4 Comments

1. wncan47 says:
   July 29, 2010 at 12:01 pm

   colleg is for the poor as i am and the rich.the poor can get lots of help but the rich either get a little or none.financial aid is located at any college or university.in the late 70s i received money from the GI Bill and i also got a pell grant.i did work study also for 2.70 an hour but i had to work 100 hours before i got any money. the VA sent me 270.00 bucks and i had to work off 100 hours then after that another 100 hours to get paid again. all was tax free.oh the joys of being young and a soldier however being a soldier now is the best it has ever been.im talking pay though.become a soldier and let the military send you to school free!!!!!!!!im talking army reserve but you might have to be moblized to go anywhere in the world.
2. sunshine_today says:
   July 29, 2010 at 12:21 pm

   When I was in school you got the same amount of federal aid whether going to a name brand school or a cheap school. So if you received a Pell Grant amount more than the tuition, you could apply it toward living expenses. At a pricier school it’s all going to go to tuition. Pell Grants have barely increased since I was in school a long time ago. It’s a sad situation for today’s current college students.
3. stohlio says:
   July 29, 2010 at 12:52 pm

   financial aid is based on financial need. the fafsa people with their super cool calculators take into consideration many different items such as how much you and your parents made, how many kids you/parents have, how old your parents are, etc. then they come up with a number: efc or expected family contribution. this is how much your family is expected to pay for you to go to school. this number is sent to whatever schools you want. the number doesn’t change so it is up to the school to create a financial aid package to make up the difference (let’s say your efc is $1,000 and the school costs $20,000, then…. the school has to find you $19,000 in aid).

   i always tell my students (who generally have an efc of 0 cuz we live in a poor town) that they could have a beat up pinto or a brand new lexus and it will cost them the same. sometimes they just have more loans. but, hey, pay those later and get your education now. hope this helps.
4. FinAidGrrl says:
   July 29, 2010 at 1:50 pm

   Financial Aid is offered everywhere, from high-priced private schools to low-priced community colleges.

   Speaking very broadly, in most cases, financial aid is not calculated as a percentage of any given school’s tuition. There are a few programs where a student’s eligibility may decrease if s/he attends a very low-cost school. A good example of this is the Federal Pell Grant, which is calculated by comparing a student’s EFC (Expected Family Contribution, i.e. the amount the government thinks you can afford to pay for college) with the student’s Cost of Attendance (tuition, fees, etc.). For example, if a very needy student attends a school that costs $10,000 a year, she might be eligible for a Pell Grant in the amount of $4,050. If that same student (with the same level of financial need) attends a school costing only $3,075 a year, she would only be eligible for a $3,050 Pell Grant. As you can see, these 2 Pell Grants are different, but they do not represent a fixed *percentage* of either school’s tuition. (You can view the Pell tables here: http://www.ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments/2006paysched.pdf )

   With most types of Federal Aid, the dollar amounts are fixed so that, as you mention, a student attending a $10,000/year school often receives the same Federal awards as a student attending a $30,000/year. This is because most loan and grant programs have very specific limits, few of which actually meet the costs of attending college. For example, if you are a Freshman whatever school you choose to attend, the Freshman year awards maximums for dependent students are as follows:

   * Federal Stafford Loans: $2,625 (if you are independent, you can get an addition $4,000 in Unsubsidized Stafford loan funding)
   * Federal Perkins Loan: $4,000
   * Federal SEO Grant $4,000
   * Federal Pell Grant: $4,050

   All this said, each school decides how it will allocate its OWN institutional funding. Many schools DO decide to offer scholarships as a percentage of tuition (i.e. Student X is given a 50% discount while Student Y is given 20%). This will vary widely by school. Some schools offer full scholarships while other schools do not have any scholarships to give. Additionally, the size or cost of a school does not necessarily dictate how much money it has to give. There are many large, costly schools that do not offer much institutional financial aid, just as there are small schools that can afford to give a lot of scholarship funding to their students.

   Since every school handles their Financial Aid a little bit differently, the best thing when deciding on a school is to ask each school’s Financial Aid Office for specifics.

   EDIT: The person directly above me offered you some very [fiscally] dangerous misinformation about your EFC and the way in which it relates to your financial aid package. In the example she gives, she states that, if your EFC is $1,000 and your school costs $20,000, your Financial Aid Office “has to find you” $19,000. This is very far from the truth. It is VERY important to understand that if your school costs more than you can afford to pay, your Financial Aid Office does not “have to” make up the difference and, in many cases, federa/state/institituonal funding limits prevent them from doing so.

   Too many students mistakenly believe that their school will be able to make up the difference between their costs and their ability to pay — as a result of this misinformation, many students end up unable to attend college because they weren’t financially prepared. I sincerely hope that students aren’t receiving this advice on a regular basis.