Absolute shock and desperation over financial aid letter

Paying for College
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<p>The only fact that the college wants to know is the Net equity of your home: current value less mortgage. Is it $100k? $150k? $250k?</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/02/22/aid[/url]”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/02/22/aid&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Just the opposite. The wealthier Ivies (and Stanford and MIT) “tinker” with the formula by capping home equity at 1.2 times income. The previous formula was 2.0-2.4 times income. For someone living on either coast, that multiple can mean a huge swing in EFC.</p>

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<p>Fairfielder- I really feel for you. I’m pretty sure (based on your screen name) that if you had a NMF offer from UConn Honors, they would still honor it. She could go there for the first two years, then transfer if she wanted. I know a couple of kids who have done that, and it’s a good program.</p>

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<p>For some families the trade-off from public to private does not amount to much out of pocket costs yet for other families it is a huge consideration. The oft quoted “it can be less expensive to attend a private than a public” is simply not true for everyone. Your FAFSA EFC is very low and that FAFSA calculation structure coupled with the NMF situation could have worked, and might still work (but time is ticking away) to your advantage in the public systems. Do you have a Plan B?</p>

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<p>I would not mention anything about the 81K your saved by volunteering. That is irrelevant, for all you care your daughter got a scholarship to a private HS and you volunteered there and have no income to show for it. Do not give more information than necessary. They do not need to know why your daughter went to a private school. Mentioning that will cause more confusion, not clear up any facts.</p>

<p>So here are the facts:</p>

<p>Your current sources of income are SS death benefits, and interest income on $300,000 and interest income is about $30,0000 (based on 10%). Once your daughter graduates, your SS income sources will dry up and unless you get a job, your income will be $30000.</p>

<p>You have about $303000 in cash and assets and some equity in your house (primary residence) and that is all you have. At 5%, these assets can add up to about $15000 to say $20,000 to your EFC ( if you have substantial equity in the house of about $100,000 then it will be at the higher end). These assets are all that you have and they are not liquid as the $300,000 is on loan to someone else and you do not have much income to get a HELOC.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, the school could say “borrow on the loan that you have given?” which is not in your interest.</p>

<p>You need to write to them and follow up by talking to them and referring to the letter. Fax or e-mail it to them and then call them and talk to them.</p>

<p>Face the fact that you are in a difficult position, you have $300,000 plus home equity. Colleges could say "College education costs $220000 over four years, the student can earn something, you can take Stafford loans etc and you will still have over $100,000 left over. Colleges are not in the sympathy business, they have an organization to run.</p>

<p>This goes back to advice on CC, Never apply ED if you have substantial FA needs.</p>

<p>In your position, I would talk to the school, but have a plan B. Alabama seems a very good plan B, not what you want, not what your daughter wants but she can graduate nearly debt free and your assets are saved. Hard options but better than many other people on CC. I know I sound a little tough, but you have to get beyond emotion and understand the school will most probably come back with an offer that may still not be acceptable.</p>

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<p>This should be done, I agree. BUT remember, G’town has it’s own formula for computing the awarding of institutional need based aid. The “realistic number” the family computes will have NO BEARING on what Georgetown offers this student. It will, however, help the family determine if they can afford to send the student to the school.</p>

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<p>Before you do this, think about it. Even IF G’town agrees to do this (which I SERIOUSLY DOUBT they will do), what good would it do your daughter or you? She would get one year at the school and then you would either have to pay the price OR she would need to transfer. Transfer students typically are NOT eligible for merit aid awards which is what your daughter should be pursuing. She has the chance even now to get a good merit award if she acts quickly (and yes, I realize it’s not at number one school…but if money is an issue, then compromises will need to be made by the student and family on this issue).</p>

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<p>I believe Gtown has both ED and EA options. If this OP was accepted ED, the enrollment decision and written financial aid estimate would have happened a while ago. If this student was accepted Early Action, this would not be the case, and EA financial aid awards typically are given about the same time as RD ones. So to the OP…which is it? EA or ED.</p>

