OT: Looking at College Financial Aid Calculations. How close are they?

MinnieForMe · Mar 27, 2015

Hi,
Background: my son is a junior so we can not fill out the "official" financial aid forms until next year. I was playing around with a financial aid calculator on a college site. It came back as our family contribution would be 41% of our UNTAXED income. If this was correct, those of us at home will not be eating.

Is 40% of your income normal?

Thanks for any help.

Michelle

JanaDee · Mar 27, 2015

MinnieForMe said:
Hi,
Background: my son is a junior so we can not fill out the "official" financial aid forms until next year. I was playing around with a financial aid calculator on a college site. It came back as our family contribution would be 41% of our UNTAXED income. If this was correct, those of us at home will not be eating.

Is 40% of your income normal?

Thanks for any help.

Michelle

Our Expected Family Contribution is about 40% of our annual gross income...yes, it's ridiculous, and yes, that is the number colleges have been going off of when figuring financial aid for DS (a senior this year).

scrapquitler · Mar 27, 2015

MinnieForMe said:
Hi,
Background: my son is a junior so we can not fill out the "official" financial aid forms until next year. I was playing around with a financial aid calculator on a college site. It came back as our family contribution would be 41% of our UNTAXED income. If this was correct, those of us at home will not be eating.

Is 40% of your income normal?

Thanks for any help.

Michelle

It was around 35% for us. So yes, it's probably in the ballpark.

lions1995 · Mar 27, 2015

It all depends on your income, but there is a base assumption of how much your family needs to live on (something like a family of 4 needs $25,000). And everything builds from there. It is extremely unrealistic. They really have no care about your mortgage, car payments, ect. When they say that 90% of our stuents get financial aid, that is mostly in the form of student loans. Best bet, look for a college with reasonable costs.

,

4shinystars · Mar 27, 2015

EFC from FAFSA for my dd in college for next year was approximately 20% of gross income, but we haven't gotten next year's finaid offer from the college yet. It'll be higher this year because we can't claim oldest dd anymore. Income below 60k, but fafsa says no pell? that's a killer. she got it last year. Last year the EFC was fairly close to what we had to come up with but was much lower than 20%. She got a generous financial aid pkg including grants and scholarships. Yes, she's taking out max federal loans, but that is her decision. we'll see what the school says in a few weeks.
EFC also counts students' assets, and family assets. If you are below a certain income it will just ask if your assets are below a certain amount and you don't have to itemize.

MinnieForMe · Mar 27, 2015

Hi,
Thanks everyone. It looks like it hurt us to be responsible as well as frugal all these years. Ugh. I guess it's time to readjust our son's expectations (not that he hasn't considered Community College) but he was hoping to go to one of the top culinary schools not only for the education but also for the connections and job placement. I wouldn't have a problem spending this type of money on a STEM degree but for culinary it's seems like a bad investment.

Michelle

Mersmom98 · Mar 27, 2015

You don't even want to get me started on this subject. My son is a senior this year and I'll have another senior next year so we are neck deep in scholarship applications. It really is completely unrealistic how they determine your EFC. All I can suggest besides prayer is find as many scholarships that your child is eligible for and make him fill them out and turn them in. They're a pain, but my son just got $5,000 at a scholarship dinner last night so it's worth the effort!

HM · Mar 27, 2015

I have to tell you that we didn't even bother to fill out FAFSA or look at financial aid for our kids.
I'd heard similar amounts when we were just starting to think about it. We saved in a 529 for our kids (that got killed during the market downturn in 2008) and knew some would be paid from our current accounts. We told the kids that they could apply to any state school as that is what we could afford.

I don't know much about culinary school, but do they have general education classes too? Could he do those in Community College and transfer into the culinary school with some credits?

Darcy03231 · Mar 27, 2015

MinnieForMe said:
Hi,
Thanks everyone. It looks like it hurt us to be responsible as well as frugal all these years. Ugh. I guess it's time to readjust our son's expectations (not that he hasn't considered Community College) but he was hoping to go to one of the top culinary schools not only for the education but also for the connections and job placement. I wouldn't have a problem spending this type of money on a STEM degree but for culinary it's seems like a bad investment.

Michelle

I've had four children go on to college. Don't let the numbers scare you. We found that the private colleges/universities with higher numbers gave out more financial aid than the state colleges. Here's an example:

DD#1 applied to a local private university (her 1st choice). Tuition/fees/books average about $30,000 per year, so a four year degree comes out to $120,000. She could live at home so room and board didn't come into play. She also applied to a state college a little over an hour away. Tuition/fees/books and Room & Board average $18,000 per year so a four year degree there comes out to $72,000. Looks like a no brainer - state school is much less expensive. Then the financial aid packages came in. State school gave nothing in scholarships or grants. Total cost for state school is still $72,000 for a 4 year degree. The private school gave scholarships and grants that covered about 75% of the cost for four years. Total four year degree at the private school is now $30,000. Needless to say, DD went to her 1st choice private university that cost much less than the "less expensive" state school. She ended up graduating in 3.5 years so our total out of pocket ended up being closer to $22,000 for a 4 year degree.

MinnieForMe · Mar 27, 2015

Very impressive! We can hope and pray!

Michelle

Nebraska_Disney · Mar 27, 2015

My wife and I got married in college. I was going to be a senior and she was going to be a junior. We waited until after our summer wedding and did the financial aid papers. Did not matter one bit. I think combined we got $1000 in Pell grants and of our $20K income, it was expected that almost half of that was to be used for school.

