<p>Part 1)
My son is a freshman in college now, and received a substantial athletic and academic scholarship package for this year, at a good school 6 hours away from home. Despite the financial package, he is hoping to transfer to a GREAT school that is in our home city and does not offer athletic scholarships. The current athletics schedule is taking away from his studies and he wants to focus more on academics. Since we pursued the NCAA scholarship previously, we didn’t look seriously into other kinds of financial aid.
Does anyone know about financial aid for transfer students?</p>
<p>Part 2)
I was unable to work for two years due to cancer. We are just now recovering finacially from this. While I was being treated we had to sell our home, use our savings and still go into debt. We have no debt now (not a dime!) and are trying to save up again for a downpayment so we can buy a home again.
Does anyone know what affects we will encounter if we have money being saved for a downpayment?
Is it better for our EFC to have a mortgage than to be renting? (If we buy, the monthly mortgage payment will be similar to what we pay now for rent.)
Our household income is high ($168,000 gross), but we have absolutely no assets except for $10,000 in our savings account.
Thanks for help!!</p>
<p>Go to the financial aid section of this web site for some good info.</p>
<p>1) FA for transfer students tends to be bad. Most colleges are trying to have good competitive profiles for college rankings which focus on freshmen. There are some links in the transfer section of this site that might be helpful. That said, since your son already knows what school he wants he should contact them.</p>
<p>2) Money being saved is seen as money being available for school costs. The majority of the EFC is driven by last year income. It’s doubtful you’ll get any FA beyond Stafford loans except at the most exclusive schools.</p>
<p>What would happen to your son’s scholarship if he quit his sport where he is now? You said it was academic and athletic? It sounds as if you just dug yourself out of a huge financial hole. Paying full price which is probably what you will be doing despite the $10,000 in savings can get you right back where you started. Do the calculators to figure out your EFC but income is the driving force. That great school may not look as great in hindsight with huge student loans staring at you after the fact. If he can’t switch to an academic only scholarsip, have him think of his sport as his part time job that is paying for school, suck it up and finish out where he is.</p>
<p>Drum - I’m glad you are moving past the medical woes. </p>
<p>Forget about the college angle with home purchase. With only $10,000 in savings, it is not the right time to purchase a new home. Closing costs will use most of all of the savings, and you’ll have no buffer savings for home repairs or job woes.</p>