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<p>Re: the proposed edit of the letter…the above should be removed. Schools do not set a %age amount of what is IN a student’s accounts as a dollar contribution amount. They set an AMOUNT which they expect the student to contribute. They don’t care if it comes out of current savings or future earnings.</p>

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<p>“while I couldn’t find a nose-to-the-grindstone job in my small town”</p>

<p>I think the financial aid office would need more info. Are jobs not available? Is commuting possible? I think the financial aid office would need specifics as to why you can’t work to help support your daughter’s education.</p>

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<p>The financial aid office will NOT care whether the OP gets a job…or not. HOWEVER, the university will not offer more financial aid to cover the family contribution they have calculated and getting a job may be one way that the OP can make a contribution to their daughter.</p>

<p>I will add…G’town will probably offer a bit more aid…we know several students who have had their packages reviewed. HOWEVER in NONE OF THESE CASES…did G’town’s amended offer up their aid significantly enough to make attendance possible for these kids (and these were kids who were getting $25K or more in need based aid from the school in their original packages). This OP is basically hoping that G’town will increase their aid by over $40,000. There would have needed to be a huge mistake on G’towns part for an increase of that magnitude, in my opinion.</p>

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<p>This was not an Early Decision application. From the first post:</p>

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<p>Some Profile schools will take into account the parent’s retirement funds, or lack thereof. There’s a question on the form for the amount in qualified retirement accounts. My understanding is that if that amount is zero, an allowance is made by the college so that the parent would be expected to spend less of her assets for college than she would otherwise.</p>

<p>Perhaps the fact that there are no funds in any qualified retirement plans should be included in the letter.</p>

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<p>A lot of good advice on this thread. This is a sterling example of why one cannot assume anything about aid until the award letter is in hand. Who would have come up with a package like that given the OP’s FAFSA EFC, assets and home equity. It makes no sense at all.</p>

<p>GT does define aid in its own way as do many of the PROFILE and own fin app schools. Without seeing what the OP reported on that form, it is impossible for us to even guess what GT did to come up with those numbers. The OP does need to go over the financial aid calculations with the financial aid officer and get a line by line accounting. There must be a mistake somewhere for such a huge discrepancy. They do not calculate assets back from the earnings, so, no, the $300K investment would be taken at its reported market value.</p>

<p>Two things that might figure in all of this would be the Social Security payments. Whether they are ending or not, if they were part of 2010 income and if GT counts them as such, they will be included as income to which the % of contribution is calculated. If the child’s income is assessed at 50% that can be a pretty big chunk right there. </p>

<p>Hopefully that $80K value of tuition was not reported on the financial aid forms, because if it was, yes, they will use it. There was no reason to bring it up at all unless you report it for taxes. If it is considered income for taxes as a result of barter, that can be an issue. </p>

<p>I come up with close to their numbers if I stick in the $20K per year income equivalence for tuition, and estimated social security in addition to your other information, so I suspect that may be what was done.</p>

<p>Good luck in talking to them. I am sorry this happened and hope that they will give you a reconsideration.</p>

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<p>thumper:</p>

<p>Georgetown does not offer binding ED, only Early Action.</p>

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<p>I can get close to the GT number also with just the little info on this thread, and I know I’m harping but the OP needs to get on the phone and not simply write a letter. The Georgtown finaid thread already has a few kids complaining they got litlle to no aid and CC is but a tiny fraction of total kids admitted…the sooner the better for the OP to get talking live with someone who can go line by line…</p>

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<p>* think I’ll ask the university if they would honor, at least for the freshman year, the original offer of $9K max, even though it was verbal and not in writing, since it came from one of the deans of financial aid. </p>

<p>Before you do this, think about it. Even IF G’town agrees to do this (which I SERIOUSLY DOUBT they will do), what good would it do your daughter or you? She would get one year at the school and then you would either have to pay the price OR she would need to transfer. Transfer students typically are NOT eligible for merit aid awards which is what your daughter should be pursuing. She has the chance even now to get a good merit award if she acts quickly (and yes, I realize it’s not at number one school…but if money is an issue, then compromises will need to be made by the student and family on this issue).</p>

