College Financial Aid questions

[blissventure]

I definitely agree with those who say not to reject private schools by their price tag. They are generally very good with both merit based and need based money, particularly if the student is near the top of the incoming class. However the top tier schools don't offer merit money (because everyone would qualify). So the trick is to find the schools where her stats put her in the top 25% of their applicants.

We did have DD use money in her account to buy her car since they do give greater weight to the student's accounts. That helped her qualify for a little more need based aid.

Good advice. The only think I would probably mention is that some private schools refuse to give AP credit, and that may force a student to repeat classes that they have already successfully completed. (And of course, they charge for the privilege of repeating.)

Some students will be OK with this, some won't.

 

[disykat]

I have heard about the whole switching money away from your kid's names because they expect you to spend more of it thing. IMO, for those of us with incomes over maybe 80K, I don't think it's worth it. My impression from playing with the calculators is that we'll pretty much be on our own for state schools and private schools will try to get our costs to around the same as a state school.

Am I wrong?

The thing that really horrified me was that many of the calculators asked what our home value was and what our debt load was. Are we really going to get LESS help because we've chosen to live below our means?

The way it stands now, we think we'll be told we have too much money saved so we'll have to pay full price until we run out, at which point we'll have TWO kids in college and no money to pay for it. To try and counteract this, we've been funding son #2's college fund. Guess what, they also ask for money your siblings have!

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but those on line calculators messed with my mind!

 

[bballmom56]

The thing that really horrified me was that many of the calculators asked what our home value was and what our debt load was. Are we really going to get LESS help because we've chosen to live below our means?

FAFSA does not require the use of the home value. I believe the CSS Profile does require it. And yes, it could mean you get less help because you chose to live below your means, save your money, and own a house. I know, it stinks. You might want to have your student apply to some FAFSA only schools and see what the difference in packages is.

 

[PatsMom]

FAFSA does not require the use of the home value. I believe the CSS Profile does require it. And yes, it could mean you get less help because you chose to live below your means, save your money, and own a house. I know, it stinks. You might want to have your student apply to some FAFSA only schools and see what the difference in packages is.

CSS Profile also asks about the value of retirement accounts. Both ask about how much you contributed in the past year so reducing your income by funding retirement plans won't help to reduce income.

 

[blissventure]

The way it stands now, we think we'll be told we have too much money saved so we'll have to pay full price until we run out, at which point we'll have TWO kids in college and no money to pay for it. To try and counteract this, we've been funding son #2's college fund. Guess what, they also ask for money your siblings have!

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but those on line calculators messed with my mind!

It is frustrating. Our kids are close in age, we had two in college at the same time. The way we got the second one through was with PLUS loans. It helped quite a bit, and we just made sure we repaid them rapidly. We just paid off our last loan in Jan. Hooray!!

Since we knew money wasn't going to come floating down from the sky, we were "those" parents who let our kids know how much we could afford. We weren't going to even think about private lender loans for a very expensive private school. Another factor--both of our kids planned early on to continue beyond a Bachelors. Currently, they both have private and public loans (in their names) that they needed to pay for their Professional degrees. I think both of them are glad we (students and parents) worked together to cost contain their Bachelors as much as possible.

And even when you have kids in grad school, life still happens. They are responsible for the school costs, but cars still break down, they occasionally need to move, and so on. We've certainly helped, and they have appreciated it. Not easy, though. I miss the good old days of a $5.00 5th grade field trip. I'm sure I never appreciated how dirt cheap those were.

 

[bballmom56]

Good advice. The only think I would probably mention is that some private schools refuse to give AP credit, and that may force a student to repeat classes that they have already successfully completed. (And of course, they charge for the privilege of repeating.)

Some students will be OK with this, some won't.

It depends on the college. Also depends on the score on the AP exam. Some colleges will give credit for a 3, whereas other schools require a 4 or a 5 to get credit.

What AP credit did for my DD was to cover some of the core requirements. With those fulfilled, she was able to double major. It also enabled her to register with the class ahead of her rather than her own allowing her to get some classes that would have been tough to get if she had to wait to register with her own class.

 

[blissventure]

It depends on the college. Also depends on the score on the AP exam. Some colleges will give credit for a 3, whereas other schools require a 4 or a 5 to get credit.

What AP credit did for my DD was to cover some of the core requirements. With those fulfilled, she was able to double major. It also enabled her to register with the class ahead of her rather than her own allowing her to get some classes that would have been tough to get if she had to wait to register with her own class.

Your daughter's university gave her some very nice benefits for her AP scores. Great to hear!

 

[Cindyluwho]

You buys are amazing with all your information!! DD is just finishing her freshman year of High School but is already interested in looking at colleges and looking forward to doing a couple of internships this summer. She's such a go-getter compared to how I was even in my senior year!!

 

[WDWMom]

Our DD is heading off to college this fall. She is going to a private school. Her 2nd choice was a state school. Although the private school is more than twice the state, both would have cost her the same after school scholarships and loans. Once we saw the financial aid awards from both schools, we were happy to know she could attend her first choice because it wasn't going to cost any more than the state school - in fact, it was about $200 less.

About 2 years ago, friends that have had 5 children go through college told us a few smart tips.

1. Anything we had saved and my mom had saved for her we transfered into one of her brother's names so she showed no assets. It was several thousands of dollars. My mom works at a credit union and has been putting $$ away for all the grandkids. Taking DD's out and into her brothers was smart but not as smart a us (as parents) taking the money we had set aside in a mutual fund and putting it into a CD for 22 months. Shortly after we moved it, the market tanked and we would have lost over 1/2 of it.

2. We had DD pay all her deposits for colleges with her money so when we filled the FAFSA, she had very little in her savings. We also paid all of our bills so when we filled out the form, we had about nothing.

The FAFSA does not ask the same ? as many early estimaters for private schools. FAFSA is straight forward on info from your (and child) tax returns plus $$$ assets (savings, checking, stocks, bonds, child support, etc). They do not ask about your house or cars or any debt. We have not had to supply the private college with any $$$ info as of yet. I think they audit so many a year.

We have told DD she will have to pay for her schooling. Our parents didn 't pay ours and I think we appreciated it more having to work for it. I never knew if I was going to be able to make it 2nd semester or not. I did, but it wasn't easy.

DD has 2 scholarships from the college totaling almost $10K. She also can get about $5K+ in subsidized and unsubsidized loans. She has also qualified for some state grant because of testing in MI that guaranties college $$. I don't remember what else. SHe will have to come up with $4K this year along with working on campus. Thankfully we have the money set aside but that will only last for about 3 years at today's rate.

Good luck