</p>
<p>UMaryland-College Park merit - 0, financial aid - 0, work study - 20000, net - 40500</p>
<p>UMaine (IS) merit - 9500, financial aid - 0, net - 13400</p>
<p>net cost = total estimated costs (tuition, room & board, books, transportation, misc) less merit aid and financial aid.</p>
<p>oops…work study is 2000 and not 20000. I wish…lol!</p>