How many students are on financial aid?

[Michigander4Dean]

How many college students are there in the USA, and how many of them have financial aid?

[spuddonna]

1. Heck I was... My hubby is now! Hmm, some govt site must have that...

But I don't now where... Dept of Education?

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Yes that is posted on the dept of ed website

I had to look it up a year or so ago. Sorry I am walking out the door now or I would look for it. If you can't find it, PM me and I will look for it tonight.

[GrumpyGreg]

2. Too many! I know people who are far from poor,in fact

I would call them well off and they get financial aid for their kids because they know how to play the game.

I never did know how to play the game so I got screwed.

[murielm99]

6. What do you consider well-off?

Is a family that makes 56,000 dollars a year able to shell out twenty thousand plus per kid? If a family has savings, they have to use all of
it on the first child, and the others are out of luck. The financial aid formula actually penalizes families who have saved for college.

We are not poor. We are middle class. But there was no way we were going to mortgage our property and go into steep debt for college. We did borrow and help them. But I don't know any well-off people who get around financial aid.

I don't know that there is a game to play. You have to disclose your income if you want any help at all.

[pitohui]

10. some consider it a game, but you have the right answer

as you say, if a family has savings, they are penalized

some families think they are beating the system because they have no savings & have spent every penny so they get aid that they might not otherwise be entitled to at their income level

i think such families are not really getting away w. anything &, in any case, even if my mom is a shop-aholic & my dad a gambling addict, society is prob. better served by giving aid & getting me educated than by writing me off

[GrumpyGreg]

11. The family I was referring to has a heck of a lot more than $56,000

per year.

He runs his own business and they have three homes and 4 children and travel all the time,yet they are getting financial assistance for the oldest child's education.

I assume a lot of their money/expenses are "business" related but it really aggravates me. They obviously have a very good accountant who knows how far to push the envelope.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

3. I dunno. I'm still in high school, and I

FREAK out about college sometimes. I want to go to BC, but it's $50k a year. Fifty thousand dollars!

Fortunately, I'm an only child, and my mom says she'll do anything to get me to where I want to go.

[koopie57]

7. You didn't ask for advice

but a few things my daughter did before going to college was get a job and save money for college. It is nice cuz she doesn't need to ask for money and we even just give her some cuz she insists on paying for her books. Start applying for scholarships TODAY. Apply early to the college of your choice and find out if they have any programs that might grant you a scholarship for participating in. My daughter got two scholarships for participation in a summer band program and a chemistry imposium, came up to $6,500 a year.

There are programs at the schools here that taught us about getting financial aide and stuff. Maybe watch for one of those at one of your local schools.

We are freaking too at the amount of money we need to borrow, but I feel it is worth it cuz she is working so hard and has the desire like you do. Sometimes you just got to believe in yourself and go for it. IMHO.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

9. Thank ya. n/t

[phusion]

4. I'm on FA

loans, mostly...

Even if you live on your own and file your own taxes (as I have since I was 18), they still count you as "dependent" on your parents until you are 24. Because of that, they take their incomes into consideration when giving you aid. It's a crock of shit too because most students have graduated by the time they are 24.

Also, if you have ever been charged with any drug offense (even simple marijuana possession) you are not elgible for financial aid.

Edited to add: Sorry, to respond to your original question...Maybe try www.ed.gov for some stats.

[Igel]

12. It gets worse.

I applied to grad schools when I was 30 and had been independent since I was 22. I was hoping for support. One grad school was Harvard.

My parents were alive; I needed to get their tax returns to Harvard. Eight years of supporting myself wasn't enough.

Years of living by myself helped for establishing residency, at least; U. California had strict residency requirements.

[pitohui]

8. most of the young ones i should think

good lord, how could a student just starting out have enough $$$ to get by w.out aid unless she was born privileged and getting daddyfare?

in days gone by you could get a job & have your co. pay for you to go at night, but now you can't get a good job w. such benefits to begin w. unless you already have a college degree

if we want an educated class that comes from all levels of society & not just from the wealthy elite, we are going to need to be quite generous w. the aid

[Igel]

13. Back in the '90s I knew some; I have to assume it hasn't changed

much.

The real problem was envy. If you were poor, UCLA didn't care: they'd make sure you got enough FA to cover fees, tuition if any, dorm, and other likely/mandatory expenses. You were on your own for the summer and breaks, usually. You didn't have a wonderful existence: but you'd get by on your loans and grants. Sometimes loans could be made to cover some luxuries; but only fools used loan money for non-essentials. There were many fools. Others felt it was necessary to work beyond what work-study offered, in order to keep up the lifestyle they aspired to.

If you were upper middle class or above, then you had a car, apt., and decent lifestyle. Mommy and Daddy would spring for what loans or grants didn't cover. Westwood and Brentwood are not cheap.

Family income of UCLA students in '95 was sharply bimodal: lots of poor kids, lots of wealthy kids. Significantly fewer in the middle, creating a saddle that embarrassed the administration: they couldn't afford all the loans, so they simply went elsewhere.