College FAFSA

[Just Mike]

I have a question for some of you.

Our oldest is entering his senior year in High School. He's decided what he wants to do and where he wants to go to college. His dream is this college in Daytona called Embry Riddle. It's an aeronautical university for flight, etc, but they have a Homeland Security Degree that he is interested in...in addition to flight.

The cost of this school being private out of state is ridiculous(in my eyes), but in any case, it is what it is. It's about 40k per year including room/board. I'm not banking on ANY type of scholarships or whatever. Tammi and I have always said we'd NOT burden our kids with student loans like so many kids who graduate college today.

We filled out this ridiculous form called FAFSA that is required. Apparently it's where you fill out your income/assets, etc in order to determine the amount that you will have to pay.

This is where my question comes in...... When doing so, it asks for your gross adjusted income. When I put in 50k it tells me that we are required to pay out of pocket about 8k. When I put in 100k for AGI it shows we are required to come up with about 24k. What I can't figure out is...where does the rest of the money come from? Does the gov't or school actually pay for part of a childs college? We inputed zero grants and zero loans on this application just to get an idea of what we were looking at. I just find it hard to believe that the govt would help pay for college for a kid at a private school out of state. Is this possible? Or are we missing something?

Sorry this was so long-winded. BTW, are any of you guys pilots, either commercial or private?

Mike

[Chicago Jake]

I can't answer your questions, Mike, as my only dependent is a puppy who will probably never go to college. But you have my sympathies on what is no doubt a grueling experience! Good luck!

There are a few board members here who have kids who went to college, so no doubt some advice will be forthcoming.......Jake

[Ardbeg... innit]

Its been a few years but here it goes (if memory serves..) the "expected family contribution (EFC)" number that you get from the FAFSA is the minimum that they expect you to shell out of your pocket. The remainder is up for grabs primarily with Pell Grants and Stafford Loans. In other words if you have to shell out $40K per year and your EFC is $8K, you are eligible for up to $32K in the Pell Grants and Stafford Loans... figure that most of that will be in loans as the Pells max out at $5,500 for the lowest EFC numbers. Because the Stafford's are federal loans (currently just under 7% so they are not a big bargain), they dont really care what state or whether the school is public or private. Given that interest rate, a home equity loan might be a better route if you have the equity and you are repaying.

Now, private/public school tuitions are not near as different as they used to be because in most states the appropriations are much smaller as a % of operating budget than they were 20 years ago. I know that here at Michigan Tech for example, state funding is about 25% of the operating budget, the rest comes from tuition, fees, and endowments. Private schools make up that difference with higher tuitions, BUT they usually have bigger endowments to draw from too.

Our daughter's first two years were in a private school, junior and senior years in a public university. Her tuition those last two years were$10K higher per year because the private school had much larger amounts of monies to draw from for merit scholarships.

AGGRESSIVELY pursue scholarship opportunities at the private school. I have heard of Embry Riddle so I assume that it is a worthwhile investment for your son's education, and given the subject matter, you dont have many alternatives, which will tend to drive the costs upward.

Biggest question I would have is "Is this a worthwhile investment of money for an education?" Most pilots are not making the money that they did 20 years ago, and commercial pilots usually start out flying small planes into regional airports like ours (1 gate with 2 flights per day) and make in the mid-20's salary for the first few years until they build their resume. Most max in the $70s after 20 or so years... check out www.payscale.com

Just one hint... get an airline mileage credit card (or any other credit card with a payback of some kind) just for paying the tuition bill. Most schools let you pay on monthly installments and credit cards are perfectly acceptable for most schools. You put the loan monies (which are doled out twice per year) into a separate bank account, charge the tuition and other fees to the credit card then pay the credit card in full each month from that separate account. You end up paying the bills on time, keeping the education money isolated from regular household bills and rack up frequent flier miles in a hurry.

[Just Mike]

Thanks Ruptured(don't know your name as it's been a while since i've been active here and everyone has changed their screen names, lol).

We definately agree that it's a ridiculous amount of money to pay for a college degree simply to become a pilot. I think the idea is simply to do Homeland Security/CIA/FBI/Law enforcement of some sort. While he's wanted to be a police officer his entire life, we've insisted and convinced him from day one that he needed to get a degree first in law enforcement or something similar in order to move up quickly and not be "stuck" walking the beat at age 50.

In any case, he's excited about this career path, and enjoys flying. Hoping to perhaps add in flight with his job as perhaps border patrol, coast guard, etc.

While there won't be any student loans, i'm kinda resigned to the fact that i'll have to pay the entire amount then. lol

Thanks for all your help!! Norm and Lisa both went to ERAU and loved it...so we shall see.

Mike

[Chicago Jake]

He can get a college degree and flight training at the Air Force Academy or (I think) at the Naval Academy. And all that will cost him is a few years of his life! Or do they charge tuition, too?

[Ardbeg... innit]

I dont think that there is tuition at either, but they dont have to take yo either, and you could end up (using an old Star Trek line) cleaning plasma conduits on deck 57.

[Just Mike]

I know the Naval and Coast Guard academy are one of the best for that....but one of the toughest colleges to get into in the country believe it or not. Or so i'm told.

[innit Geezer]

Sounds like your son is off to a great start. I'm in the same position right now but I wish I had some answers for you. We didn't even try for assistance for our daughter because the parameters are so difficult to meet. Basically, you have to be at poverty level to get help in NY State. I know families in difficulty that have tried for financial help but they have gotten very little.

A cousin of mine went to Embry Riddle and graduated with a degree in aeronautical science. He met his future wife there and they both had very successful careers as pilots. My cousin had his pilots license 17 and before his freshman year, he was destined to be nothing else. I remember seeing a fleet of Cessna's in the school colors way back when.

[Just Mike]

Gary...they do have an amazing fleet of planes there. Tyler is working towards his pilots license currently(hopefully he'll have it before going to Embry Riddle next year).

Who knows the curves that life throws at someone. He may end up in the airline or aerospace industry, or could stay with the current plan of law enforcement.

I agree Gary that we will probably foot the entire bill for it. He could also do Navy ROTC and they will actually pay up to $180k for his college...but then he has to give them 8 years of commitment. Or 8 years if he wants to be a naval aviator. I thought he was leaning towards that and has been talking seriously about it until the other day when I asked him what it was that made him want to do that and he said...."cause those cool white pilot shirts would look amazing on me with my aviator sunglasses".....um, okay...i'm thinking thats a pretty good reason to give up 8 years of your life. LOL.

[innit Geezer]

He'll be fine, watch the big ch-ch-changes in maturity month by month just in time for school. He's going into a good field. We have a 21 year old and a 17 year old. Our daughter is a great lady and the younger guy ch-ch-changes daily! (for the better)