College financial aid FAFSA next Jan 1. What will they ask for?

[tvguy]

Please. Join us in the real world.

Your undergraduate university matters MUCH MORE than any other factor you've listed. My guess is you've never recruited for a top-tier company or you've never attended a top-tier school and tried to compete for top-tier jobs.
.

I am in the real world. I'm the guy who has had to work next to their top tier candidates from time to time, until they got fired because they couldn't accept how they learned to do things may not be how corporations are really run. I work for a Corporation with 20,000 employees over 125 locations in the U.S. Not sure if that is a major corporation or not.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

You're totally right.

In fact, when McKinsey or Goldman Sachs gets a stack of resumes for summer internships for juniors the first question they ask isn't "what school is this student attending", instead they ask "what is this person's work ethic and their common sense"?

That's why Goldman Sachs has such a diverse work force, with employees from schools like Harvard and Yale but also East Florida Tech and Southern Wyoming University.

The school you attend really doesn't matter one bit. Every single company recruits at all 5000+ universities in this country. If you want to work for Google you have the same chance attending MIT as you do attending Wayne State University.

Please. Join us in the real world.

Your undergraduate university matters MUCH MORE than any other factor you've listed. My guess is you've never recruited for a top-tier company or you've never attended a top-tier school and tried to compete for top-tier jobs. As someone who was told over and over "Carnegie Mellon is a fine school, with a great MBA program, but we only recruit from the top 10" I can tell you that your school matters much more than any other factor.

I went to University of Washington for undergrad and I got a job at PricewaterhouseCoopers out of school. PwC hired 20 people from University of Washington and 1 person from Washington State University. 20 vs 1. You want to tell me the quality of school doesn't factor in to PwC's recruiting decisions?

The guy with the worst GPA at MIT will have many more job offers at much higher salaries at much better companies than the guy with the best GPA at Washington State University.

My friend's niece got a job there right out of college after graduating from Rider U which is not a competitive school and nothing special about it at all. Certainly not a school that would impress someone on a resume.

Also, no need to be snarky here. Leave the superior attitude at work.

fwiw, I work in health care and couldn't care less to work for Google or Goldman Sachs. My education is nothing to brag about but it suits me fine for the field I'm in.

 

[DVCcurious]

I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying you are looking at this from an experienced job candidate's point of view. Yes, when you're 45 years old it matters much more what you've done the past 10 years than what college you attended. But when you're 25 you don't have a work history, you only have a college on your resume. That's all recruiters can use to judge you.

Sure people who went to Yale get fired, but the thing you're missing is without that top-tier college on their resume they never even would've been hired in the first place.

With the Internet so prevalent knowledge is now free. You can learn Calculus for free online. You can learn how to program computers for free. There are University lectures on any subject just sitting out there for you to watch.

So what, exactly, are you paying the University for? It's not the knowledge because the knowledge is free and readily available. You are paying for the diploma and the college's brand name.

 

[floridafam]

DS has an amazing work ethic. We've never had to bug him about doing homework or anything else. He's a real decent kid

He was on the rowing team for two years but took this year off because his school work is so rigorous.

I went to Harvard's website and put our financial info into their calculator and it gave us a figure that would certainly be manageable.

It seems like DH should try and skip any extra OT he's offered this year. I don't want a slight increase in his income to cause a dramatic change in our expected contribution.

 

[3boymthr]

DS has an amazing work ethic. We've never had to bug him about doing homework or anything else. He's a real decent kid

He was on the rowing team for two years but took this year off because his school work is so rigorous.

I went to Harvard's website and put our financial info into their calculator and it gave us a figure that would certainly be manageable.

It seems like DH should try and skip any extra OT he's offered this year. I don't want a slight increase in his income to cause a dramatic change in our expected contribution.

I'd check to see how much OT he took last year vs. how much you think he'd be offered this year.

Make sure to look at the breakdown of what they are offering you in financial aid. Loans, both student and parental, are factored in as part of the financial aid package and then the family contribution is what they expect you to have on hand in cash to supplement the loans and grants. So you could end up with a financial aid package that includes 16,000 in loans and then have a family contribution of $10,000 and of those only $5,500 of the loans is by the student. Also, this is where it is very important to complete the FAFSA on January 1 because if they are giving you x in pell grants and Y in other grants and Z in scholarships you want to make sure you are first in line for those Y and Z benefits.

Also you may want to look at this article: http://www.princetonreview.com/financial-aid-rating-press-release.aspx

and this: http://www.mefa.org/uploadedFiles/GuidetoCollegeFinancing.pdf Which is one of the hand outs they gave us at the financial aid seminar I attended. It's put out by the state of Massachusetts Education Financing Authority but much of it is relevant no matter where you live.

 

[dreamin_disney]

Question: My daughter is a junior. She will be a senior class of 2017. We talked to our tax guy(he's a CPA-I think that's what his title is ) We asked about FASFA . He told hubby to up his 401K . Hubby got a $25,000 inheritance and we asked if we have to report that on fasfa. I thought I read on here we just have to report the interest but Can't remember where I read that . Tax guy said just say $500 in the bank. Do they ask for bank statements? I have about $1000 in saving account, I'll also have another $1200 saved in a credit union acct that I save $100 a month for the months I don't work(10 month employee). My daughter has a savings account $997.00 and a teen account she uses for shopping of money she received from Bdays or her grandpa that account has $800. Should we empty our accounts before filing fasfa? If so how far inadvance? What about the inheritance hubby received?

