Everything identical, no rollovers. I’ve done it for several years with one child in college and I’m a finance person. Something is definitely wonky with the FAFSA form compared to the CollegeMoney form.
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Well…@kelsmom says the FAFSA formula does not ask much…and needs to be tweaked. That’s likely the problem.
I’m on the FB group paying for college. if there is such a difference between these two, people are going to go nuts. (and just did the college form; came up with an SAI in the low 50s compared to the FSA form of 89K) 
Very few questions. I am going to look at it again more closely.
That is an understatement!
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I guess my question is…why was this formula released without sufficient vetting for something close to accuracy.
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People with businesses and farms that weren’t previously required to be reported on FAFSA are indeed going to get an unwelcome surprise.
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That’s the million dollar question.
There are also many rumors out there that FAFSA won’t be ready in December, but we will cross that bridge if and when we get to it.
If anyone who did the two calculators wants to post the inputs … or pm them to me … I can look at the outputs. I get the same SAI with both the calculators using the scenarios I input. I am also getting a similar 2023-24 EFC. So I would like to have some numbers to plug in that will give me a different outcome. That will give me a starting point to do some plug & crank that might reveal what is happening.
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Linking to where people can download/view the paper fafsa pdf: View Information Collection (IC)
This is being updated regularly. Last update was 9-1-2023.
Yes, January is the current estimated release date per a college round table last week. The Ponoma dean said January and others nodded.
Well back in the Stone Age, the FAFSA wasn’t available for real filing until January…and even then many folks had to do a “will file” status because it used prior year, and not prior prior.
So…maybe we are going backward.
I just ran the numbers using only the new FAFSA online formula, and to me the cash/investment asset question is the key. When I added an additional 20K to the cash/investment/savings question my SAI went up by 10K. I did that with several different numbers. I put in 140K, 160K and 180K and the SAI went up 10K each time.
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But you said nothing changed…so your assets were the same, right. And you still got a different set of numbers.
I think someone should take @kelsmom up on her offer. Let her run the exact same numbers using your info…for both formulas and see where it takes her.
yes, but I was trying to figure out what data point is making the SAI change so much. It looks like to me it’s the cash/investment question. In other words, with the old system, parent’s savings were calculated at about 6% being part of the EFC. Now it seems, parent’s savings are calculated higher.
What I did was using only the new online formula tool, I changed one data point - the cash/investment. When I imputed different amounts in that box, my SAI changed dramatically. To put it simply, for every $20,000 I added to the cash/investment box, my SAI increased by $10,000.
The new formula asks for
- Parent’s Adjusted Gross income
- Parent’s value of cash/savings/investments
- Student’s gross income
- Student’s savings/cash
so very bare bones.
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I did the FSA calculator using $160,000 parent income, no student income or assets. I used $140,000/160,000/180,000 parent investments. Yup, the SAI jumps $10,000 for every $20,000 additional at this level. Not sure if it would at a lower level (I’ll try it). I also think that the SAI itself is a whole lot higher than it was using the same numbers on a 2023-24 calculator … although I’m not comparing apples to apples because the 2023-24 federal calculator is not available (at least, I couldn’t find it).
I would say hang tight. The calculator might be wrong. If not, though, TBH, the inputs are high enough that there wasn’t going to be federal aid other than unsubsidized loans, anyway. But I will do some manual calculations when I get some time.
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The parent asset conversion rate in the SAI formula is .12 (applied to assets after deducting the asset protection allowance which maxes out at $10,500). See graphic below from page 8 of the DRAFT SAI formula here. Additional adjustments may happen as one continues working on Page 8. NOTE*** I haven’t verified that either calculator matches this draft SAI formula at FSA Partners.
ETA: continuing working on page 8, looks like the PAAI gets the asset conversion rate to 5.64%. So looks like the Fed SAI calculator may be wrong.
See here for details: FAFSA Basics: Parent Assets — How to Pay for College
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this is great, thanks for the link to this.
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Okay, I did the manual calculations, which gave me an SAI that is about what I get when I use the more detailed calculator that was posted. The Federal Student Aid calculator gives me an SAI that is roughly double what it should be! I will have to play around to figure it out, but given that additional assets increase the SAI much more than they should, I suspect it’s in the asset calculations. I submitted a comment when given the opportunity to complete a survey. Guess we’ll see whether anyone is paying attention.
Using income of $160,000 (split evenly between parents), tax paid $19,000, $140,000 assets, 3 in family, older parent 45, living in a state with 5% tax (the tax table is different by state), and no income/assets for student I get an SAI about $3,200 more than the EFC was in 2023-24 for the same situation.
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You would have thought that maybe someone in the main office would run the online calculator and maybe check to see if it works correctly?? Really mind-blowing. Good news is that there is an old-school paper version available - which appears correct - but most parents certainly aren’t going to put pencil to paper.
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I ran some additional calculations, and there’s definitely a glitch with the assets. There may be additional glitches, but something is absolutely off with assets. When I try bumping up asset amounts, the difference between manual calculations and FSA calculations gets bigger.
Mistakes do happen, and feedback from users and from aid professionals will alert FSA that they need to look at the issues. People need to call, email, complete the online form to alert Federal Student Aid to the issue.
Of course, I will always say that there is a possibility I am wrong. I don’t think so in this case, but it can happen.
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