<p>What is the income ceiling for fafsa? my parents make 80k combined and 3 in household. uc=29k. will i qualify?</p>
<p>There is no income ceiling as such in FAFSA. FAFSA produces a number called the EFC (Estimated family Contribution). Schools use the EFC and their COA (Cost of Attendance) to calculate your ‘need’. COA - EFC = ‘need’. How or if that need is met depends on the school and their financial aid policies. Some (not may) promise to meet full need without loans. Some promise to meet full need but will include loans. Some (many) do not promise to meet full need at all so may have a gap (unmet need) as well as the EFC.</p>
<p>With an income of $80k your EFC will be in the 14,000 range meaning you will *not *qualify for federal grant aid such as the Pell grant or the SEOG (Pell requires an EFC of < 4619 this year). You will qualify for federal loans such as the Stafford loan which all students qualify for (max for a freshman $5500). If your school has their own institutional grants you may or may not qualify for those. Depends on the school.</p>
<p>Eh, I don’t know about that EFC. My father’s income was ~$70,000 the first year I applied and my EFC was $18,000. I think an EFC of $80,000 would be quite higher than $14,000.</p>
<p>But yeah, FAFSA is just the application – there’s no income ceiling for it, anyone can fill it out. It just helps schools determine how much money you’ll need from them to allow you to afford them.</p>
<p>so juillet, did u get any grants or aid besides loans? i get loans but have no use for them</p>
<p>merman…so you’re an only child?</p>
<p>There is no “income ceiling” for FAFSA…the figure takes into account more than simply income…family size, age of parents, etc.</p>
<p>Go to an EFC calculator for a rough estimate. If you’re an only child, you’re EFC might be kind of high since it will assume that your parents had 18 years to prepare for the college education of their only child.</p>
<p>efc is about 14k. can i declare myself independent? if i do that, efc goes to 0</p>
<p>There are income ceilings for FAFSA for given scenarios, but there are so many factors to be considered that you are not going to find a chart to use. You have to run figures through the calculators to find out what your family’s particular income ceiling is. That is because things like assets, parents’ ages, number of dependents all determine that ceiling. </p>
<p>However, as others have said, in order to get the PELL grant which is the only money that is ensured by FAFSA, you need an EFC of about $5K. Other factors come into play, particularly the college involved, your home state before any other money come into the picture. </p>
<p>In order to declare yourself independent, you have to meet other criterion such as age 24, dependency (are you married or have kids?), being a veteran. The requirements are listed with FAFSA instructions. Few kids qualify.</p>
<p>There is no such thing as declaring yourself independent for FAFSA. There are a series of questions on FAFSA (age 24, married, have a dependent you support 50%, veteran etc). If you cannot answer yes to one of them you are a dependent. None of the questions relate to whether you are self supporting or working. My son dropped out for a couple of years and returned to school at 22 after working full time and being completely self supporting including living in his own place, paying his own rent and bills, not being our dependent for taxes etc for 2 1/2 years. For FAFSA he was still considered a dependent.</p>
<p>You are unlikely to get a cent from a UC with that income. They do not meet need and give crummy aid in general.</p>
<p>You can’t declare yourself an independent…if that were possible, every kid would do that. That’s why it’s not allowed. </p>
<p>How much can your parents contribute?</p>
<p>If your parents can’t/won’t contribute or won’t contribute much, then you’ll need to look at other options, such as…</p>
<p>1) living at home and going to a local UC, Cal State, or CC (for the first 2 years). How much can you earn working a part-time job to pay for tuition and books? Some part-time jobs do pay well…wait staff, etc.</p>
<p>2) getting a merit scholarship, if you qualify…what are your stats? There are some mid tier schools that give merit $$ to good students.</p>
<p>3) student loans (which I don’t recommend, unless you won’t have to borrow much)</p>
<p>4) ROTC…education could be completely paid for, but then you must serve to “repay”. There are some good colleges ROTC programs (University of Portland, for instance) that pay for virtually everything - tuition, room, board, uniforms, books and even give you a monthly stipend.</p>
<p>merman…</p>
<p>I just had some thoughts…</p>
<p>Maybe I’m wrong, but I get the feeling that your parents are telling you that they can’t pay much or anything towards your college education. Maybe they are naive about how much college costs these days and are thinking like the “ole days” when a lot of kids “worked their way” through college all by themselves. Unfortunately, college costs have FAR EXCEEDED inflation, so part-time jobs don’t cover the costs of college like they used to. Many parents are engaging in “magical thinking” that college is affordable if the student just “economizes” and gets a job…many parents need to be shown “the numbers”.</p>
<p>I can understand why many parents today think “I paid for my college, so my kid can do it, too.” I went to a California university in the 70s and the cost was soooo low that it was easy to pay for college with a summer job and part-time job. Your parents may have had a similar experience or have peers that “paid their own way thru college.” If so, your parents may be thinking students can still pay their own way. Therefore, they (your parents) may think that they shouldn’t have to figure out a way to help with your college costs.</p>
<p>Are your parents realistic about the costs of a college education? Have you printed out some TCA (total cost of attendance) pages from the websites of various universities? Have you realistically estimated how much you can earn from a job? </p>
