This makes no sense. If you quit a job, you lose income, lose seniority advancement, lose possible benefits, lose retirement and SS contributions.
Your kids won’t be in college forever. Think about the future too.
Is there any commutable option? CC?
As others have said, the EFC is per student, so the family EFC for the twins are the two numbers added together. Had you had just one child, instead of twins, your EFC would have been about $70K for the one student. What it means is that the FAFSA formula has determined that with your assets and income (with your kids’ info also in the picture) you are expected to pay about what the cost of the expensive private schools are charging. If you had just one kid looking at my kid’s private college, no aid would be awarded. With twins, you’d pay half price for each, but still around $70K if that school’s own calculators are similar to FAFSA’s and the school meets full need.
THat’s the real kicker here–that the FAFSA EFC is really the minimum that you can expect to pay most of the time Very few, if any school, guarantees to meet full need as defined by the EFC. Schools that require additional information and PROFILE completion, generally come up with their own “EFC” that is often higher than the FAFSA amount and many schools will not give more than what the FAFSA EFC yields even if their institutional formula come up more beneficial.
So, the EFC is usually a minimum, and until you get the actual financial aid and merit packages, you don’t know what your cost options are going to be for your kids. Those should be rolling in now. And yes, if this is the first time, it can be a discouraging eye opener.
Sure. Quit the job, lose the benefits, have your income drop $35,000/year. Net gain: $5500/year Excelsior Scholarship. By the time your eldest qualifies (in 2 years) you’ll already be behind $70,000 in lost income.
If your EFC for one is $32k, that’s the minimum you can expect to pay. I understand it’s upsetting. If you want help looking for options you should start your own thread and tell posters your child’s stats and how much you can afford.
Is there a SUNY within commuting distance? If your kid lives at home, it costs a lot less. Tuition of less than $11,000 per year is amazing … it’s more than that in my state … no 4 year college with tuition that low. My H and I were able to pay a lot more than we initially thought we could from current income. Unless you are living in a very high cost area, you’re most likely not living paycheck to paycheck on $160k annual income. If you look at your budget carefully, you may be able to handle more of the costs than you initially thought you could.
One of my kids went to UB. The housing and meals there are on the high side, IMO, and were back in those days too. But a great thing about going to that school is that there is plenty of cheap housing off campus and most students do not live on campus after freshman year. It is entirely possible to cut that $14K R&B bill down much lower if your kids go off campus after that first year, and go on a tight student budget. Like DH and I did many years ago in our student days. And my son did in Buffalo not that long ago.