How much financial aid do I get if our income is less then $25, 000 dollars?

Question

I'm a prospective college student, and by no stretch of the imagination can my mom afford to send me to college - not even for one year. We don't have the money for it. My grades are pretty good, I take AP classes, and I'm a good student in general. However, I don't think I'll be able to earn a full merit scholarship. So that leaves financial aid. If my mother's TAXABLE income is roughly $10, 000, but the money we get yearly from Social Security is $14,440, am I eligible for Financial Aid that pays the FULL COST of college?

Answer 1

You would surely qualify for an extensive package of financial aid-- some of it loans, some of it grants (like Pell grants, for instance), and some of it scholarships.  You should be AVIDLY seeking scholarships (there are many to which you can apply during freshman, sophomore, and junior year of college-- you don't have to wait until senior year).  Go and sign up for Fastweb.com TODAY.  Once you enter your profile information, they'll send you tons of emails with information pointing you to various scholarships opportunities.  If you are a junior or senior, you might sit down with a college admissions rep for a school that interests you and have them do a mock-up of what kinds of aid package you might expect (basically, they'd collect the information you'd put into a FASFA form...FASFA is the federal student financial aid system).  Specific schools also have aid-- especially if you are the first in your family to go to college and/or are otherwise an underrepresented minority.

Hope this helps!  The bottom line is this:  schools want to ensure that ANYONE with brains/skills can come regardless of financial need (the government wants this, too-- as do lots of private foundations...hence all the scholarships on Fastweb).  Some top colleges even offer free tuition if you can get into the school.

Good luck to you!

Answer 2

WIth an income at that level your EFC  is probably around 0-2000.  The government figures that a certain percentage of your mothers, and a higher percentage of your own income and savings can go to paying for college.

Even if you are eligible for financial aid that covers the full cost of college, rarely does anyone get it.  If they do its usually though exclusive grants for perfect standardized test scores  (such as the MCAS and Adams scholarship).  You outright financial aid in scholarships and grants could cover the cost of educational fees, but often doesn't begin to cover housing cost (this accounts for 25%-50% of school cost)

The good news is educational loans are fairly easy to obtain.  You are gurrenteed the option to take a federal subsidized  (3500 in the first year) and unsubsidized loan stafford loan.  Also, private bank loans are readily available.  The downside to this is that on unsubsidized and bank loans you have to start paying the interest while still in college.

Don't wait for the school to come up with a solution for you, because they won't.  Find your own options, and try to obtain as many private scholarship as possible.

Answer 3

I'm not sure, but you should contact your school ASAP.  Your school may have certain grants or scholarships available to people in your situation. You could also get a job on campus to help offset the cost of college.

Since you are a good student, your state may have other financial help available to you.

You sound like you really want to go to college, so don't give up!  Even if all those fail, you can always get a Stafford loan with a decent interest rate.  You won't have to pay for it until you finish school...and if you go into fields like education and nursing, you may be able to go FOR FREE!

Good luck, and work FAST!

Answer 4

I'm not sure about it because each provider has different rules. By the way have you consider to get a scholarship? Maybe you can try to go to

http://all-about-scholarship.com

it's about scholarships information.

Good luck

Answer 5

My mom only makes enough to stay a float and i don't really have a job... so i know where you're coming from.



It really depends on your school. I go to a state school and i receive about 10000 in aid. only 3000 of which is a Stafford Loan.  The rest is supplemented by federal grants and state grants.   Plus each year that you attend the amount of aid you receive goes up. This year it only costs me 6000 (in tuition, books and other fees)  since I am not living in the dorms. So i will get that 4000 back to me in cash that I will use towards the gas to and from school and other things.  

IT's not the elite people in college who receive fin aid. I only have a 1.8 gpa right now. (due to a not so good first year) I'm in my 3rd year and rebuilding and i still receive aid.  

It sounds like your a really good student... I wasn't in high-school. So write a few essays for those scholarships the high-school guidance counselors always harping about because you sound like you a very likely candidate to receive them.

Also I was going to tell you that.. You don't receive a financial aid package until you do a FAFSA a (www.fafsa.gov)   and get accepted into a university. After that the college determines what kind of a package you will get and it will involve grants, loans and on-campus work. If you go to your college's financial aid department.. they will really try to work with you and your mom to see that you get an education.

Answer 6

Here's the answer you don't want to hear:

Unlikely.

That's the chance that financial aid will pay your full cost of college. The federal government does the best it can, but even the poorest of families rarely receive a "full ride" for college expenses. Chances are, that you, like almost every other college hopeful, will wind up borrowing money for school. The good news is that the federal government makes student loan borrowing easy and pretty darned cheap. (The same can't be said about non-government lending, so be sure to use that as a last resort).

Keep this in mind - just like everyone else who borrows for school....

Student borrowing is an investment in your future. In 5 years' time, when you've graduated, and your college degree qualified you for a good job with a good income, you'll be just as able to pay back your student loans as any other student who finds themselves needing to borrow (and that's almost everyone!)

Start by reading the booklet that I'm attaching in the link below. It's called "Funding Education Beyond High School: The Guide to Federal Student Aid". You'll learn all about the various forms of government assistance that are available to help prospective college students, and you'll be especially interested in the sections explaining the special sources of aid that are available to families with "exceptional need".

You'll learn about grants (free money from the government!), work-study, and very low cost loans with very flexible and cheap repayment terms. Maybe the information in this booklet will make you more optimistic about your chances of affording the college education that you're dreaming of.

Good luck!