<p>BTW…look carefully at each school’s TCA…some leave out the cost of books, fees &/or misc costs…so if those costs are left out, add them in. Also, some TCA pages only list the cheapest dorm and meal plans, so be aware of that, too. If you’ll need to live on campus, make sure each TCA includes tuition, mandatory university fees, mandatory class fees (yes, many classes now have separate fees charged!), housing, meal plan/food, books, plus any personal expenses that you’ll be responsible for (travel, car, insurance, etc).</p>
<p>Please keep in mind (and explain to your parents) that even with a part-time job, 100% of income can’t go to your education…there will be misc expenses, gasoline, car expense, clothing, etc that your income will likely also have to pay for.</p>
<p>Once you have this all printed out and written down in “black and white,” sit down with your parents and show them the facts. If they see that you’re willing to do what you can, but even with the best of efforts you will still come up short, they may become more motivated to figure out how they can help you.</p>
<p>My “gut feel” may be totally wrong about your parents’ intention to help you pay for college. If so, please ignore my comments. :)</p>
<p>No, there’s NO income ceiling for completing the FAFSA. There are ceilings for getting certain types of aid, but anyone can fill out the stinking application.</p>
<p>I got unsubsidized Stafford loans in undergrad, no need-based grants or low-income loans like the Pell or Perkins.</p>
<p>You can’t declare yourself independent. You have to meet the criteria and if you’re the average 18-year-old college-bound student, you don’t.</p>
<p>There are certain colleges that you can work your way through; it depends on the individual circumstances and extra aid. My sister is currently paying for her college on her own - but with the caveat that she stayed in-state and went to our local public, and therefore she got the HOPE scholarship which covers her tuition. She works and pays for the rest. Likewise, my parents didn’t pay anything towards my education, but I got a large merit scholarship that covered most of my needs.</p>
<p>Also, parents can be as realistic as they want to be but many working class-families simply can’t afford the EFCs that the FAFSA says they can. I know my parents hadn’t saved anything for my college education (they never really expected me to go), wouldn’t have qualified for large loans even if they applied, and couldn’t afford to sacrifice 1/3 of their income to send me to school. There was none of this sitting down with my parents and calculating the costs - I was on my own, and I knew I had to find a place that I could either pay for out of my pocket (i.e. community college) or a place where I could get a scholarship that would cover the costs.</p>
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<p>I completely understand…but the OP says her family income is 80k for a family of 3…that isn’t “working class”…that is middle class (and it may actually be upper middle class - especially since the family is so small.). The EFC isn’t based on paying out of current income…it is based on the assumption that the parents should have been saving and/or can afford some loans. I realize that is theoretical and not always what parents have done (as in your case where your parents never thought you’d go to college even though you are obviously a very strong student since you got a great merit scholarship ( Can I ask what school?)</p>
<p>I do find it interesting that you say that your sister “is currently paying for her college on her own” - when actually she isn’t. She has receive the Hope scholarship which is paying for her tuition. She is paying for whatever her scholarship doesn’t cover - books, fees, personal expense, etc. Your sister probably could not afford to pay for her tuition PLUS the things that she is already paying for. That kind of highlights the point of my earlier post. Kids today cannot usually pay their own way.</p>
<p>Unless the OPs family has some extenuating circumstances, such a small family should be able to scrape some money together to help their child with college expenses. They may not be currently “motivated” to budget the money because they think the OP can manage the expenses herself…which is why I suggested the “sit down” with the facts.</p>
<p>We’re not rich (by any means), but we manage to pay for all of our kids college expenses that aren’t covered by their scholarships…It has meant driving older cars, minimal vacations, etc…but it’s worth it.</p>
<p>i go to ucsc. taxes suck. my parents may make 80k but after taxes it prob comes out a lot lower. but i have encountered a lot of people that get aid. i am like the only one that gets no grants from fafsa out of my friends. could it be that everyone else makes a lot less?</p>
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<p>That’s true for everyone! Your parents may not have many deductions…few dependents, maybe not much for home mortgage interest, etc.</p>
<p>To get “grants” from FAFSA…someone who comes from a family of ONE child would have to earn a lot less.</p>
<p>merman…everyone who has an income pays taxes. Have you discussed college finances with your parents? That should be your first step.</p>
<p>Merman…I don’t understand what your issue really is…</p>
<p>you are at UC Santa Cruz…are you paying for this or are your parents or some combination? </p>
<p>I think you are spending too much time focusing on what others’ have gotten from aid. You don’t know their circumstances…their families are probably larger, they may have more than one child in college, their incomes may be lower. </p>
<p>You say that you come from a family of 3. That suggests that you are either an only child or you have an independent adult sibling. If so, then it is logical that your family’s EFC for your education would be rather high. What was your EFC?</p>