How much can I expect from a financial aid package? (details inside)?

Question

I'm looking at applying to colleges that cost about 30 - 40 thousand dollars per year, and my parents make about 100 thousand dollars per year. I'm just looking for a basic estimate. Thanks so much for any help!

Answer 1

When you say the school costs 30-40K per year, are you specifically talking about tuition and fees?  Each institution has what they refer to as the "Cost of Education" (COE).  This COE includes tuition, fees, books, transportation, housing, food, child care, and personal expenses.  There are different ways of setting it up but this is the most common items in the COE.

With the COE, the institution is identifying how much it's going to cost students in total to attend college, not just how much tuition and fees are.

Once you have identified the COE, you then need to look at what your EFC is, which is what the department of ed gives you when you complete the FAFSA.  

If the COE is 40,000 per year, and your EFC is 15,000, that leaves a balance (financial need) of 25,000.

You can't get any federal money if your EFC is 4042 or higher.  Most states won't award any grant funds if your EFC is that high either.

So you are not going to receive a lot of grant money (if any).

The school is likely going to offer you work study funds, student loans, or depending on the school, they may offer some type of scholarship that gets passed out to "all freshman" or something similar.

My point in explaining all of this is to illustrate the importance of the different elements of financial aid.

COE minus EFC= How much money you will need to pay for college.

One final point is whether or not you are a dependent or independent student.  If you are dependent, you will use your parents income.  If you or independent, you will use your own income (if you have any).

Answer 2

If there are 2 people in your family who are going to be at college, you're EFC should be about $10,000-$15,000 (depending on the number of people in college, your college savings, etc).

Apply using the FAFSA and at the end, it'll tell you your EFC. This will usually be in the ball-park of how much you'll be required to pay for freshman year.

Answer 3

How much did your parents save up for your college expenses?  Did they set up a tax-advantaged college fund? Or even a savings account?  And how much do you earn from your summer jobs, and what have you saved from that?  And have you won any competitions (science fairs, music competitions, sports, whatever), and was the award in cash or scholarship funds?

Your parents' income is sufficient that they could have saved & invested quite a bit since you were born.  You will not qualify for very much, and that is likely to be in loans.  Your parents are capable of paying for your education, and they should have been smart about it.  If they were stupid, you have to be smart and win competitive academic (not need-based) scholarships.