The advice I give my kids now (middle schoolers): Study your butts off and get as many scholarships as you can. College is not getting any cheaper and only those living in poverty or just above will get Pell grants. Anyone who is frugal, lives withing their means, saves what they can, will get NOTHING in Pell monies.

HeatherC · Mar 27, 2015

We are going through this now with oldest DD. FAFSA is a joke...literally. She was accepted to all five schools she applied to and the only thing offered was loans.

One Private school offered her $60k over 4 years and another out of state school offered $40k (State School but out of state tuition). Even with scholarships we were looking at $30,000 a year out of pocket.

She has decided to go to an in state University where they actually gave her some grant money and scholarships. She wants to commute and it will only cost us $6500 a year! She wants to teach, so there is no way we can justify paying $30,000 a year when she can gor $6500.

We have two other kids right on her heels and the more we get involved in this college stuff the more I have a hard time justifying paying upwards of $100,000 to get a bachelors degree. And most likely, all three of them will need a masters too which is more money. It is totally insane!

Best of luck to you!!!

tzolkin · Mar 27, 2015

Mersmom98 said:
You don't even want to get me started on this subject. My son is a senior this year and I'll have another senior next year so we are neck deep in scholarship applications. It really is completely unrealistic how they determine your EFC. All I can suggest besides prayer is find as many scholarships that your child is eligible for and make him fill them out and turn them in. They're a pain, but my son just got $5,000 at a scholarship dinner last night so it's worth the effort!

Unfortunately, outside scholarships do not help at all for many schools because they deduct them from the amount they are going to give.

Ex. College financial aid package includes a $20,000 institutional grant. Student receives $5,000 in outside scholarships. College then reduces their grant to $15,000 so the student still only receives $20,000.

The scholarships do nothing for the student (who put in countless hours researching and writing essays)-- they still wind up having to pay the same amount. Instead, the college receives the financial reward for the student's effort.

This is not the case for all schools, but it's something worth finding out about because you will need to factor in outside scholarships when comparing the financial aid award information the schools send after the student has been accepted.

danygirl · Mar 27, 2015

Apply to instate state schools not state schools in other states and to private schools.

I hate to hear we didn't even fill out the fafsa. Even some merit aid offers require that. How do you know if you don't try?

Youngest dd has full tuition at a school with 49k plus per year tuition - she got an awesome scholarship. Middle dd goes to an instate state school with private foundation scholarship

MichelleB · Mar 27, 2015

DD went to an out of state college and we didn't qualify for anything other than the student loan at any of the 7 schools she got accepted at. We met with one of the school's financial aid dept since it was her 1st choice to see what options we had (she's our first and we didn't know much about financial aid). They told me that based on the FAFSA we should be able to write them a check and pay her tuition. I told her that may be the case if I wasn't going to feed the other kids so really just needed her help to learn what our options were. I was NOT asking for a hand out or for her to reduce costs…..just help me understand what we could do. She reiterated that we could write and check and suggested we "continue to look for a new school". Needless to say, DD didn't go there. No way was I writing them any kind of a check after that meeting.

We're now looking at DD2 for college (she's currently a junior) and I'm so apprehensive. The amount the government says parents can afford is absolutely ludicrous!

HM · Mar 27, 2015

danygirl said:
Apply to instate state schools not state schools in other states and to private schools.

I hate to hear we didn't even fill out the fafsa. Even some merit aid offers require that. How do you know if you don't try?

Youngest dd has full tuition at a school with 49k plus per year tuition - she got an awesome scholarship. Middle dd goes to an instate state school with private foundation scholarship

My kids were not top students. Good students but had some fumbles in some classes in HS. Merit was not likely.

ctinct · Mar 27, 2015

The thing with FAFSA is the aid formula assumes a three pronged approach. They assume you have been saving from the start for college; they expect some funds from current income; they expect some funds from future income, i.e. Loans. Yo make matters worse, very, very few schools meet full need. Most schools "gap" you. Also, there is the fact that loans are considered aid, so most people will automatically receive them in their aid packages.

One good thing about FAFSA is the aid formula does not hold retirement funds you already have against you. However, they will consider any funds you've added in that particular aid year, as they consider that a choice. Same thing goes for mortgages, car loans, credit card bills, etc. Doesn't matter to the aid formula how much you have in other bills; they don't count as a mitigating circumstance at all.

The, if you have to file the Profile form, which some private colleges use.....that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish. They drill down a lot farther into your finances.

MichelleB · Mar 27, 2015

Mine was an excellent student and got some merit scholarships but still wasn't great and we didn't qualify for anything more than that. It's such a frustrating process!

mellexsim · Mar 27, 2015

Living it now, DD is 1st in her class as been accepted so far at 3 of the little Ivies. One has offered an amazing package, It will be as cheap to go there as our state school. The rest of them we are looking at 25 to 30 thousand a year. Still waiting on U Penn and Harvard. Seems all her dad and I say to each other lately is what's the financial package? Can't wait for May 1st so it's all over but the crying ( and paying)

maxaroni · Mar 27, 2015

danygirl said:
Apply to instate state schools not state schools in other states and to private schools.

I hate to hear we didn't even fill out the fafsa. Even some merit aid offers require that. How do you know if you don't try?

Youngest dd has full tuition at a school with 49k plus per year tuition - she got an awesome scholarship. Middle dd goes to an instate state school with private foundation scholarship

Unfortunately, NJ State schools are no bargain for in state students, IMO. DS could have gone to a PA state school for the same cost. So glad we are nearing the end as DS is a senior and has 1 more semester that he will be doing over the summer. We were stunned when we were starting the process

OT: Looking at College Financial Aid Calculations. How close are they?

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