How much money can i get off from this information... plz help!?

My expected family contribution for financial aid is $0
the cost of the university is 42,000 a year including dorm fees, etc..


so depening on the efc
how much money do you think i can get off by the school in institutional GRANTS..
i am worried, my family is in a struggle .

Grants will give you some money. You should also look into scholarship programs and especially merit award programs. It also depends on the school you plan to attend. Many states offer programs for students in your situation. Some state universities require a good gpa and the state will take care of the rest (or at least a very large majority of it). As far as Institutional Grants go, you would probably need to contact the school and ask them about it. The best place to start would be with your high school counselor, if you're still in high school (and I hope that you are since this process should be started early). Ask a lot of questions regarding all of the things I mentioned and what to do next. He/She should be able to give you the information you need since part of their job is to get you to college. I hope this helped some. Good luck to you!

i get zero dollar from my family too
so i decided to go college near where i live
now i don't have to worry about tuition fee, resident fee, and other fees
i do have Cal Grants which help me pay for the books and enrollment fee
if you live in California, I'm sure you know about FAFSA and I'm sure they'll send letter say that how much you'll get

if you don't get help from grants then you should think about loan....you can pay after graduate!!!
Good Luck!

Serenity, wow... $42,000??? That's tough. You won't get a good answer here on Y!A, so you should contact your school's financial aid office and ask for a "guess" or "ballpark" estimate of the aid that they can make available to you. They should be able to give you an idea... though they're usually reluctant to do so.

That said, there are some legal issues with financial aid... Your parents income will be plugged into a formula, as will the value of their assets (home, real estate, etc.). Then they will calculate what your parents "should" contribute toward your education. From there, then they start looking for loans, grants, etc. for the remainder.

So the problem with this system is... it places an expectation on your parents to pay, even though they may have made a decision not to help you with tuition. In my case, for example, my parents made the decision not to help me with college expenses. But they made too much money or had too much in assets for me to qualify for financial aid in my first year of college. So the choices they said I had were (a) sit out for a year or two and establish my financial independence from my parents, (b) go to court and have myself declared emancipated from my parents (I was 17), or (c) get a job and pay for it myself. Otherwise, at the time I went to college, there was no other choice in the matter (I opted for option "c" in the end). I gather that they're a little more liberal now in handing out financial aid in the form of loans, but not particularly more liberal when it comes to grants. So you might simply be looking at accumulating a bunch of college loans.

That said, don't let college loans scare you that badly... They shouldn't be thought of as "debt" but as an investment that you're making in your own future. Now, I wouldn't be silly and accumulate $40k/year in loans in order to become a school teacher (or for that matter a university professor...), but if you're headed down a path where you can imagine paying back the $150k+ in loans... then it's an investment that helps you get to that point in your life where you'll be happy doing what you want and making a decent living. If that's not the path... you might consider looking for a less expensive school for your undergraduate work.

Good luck! The financial aid stage is horrible, but things will be okay once you work through it.