Paying for TAMU with high EFC

lessonwitch2
Fri, 18 Aug 2017 15:26:40 +0000

@carachel2

Howdy! i’m aware of the money / success oriented students / parents on this website. And a year ago when I was reading threads I only saw a few people getting a decent amount of money from A&M. And A&M only has three types of awards for freshman: donors, need based, and merit based. My donor based awards came from outside scholarships and now that you point it out, my EC’s, leadership and volunteering were probably pretty helpful in finding awards. But when I looked on this website, if I only went off the info I found, I probably would have been too scared to apply knowing that I was destined to receive virtually nothing. I knew that the fafsa would use my parents income from last year which was huge because of things like the land they recently bought and sold to our family over seas that my efc would be too big for most need based aid for me. But I’m glad I applied.

Fun fact: Schools can only give you need-based aid up to your cost of attendance minus your EFC. From that point on, they will normally reduce your awards. My need was fully met, yet they didn’t reduce my awards because they were not need based. Despite foundation of excellence preferring those with financial need, the financial aid department awards as merit so it didn’t decrease when my EFC was met . The main downside was they removed my loans and work-study after my need was met but my scholarships remained. And I didn’t even mention how much I received in donor awards. So I think its safe to assume my awards were merit (or at least not need based) aid.

Was my story special? Probably. And you are right that people shouldn’t hope that they end up being that lucky dime a dozen when the odds are stacked against them. My efc was high (not like 30k high, but still kinda high.) which is what made me wanna look outside for money since I thought A&M would give me none. But I knew I could fight for more awards when I got there if I was diligent. I mean everyone else I’ve met (and everyone who tried the same thing though out college confidential) got similar results and I want to encourage people to not be scared off just because of a complication like a High EFC when it is possible. Truth is if you really wanna come here, attending symposiums and applying for local aggie scholarships shouldn’t seem like too much of a hassle for a high achieving student that got into the school in the first place. So it is worth considering. I don’t think a high efc should stop any applicant from applying to this school.

Edit : Sorry if it seems like I’m hijacking. My situation may just be a fluke but I hope my story reaches out to someone scrolling these threads! Applying for honors, the Corp, and local scholarships and everything else mentioned in my first post are simple, feasible solutions to any student with a high efc. At least for the first year so they can truly compete for merit beyond.