How is Financial Aide calculated?

[chris1gill]

Hi Everyone,

I have a question. We are looking to put our two children in a private school that offers financial aide (they'll be grades 1 & 4)... anyways, I am curious if anyone know if the value of someone's home is put in the mix, as well as someone's 401K value... These are the two things that would affect our award of lackthereof, so I'm hoping these two things are not considered!

Thanks for any insight!

 

[danacara]

Depends totally on the school. That's also true for colleges. Chances are both home equity and 401(k) are considered.

Good luck!

 

[chris1gill]

oh darn That would be terrible if they are considered Well, I'd better prepare myself for bad news then

 

[caitycaity]

although it does depend on the school for college, the federal FAFSA form makes you report pretty much everything.

 

[mickeysdsnyprncs]

Financial Aid, Yuck!

I hate even the thought of the subject.

Unfortunetly they seem to include everything they possibly can. I am 21 living on my own, working full time and going to school full time and I get nothing because for college until you are 24 you still have to file under your parents even if you do not live with them. Ugh. The only way around it is to either be a veteren, married or be a single mom. So I asked my mom one day jokingly of course: If I would have been one of those girls who got knocked up on purpose in high school I could go to school for free?? (That wasn't put in here to offend anyone it is in a joking manor, so no one please freak out and yell at me ok )

 

[chris1gill]

Originally posted by mickeysdsnyprncs
Financial Aid, Yuck!

I hate even the thought of the subject.

Unfortunetly they seem to include everything they possibly can. I am 21 living on my own, working full time and going to school full time and I get nothing because for college until you are 24 you still have to file under your parents even if you do not live with them. Ugh. The only way around it is to either be a veteren, married or be a single mom. So I asked my mom one day jokingly of course: If I would have been one of those girls who got knocked up on purpose in high school I could go to school for free?? (That wasn't put in here to offend anyone it is in a joking manor, so no one please freak out and yell at me ok )

LOL.... I understand what you're saying... isn't it possible to claim no parental support if your parents haven't claimed you for a certain number of years?

The thing is, if the public school could provide our son ANY instruction AT ALL in any of his gifted area's, we wouldn't need to seek out an alternative school.... It just really angers me

 

[mickeysdsnyprncs]

I am pretty sure there isn't a way to do that but it would be nice.

Maybe you could find something like an extra program, around me there is Sylvian Learning or Huntington. I dunno just a suggestion, might be cheaper than private school. Also my experience with private school is that they require less education to teach in a private school just a bit of info you might like to research.

 

[tar heel]

Yes, your 401K and your home equity count -- they do when you are doing college financial aid, too. Are you doing the standard form for which you pay a small fee and a neutral company tells the school how much you can afford? The things that can help you are a parent being near retirement age, high medical expenses, lots of kids, kids in college -- that kind of thing. We did this form 10-12 years ago and it was determined that we had NO financial need. My impression is that is very difficult for someone with a reasonable income and some other assets, such as investments, to get any significant need-based aid. Some schools have merit scholarships, but, at least at the one my kids attended, they were primarily for upper school or to recruit diversity -- the school had no trouble getting kids at the lower levels and didn't need to offer incentives.

 

[AirForceRocks]

I think your best bet is to just ask the school. I know that around here, it differs from school to school, so what might or might not be true in one place or school might be totally different somewhere else.

 

[tar heel]

mickeysdsnyprncs -- At the really good, academically oriented private schools like she is probably looking at (just a guess), teacher education requirements are HIGHER than public schools. This is not the case at a lot of religious private schools, though.

 

[monarchsfan16]

All of the college counselors have been telling us that the one thing colleges cannot touch, is retirement funds. No one seemed to have an answer on home equity. Now yes this is for college, but I would think that it would have to be similar for private schools.

 

[Snowysmom]

Colleges don't ask about retirement funds. Some private colleges do consider home equity when awarding financial aid. The FAFSA doesn't ask for your home's value but the CSS Profile that alot of private colleges require you to fill out does ask about equity and what you owe on your home. I don't know if this is the same for private elementary and secondary schools.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Originally posted by mickeysdsnyprncs
I get nothing because for college until you are 24 you still have to file under your parents even if you do not live with them. Ugh.

Isn't that GARBAGE!!!!! My nephew has cannot get any help because of that. His parents will NEVER help him, in fact they do not have any contact with him. He just turned 18 in Dec.

Why oh why is this the RULE for financial aid???

 

[chris1gill]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their advice & comments. I filled out the form & it specifically EXCLUDED the 401K retirement monies, so thank goodness for that one.... It did ask about our homes value & what we owed on it....

