S2 best friend's situation....

mom2collegekids
Wed, 24 Jul 2013 21:26:37 +0000

*His best, best friend - a wonderful young lady - they want to go away together to school, which is one of the reasons I feel good about UA and LA Tech. ( Her mother is from the south.) Having a good friend there would certainly make for a different type of adventure and give him some grounding. She is also a CS major, 4.3+ (or close) GPA and who hasn’t taken the SAT or ACT yet. She is a sharp cookie. She will be the first in her family to attend a four year college. Not low income, - middle. Don’t know all the info yet.

For example… if Son and friend both attend UA and she also receives the presidential scholarship, along with the $2,500 ENG/CS stipend… would she be eligible for any other grants, aid, etc?

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Grants are based on need, yet you say that she’s not low income, but middle. Scholarships get applied to “need” first, so much will depend on her EFC. Are you saying that her parents can’t pay any of their EFC?

Students don’t usually get much in grants from OOS publics unless they qualify for federal grants.

So, if a school’s cost is about $40k
if EFC is about $18k

Then her “need” is about $22k.

So, when Bama gives her a free tuition scholarship (about $24k) and a CS scholarship $2500, then that means that she’s being given about $26k towards “need” (which is actually greater than her need and reduces the family’s contribution to about $16k.

She wouldn’t qualify for any other need based aid because all of her “need” is covered. However, she can still take out a $5500 unsub student loan, which would bring the family contribution down to about $10k.

Since merit gets applied to need, and need is covered, she wouldn’t qualify for any more need based aid.

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For those UC folks out there, would she be eligible for other grants I am not aware of?*

For UCs…much will depend on whether she qualifies for the Blue and Gold promise and Cal Grants. Do her parents earn less than $80k per year?

How does she plan on covering the family’s EFC? At a UC, student loans will be used to cover “need” so she won’t be able to use them towards EFC unless she gets a Regents or something to supplement other aid.