Which College or University Can I Afford?
Should you apply to a college you cannot afford to attend?
There is no reason to make cost a primary consideration when looking at colleges and universities. You should apply to the schools you’re interested in, regardless of the cost.
Many people shy away from applying to expensive schools. However, the irony is that attending a prestigious, expensive private university can cost the same or even less than your local college.
The true cost of attending a school isn’t the tuition, room and board and textbooks. It’s what you end up paying out of pocket. Here is how it works.
Make sure you have filed your FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). When you receive your reply, you need to be aware of this number: your EFC (Estimated Family Contribution.).
Your EFC tells the colleges and universities that you apply to how much money your family can afford to pay towards your college education. Let’s say, your EFC is $10,000.
Your EFC doesn’t change based on what school you’re attending. If you decide to attend a prominent technical school that charges $40,000.00 for tuition, your EFC will still be $15,000.00. In that case, the student aid might pick up $25,000.00. The higher the cost, the higher the amount of aid, so there is no incentive to attend a cheap college. You can choose any school you want!
If you attend a small liberal arts college that costs $30,000 to attend, your family still pays your EFC of $10,000. If the small liberal arts college meets 100% of your financial need, you and your family will still have to pay $10,000, while you will receive $20,00 in financial aid.
The caveat here is: each scenario assumes that the college or university aid program agrees to meet 100% of your financial need according to the FAFSA calculation. Most state run schools will not pay the full 100%. Whatever percentage the school doesn’t pay will be your responsibility and you may need to tap into other revenue sources such as taking out additional student loans.
However, most state schools do not award 100% of your demonstrated financial need, so you will probably end up paying more than your EFC says you can afford, or you will have to take out additional loans. So, you may actually end up paying more to attend a state university than you do to attend an ivy-league college or university. Plus at some of the ivies you won’t have to take out student loans.
So, it’s crucial to look at the net cost of attendance after financial aid rather than at the initial cost of attendance of the college or university. That will give you a more realistic picture of whether or not you can afford to go to the college your looking at.
I learned all of this information through personal experience consulting with high-achieving college-bound students and their families. Many students can get a less expensive education from the most exclusive and expensive institutions in the United States than they could at a state school. It’s all because of how student aid works.
Angela Arnold, a college advisor who has helped many students get into college, has prepared 7 free videos about the university admissions Download yours today.