We do have higher than normal medical expenses, maybe they'll take pity on my kids LOL...

The school we are looking at has 43 faculty, 26 of which hold at least Master's degrees, and there other teachers there pursuing their Masters... The academics are much more rigorous than what we've seen from our public school....

I'm just really hoping for at least a third in aide, otherwise it will be a no go.... Oddly, once the children get to grade 4, you do get a higher percentage of your unmet need in aide... so, whose to know, we'll let the chips fall where they may!

 

[Dan Murphy]

This book, of ALL the books available, was most helpful to me each year when we were dealing with the college funding, and that's part of my business, LOL, but so very confusing. I purchased the new edition each year and found it invaluable.

For FAFSA purposes, the items not included in the asset mix are home equity, farm equity (if principle business), retirement funds in any qualified retirement plan, life insurance cash value and annuity cash value.

And FAFSA pretty much boils down to 1)parents' assets, 2)parents' income, 3)student's assets, 4)student's income, 5)age of oldest parent, and, importantly, 6)the number of FAMILY MEMBERS enrolled in a full time college curriculum for the year in application. Colleges themselves can all have a different spin on it.

Not to be taken or construed as financial advice

 

[Bob Slydell]

Originally posted by Dan Murphy
This book, of ALL the books available, was most helpful to me each year when we were dealing with the college funding, and that's part of my business, LOL, but so very confusing. I purchased the new edition each year and found it invaluable.

For FAFSA purposes, the items not included in the asset mix are home equity, farm equity (if principle business), retirement funds in any qualified retirement plan, life insurance cash value and annuity cash value.

And FAFSA pretty much boils down to 1)parents' assets, 2)parents' income, 3)student's assets, 4)student's income, 5)age of oldest parent, and, importantly, 6)the number of FAMILY MEMBERS enrolled in a full time college curriculum for the year in application. Colleges themselves can all have a different spin on it.

Not to be taken or construed as financial advice

Dan, the OP was asking about grade school financial aid.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Originally posted by Bob Slydell
Dan, the OP was asking about grade school financial aid.

Oh. I have to read closer, LOL. I thought she meant freshman and senior for college, with grades 1 and 4.

Well, nothing like an early start, it will be a big bill out there, and the longer time to get ready and plan, the better. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[chris1gill]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the info... what is FAFSA? What I'm filling out now, is the School & student service for financial aid... it goes to Princeton NJ...

Financial aid for the independant prep. schools seems to work the same as college... the only difference I can figure, is that the independant school we're looking at only gives 30% of the unmet need for children under the 4th grade... whereas 4-6th get 75% of their unmet need... I think the 7th-9th get 90% of the unmet need... keep in mind the tuition is almost the same for the first grader & the ninth grader!!! It's about the same as college tuition, yikes!

I need any book I can find!

 

[tar heel]

chris1gill -- That's the form we filled out, too. I was thinking it included retirement funds -- obviously I was wrong. We were totally shocked when it determined that we had NO financial need. It would have been impossible for us to have paid the school's tuition for two kids, which was about 25% of our take-home pay the first year and rose to more than 1/3. My in-laws generously agreed to pay half it, and we still struggled to make our half for the five years our kids attended there. We did not take a vacation other than to a family-owned place the entire five years. At our school, there were really not that many kids getting significant financial aid b/c anyone who could get it couldnt' afford the school.

It sounds like your school also needs to recruit via financial aid in the upper grades but not the upper ones. Our son was offered a pretty good scholarship for upper school but chose to transfer to public.

 

[chris1gill]

Originally posted by tar heel
chris1gill -- That's the form we filled out, too. I was thinking it included retirement funds -- obviously I was wrong. We were totally shocked when it determined that we had NO financial need. It would have been impossible for us to have paid the school's tuition for two kids, which was about 25% of our take-home pay the first year and rose to more than 1/3. My in-laws generously agreed to pay half it, and we still struggled to make our half for the five years our kids attended there. We did not take a vacation other than to a family-owned place the entire five years. At our school, there were really not that many kids getting significant financial aid b/c anyone who could get it couldnt' afford the school.

It sounds like your school also needs to recruit via financial aid in the upper grades but not the upper ones. Our son was offered a pretty good scholarship for upper school but chose to transfer to public.

Ugh Tar Heel, this doesn't sound good for us Even if we got half aid, we would have to really work to come up with the other half... I would think half tuition would be better than no tuition for them however!! Maybe they don't see it that way... it's still disappointing...

Yeh, unless I really missed something, that form only asked if you had a 401K, it did not ask how much was in it....

Oh bummer, I'll still hope for the best..

One more thing, why did your son decide to transfer to a public school having spent five years in the independant school?