Annoyed Letter I wrote to someone
This is a letter I wrote to someone on youtube after reading a comment he had left to someone that claimed he couldn't afford college. He told the person to stop being lazy and to get a scholarship. I, in my boredom and anger wrote him this pleasant letter. You might want to read it to learn more about the financial aid process...otherwise it's just another rant.
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Hey,
I read a post you left a while back about if you can't afford college you should just get a scholarship. You clearly don't understand how financial aid works. When you fill out the FAFSA (and you have to fill out the FAFSA to be considered for any financial aid at all) the government tells the school how much money you can afford to pay. This is called your expected family contribution. Say that your EFC is 8,000 and your COA (Cost of Attendance) is 30,000 dollars, and the school decides to only make you pay your EFC (which isn't always a definite because the EFC is only a guideline). They send you a financial aid package (for a semester) that looks something like this:
Fed Stafford Loan- 1500
Fed Perkins Loan- 2000
Work Study- 3000
School Grant- 3500
Out of Pocket- 8,000
Total Cost Per Semester- 15,000
Now let's say you got an outside scholarship for 6,000 dollars. Your new financial aid package will look something like this:
Fed Stafford Loan- 1500
Fed Perkins Loan- 2000
Work Study- 500
Outside Loan- 6000
Out of Pocket- 8000
You look at that and go WHERE DID MY GRANT GO? Why am I still paying 8,000 dollars? I just got a scholarship. This is because scholarships actually don't do anything to reduce your out out of pocket cost until all the amount of your pre-existing financial aid is covered. That means if you can manage to find a scholarship to cover all your tuition costs (no easy task, and not everyone can in fact do this) you will still end up paying the same no matter what. Work study and grant money are the first to be taken away in light of a scholarship, then loans are taken away, then your out of pocket cost. This means that in the scenario above the student is still stuck with the same amount of debt (loans) and the same amount of out of pocket costs even after landing a scholarship.
I am the child of a single parent who has to make my own way through college. I know the financial aid system in and out. I can tell you first hand it is seriously flawed. My mother makes about 60k on paper but the FAFSA doesn't account for bills. EFC says we can afford to pay 8,000 a year when my mother had a hard time even contributing 2,000. The bills are really too tight for her to support me at all. My options are to get a job and hope to make a minimum of 800 a month after taxes to pay for school month by month on a payment plan or to take out a private loan for the amount I can not cover. If I take out a private loan I would graduate with no LESS then 70k in debt, a sum that would be considered a dangerous amount for the type of career I would want to go in (it's suggested that no more then 20% of your gross income go to paying off debt to maintain sustainable living).
So next time you want to make a comment about how people are not trying "hard enough" to go to college, really think about the type of person you are probably talking to. Most likely they are lower to middle class with little parental support and very limited funds.
Have a nice day,
-Tasha-
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Hey,
I read a post you left a while back about if you can't afford college you should just get a scholarship. You clearly don't understand how financial aid works. When you fill out the FAFSA (and you have to fill out the FAFSA to be considered for any financial aid at all) the government tells the school how much money you can afford to pay. This is called your expected family contribution. Say that your EFC is 8,000 and your COA (Cost of Attendance) is 30,000 dollars, and the school decides to only make you pay your EFC (which isn't always a definite because the EFC is only a guideline). They send you a financial aid package (for a semester) that looks something like this:
Fed Stafford Loan- 1500
Fed Perkins Loan- 2000
Work Study- 3000
School Grant- 3500
Out of Pocket- 8,000
Total Cost Per Semester- 15,000
Now let's say you got an outside scholarship for 6,000 dollars. Your new financial aid package will look something like this:
Fed Stafford Loan- 1500
Fed Perkins Loan- 2000
Work Study- 500
Outside Loan- 6000
Out of Pocket- 8000
You look at that and go WHERE DID MY GRANT GO? Why am I still paying 8,000 dollars? I just got a scholarship. This is because scholarships actually don't do anything to reduce your out out of pocket cost until all the amount of your pre-existing financial aid is covered. That means if you can manage to find a scholarship to cover all your tuition costs (no easy task, and not everyone can in fact do this) you will still end up paying the same no matter what. Work study and grant money are the first to be taken away in light of a scholarship, then loans are taken away, then your out of pocket cost. This means that in the scenario above the student is still stuck with the same amount of debt (loans) and the same amount of out of pocket costs even after landing a scholarship.
I am the child of a single parent who has to make my own way through college. I know the financial aid system in and out. I can tell you first hand it is seriously flawed. My mother makes about 60k on paper but the FAFSA doesn't account for bills. EFC says we can afford to pay 8,000 a year when my mother had a hard time even contributing 2,000. The bills are really too tight for her to support me at all. My options are to get a job and hope to make a minimum of 800 a month after taxes to pay for school month by month on a payment plan or to take out a private loan for the amount I can not cover. If I take out a private loan I would graduate with no LESS then 70k in debt, a sum that would be considered a dangerous amount for the type of career I would want to go in (it's suggested that no more then 20% of your gross income go to paying off debt to maintain sustainable living).
So next time you want to make a comment about how people are not trying "hard enough" to go to college, really think about the type of person you are probably talking to. Most likely they are lower to middle class with little parental support and very limited funds.
Have a nice day,
-Tasha-