BTW- we have a mortgage, two cars that are paid off

 

[Albort]

Question: My daughter is a junior. She will be a senior class of 2017. We talked to our tax guy(he's a CPA-I think that's what his title is ) We asked about FASFA . He told hubby to up his 401K . Hubby got a $25,000 inheritance and we asked if we have to report that on fasfa. I thought I read on here we just have to report the interest but Can't remember where I read that . Tax guy said just say $500 in the bank. Do they ask for bank statements? I have about $1000 in saving account, I'll also have another $1200 saved in a credit union acct that I save $100 a month for the months I don't work(10 month employee). My daughter has a savings account $997.00 and a teen account she uses for shopping of money she received from Bdays or her grandpa that account has $800. Should we empty our accounts before filing fasfa? If so how far inadvance? What about the inheritance hubby received?

BTW- we have a mortgage, two cars that are paid off

i believe its on an honor system.

 

[McKelly]

Isn't the FAFSA date changing this year? Class of 2017 can file October 1st?

 

[barkley]

Question: My daughter is a junior. She will be a senior class of 2017. We talked to our tax guy(he's a CPA-I think that's what his title is ) We asked about FASFA . He told hubby to up his 401K . Hubby got a $25,000 inheritance and we asked if we have to report that on fasfa. I thought I read on here we just have to report the interest but Can't remember where I read that . Tax guy said just say $500 in the bank. Do they ask for bank statements? I have about $1000 in saving account, I'll also have another $1200 saved in a credit union acct that I save $100 a month for the months I don't work(10 month employee). My daughter has a savings account $997.00 and a teen account she uses for shopping of money she received from Bdays or her grandpa that account has $800. Should we empty our accounts before filing fasfa? If so how far inadvance? What about the inheritance hubby received?

BTW- we have a mortgage, two cars that are paid off

i believe its on an honor system.

Isn't the FAFSA date changing this year? Class of 2017 can file October 1st?

NOT the honor system-it's a federal application with financial and jail time penalties for misreporting-

"Intentionally providing false and misleading information on the FAFSA is fraud. The penalties for lying on the FAFSA include, but are not limited to, fines of up to $20,000 and up to five years of jail time, in addition to repaying the financial aid received by the student".

about 1/3 of all applications get called for verification-and you have to provide EVERYTHING (tax records-including the verifications of income/interest....used to complete them, bank statements, investment documents....). emptying accounts unless you are going to spend the money won't do anything to change the numbers-the application asks for totals of money in accounts AND cash/checks on hand.


fafsa filing date is changing for EVERYONE this year-application for students attending 2016-2017 is same as before (opened up 1/1/16) but for those who will attend 2017-2018 it opens up 10/1/16 (but we will use 2015 income information so the same information that we provided for the 2016-2017 application).

 

[CAFarmerGirl]

I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying you are looking at this from an experienced job candidate's point of view. Yes, when you're 45 years old it matters much more what you've done the past 10 years than what college you attended. But when you're 25 you don't have a work history, you only have a college on your resume. That's all recruiters can use to judge you.

Sure people who went to Yale get fired, but the thing you're missing is without that top-tier college on their resume they never even would've been hired in the first place.

With the Internet so prevalent knowledge is now free. You can learn Calculus for free online. You can learn how to program computers for free. There are University lectures on any subject just sitting out there for you to watch.

So what, exactly, are you paying the University for? It's not the knowledge because the knowledge is free and readily available. You are paying for the diploma and the college's brand name.

In some ways you are correct...however, I don't know that you are correct in the way you think you are.

My old engineering firm (my prior career) hired students from a preferred *state* university that was/is known for its hands on program (Cal Poly, SLO). My firm preferred graduates from the state university to the more prestigious, theoretical based universities (i.e., Berkley, Stanford on the west coast). They wanted engineers who could get the job done, not drown in the theory.

Now, if someone wants to teach engineering at the university level, then they should consider the theory based schools.

The bottom line is those loans need to be paid off. And, a STEM graduate is going to find a job a lot easier than a history major, regardless of university. After that first job, nobody cares about your college; they care about your work history.

 

[NewRVLady]

I wish the OP from this Zombie thread would come back and update

 

[dreamin_disney]

NOT the honor system-it's a federal application with financial and jail time penalties for misreporting-

"Intentionally providing false and misleading information on the FAFSA is fraud. The penalties for lying on the FAFSA include, but are not limited to, fines of up to $20,000 and up to five years of jail time, in addition to repaying the financial aid received by the student".

about 1/3 of all applications get called for verification-and you have to provide EVERYTHING (tax records-including the verifications of income/interest....used to complete them, bank statements, investment documents....). emptying accounts unless you are going to spend the money won't do anything to change the numbers-the application asks for totals of money in accounts AND cash/checks on hand.


fafsa filing date is changing for EVERYONE this year-application for students attending 2016-2017 is same as before (opened up 1/1/16) but for those who will attend 2017-2018 it opens up 10/1/16 (but we will use 2015 income information so the same information that we provided for the 2016-2017 application).

