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<p>Of course families are supposed to make EFC contributions. You misunderstand. Firstly, I do indeed understand Rice’s no-loan policies, which is where the root of the problem lies. The difference is not merely $1,000. Do you really think I’d be ranting and raving about a measly $1,000? Given my family’s finances, I’d be incredibly lucky if my parents could contribute $3,000 a year. If the EFC is $9,000, this leaves me with a $6,000 per year to make up. Again, given my family’s finances (and credit history, for that matter), there isn’t a single lender in existence that would lend them $6,000 per year. So, again, it all boils back down to me. In addition to work-study, I’d have to take another job or jobs. I would also have to take out student loans. So much for that. It’s not as if I was planning to live luxuriously or something like that - I already incorporated a fairly frugal standard of living when calculating my annual expenses at Rice. There was also no “change in resources or assets” for Rice to discover, aside from my parent’s annual income dropping by $2,000 from 2007 to 2008. As I already mentioned, my family has NO assets. I am not exaggerating. </p>
<p>So, I suppose that the real issue here is what Rice has calculated as my family’s EFC. $9,000 a year out of $70,000 is equivalent to 13% of my parents’ total income! Really, now, I don’t think that’s reasonable, especially considering that they already have difficulty with their expenses. </p>
<p>Still, thank you for your (and everyone else’s) advice. Though frustrated, I didn’t write FA an angry e-mail or anything like that, and I mentioned all of these issues to them, so I’m hoping that they’ll boost my package at least a little bit.</p>