So we put down the whole amount of the inheritance not the interest earned. The $1200 will be emptied out end of june because I use that money to survive during the summer months that I don't work. We are getting new flooring in the bedroom this summer so we will use some of the inheritance $$ for that and new windows. We will still have a lot leftover anyways. Hubby says we wont qualify for any financial Aid anyways but we still have to fill it out because my daughter is in avid and the kids are required to do it.

So what else to we have to claim beside bank accounts? Do we claim our paid off cars? We don't have any other properties. We might have to buy a 3rd car only if my work schedule changes so she can get to school.

This is all new to me our daughter is an only child for us

 

[dreamin_disney]

one more question is an inheritance considered income or is just the interest earned on it considered income. I just talked to hubby and he said just the interest earned on it is considered income. Just want to make sure we do things right

 

[MomToOne]

Your undergraduate university matters MUCH MORE than any other factor you've listed. My guess is you've never recruited for a top-tier company or you've never attended a top-tier school and tried to compete for top-tier jobs. As someone who was told over and over "Carnegie Mellon is a fine school, with a great MBA program, but we only recruit from the top 10" I can tell you that your school matters much more than any other factor.

I went to University of Washington for undergrad and I got a job at PricewaterhouseCoopers out of school. PwC hired 20 people from University of Washington and 1 person from Washington State University. 20 vs 1. You want to tell me the quality of school doesn't factor in to PwC's recruiting decisions?

The guy with the worst GPA at MIT will have many more job offers at much higher salaries at much better companies than the guy with the best GPA at Washington State University.

There isn't one "correct" answer to this debate.

For some careers, the school you went to matters - a lot.

But for most, the school you graduate from may matter a bit when getting that first job out of college, but once you are established in the workforce, it doesn't really come into the discussion anymore.

An undergraduate degree from Stanford is actually a running joke in my field - they are known as a "pay your fee, get a B" school. I've worked at companies where if we got a resume from a Stanford student with less than a 3.5, it went into the reject pile for that reason, while a 3.0 at a regular state school got you a look. And that's was based on direction we had from senior management that graduated from Stanford!

 

[runwad]

one more question is an inheritance considered income or is just the interest earned on it considered income. I just talked to hubby and he said just the interest earned on it is considered income. Just want to make sure we do things right

If you're filling out the FAFSA it asks for balances of accounts, checking, savings, cd's if the inheritance is in an account like that you claim the $ amount in the account they don't ask interest just account balances.

Also with upping the 401k that doesn't matter either as at some point in the FAFSA they ask for the amount of money you put in those accounts too. There really is no hiding the money at this point. You need to spend it so it's not there when it comes time for filling out the FAFSA.

edit: check this book out of your library, it has a wealth of information! http://www.amazon.com/Paying-Colleg...w+to+pay+for+college+without+going+broke+2016

 

[dreamin_disney]

so did everyone fill out FASFA on Oct 1st? My hubby filled it out for our DD. Will the EFC amount be what we will actually have to pay for college or is there a chance it will actually be a lower amount?

Question: The school she applies for the FASFA will help her qualify for scholarships so does she have to go each university site and appy for the scholarships or will it be in a package? I've seen some scholarships in high school bulletin that she can apply for but not sure about the universities. She got a scholarship from a sport that she didn't apply for so does that happen often?

 

[kymom99]

so did everyone fill out FASFA on Oct 1st? My hubby filled it out for our DD. Will the EFC amount be what we will actually have to pay for college or is there a chance it will actually be a lower amount?

Question: The school she applies for the FASFA will help her qualify for scholarships so does she have to go each university site and appy for the scholarships or will it be in a package? I've seen some scholarships in high school bulletin that she can apply for but not sure about the universities. She got a scholarship from a sport that she didn't apply for so does that happen often?

It depends on the school. It should all be on the website. And your school guidance counselor us really the best place to get these answers

 

[luvsJack]

NOT the honor system-it's a federal application with financial and jail time penalties for misreporting-

"Intentionally providing false and misleading information on the FAFSA is fraud. The penalties for lying on the FAFSA include, but are not limited to, fines of up to $20,000 and up to five years of jail time, in addition to repaying the financial aid received by the student".

about 1/3 of all applications get called for verification-and you have to provide EVERYTHING (tax records-including the verifications of income/interest....used to complete them, bank statements, investment documents....). emptying accounts unless you are going to spend the money won't do anything to change the numbers-the application asks for totals of money in accounts AND cash/checks on hand.


fafsa filing date is changing for EVERYONE this year-application for students attending 2016-2017 is same as before (opened up 1/1/16) but for those who will attend 2017-2018 it opens up 10/1/16 (but we will use 2015 income information so the same information that we provided for the 2016-2017 application).

Have you actually filled out a verification form that asked for all that?

Our form asks questions that the student/parent answers and signs and we ask for a tax transcript and W-2's. We have never asked for bank statements, investment documents or any of the like.