<p>*</p>

<p>Thumper is right. There’s no real benefit for doing this. If her aid disappears for years 2,3 and 4, she’d have to leave the school.</p>

<p>It is far better for her to go somewhere cheaper for the first 2 years and then transfer to GU for the last two. Or, go somewhere cheaper for all 4 years, and then go to GU for grad school. </p>

<p>I think part of the problem is that GU (and BC) wants to play with the Big Boys (ivies/Stanford), but they don’t have the endowment to do it, so they promise to “meet need” (ha ha), but since they get to determine the need, it ends up being a joke.</p>

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<p>^^ A bit harsh. I’ve known families who have gotten competitive packages from GT and from BC. I don’t know what other schools would have done with the OP’s information as reported. We don’t know what the OP reported. </p>

<p>My friend was very bitter about how Harvard assessed his financial worth and did not give his kid a cent in aid. His entire livelihood and retirement plans were in some buildings. To sell or borrow against them cut into not only current earnings but in what he considered his pension. But that was not the way Harvard looked at it. Out of a number of schools, some were willing to give some flex and some aid, but not Harvard. It all depends on the particular situation and how a college looks at it. Hopefully in this case, it is not something with a precedent, and some judgment can be used by the fin aid office to increase the aid. Some of the items that may be adding to income will not be there in future years, it seems and maybe they can be considered unusual circumstances.</p>

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<p>Thanks Bluebayou…I misread their website!! It’s EA…not ED at G’Town.</p>

<p>That being the case, this poster has until the end of April to sort this out. I would hope that they still have schools in their acceptance pile that they have NOT said “no thanks” to since there was no obligation to do so until the student made a matriculation decision.</p>

<p>As mentioned by others…make some ASAP calls to some of these places that offered the full rides to see if they are still available. Apply to 'Bama ASAP. Contact Financial aid at G’town and see if they will do a line by line with you over the phone. If you can find the time and money for an inperson visit, I would suggest that. That way you can lay out your financial documentation to the finaid officer in person. Or perhaps be prepared to pay the full price at G’Town. All options to be considered.</p>

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<p>Every once in a while I see posters saying how little risk there is to applying ED to full need schools. When I see posts like this, it makes my hair stand up when I think of folks who did fill out an estimate to an ED school and get a nice estimate, only to get the real numbers like this OP did. I’ve seen it happen. I know that this is an EA situation, but the OP is in a similar predicament as if it were ED since the other options were discarded on the basis of estimates.</p>

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<p>I was told by phone yesterday that the school would read a reconsideration letter but not until after the first of April, which is a few days after I return to town. Therefore I’m putting all the information I can come up with into a long email, which you’ve read the first draft of. That way they will have all the figures in front of them when we do talk by phone. I will ask them for specific formulas and amounts at that time and then run it by my usual people (including you guys now!).</p>

<p>My “sweat equity” in my daughter’s high school education was not reported as taxable, since no income was received and no payment was made. If it had been, I can see how this would bump the EFC up.</p>

<p>The person who is my original contact at this school (the “parent advocate” who sounds like a truly nice guy) was going to talk to his supervisors about our financial aid package after we hung up yesterday. I hadn’t organized my thoughts completely but I got the basics conveyed. Seems the first sticking point was my volunteer time at the school–I had thought this would be such a plus, and now it seems they are holding it against me mathematically by misunderstanding it as earned income.</p>

<p>At the end of this month we’ll also have acceptances and financial aid packages from one Ivy and an Ivy wannabe–so we’ll have some alternatives and comparables.</p>

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<p>Since when is hundreds of thousands of dollars in home equity a “joke”? Better for colleges to go need-aware like Tufts? Better to claim to meet full need but then “meet” it with private loans ala Wake Forest? Better to drop full need and give loads of merit money like Miami and Tulane? Why blame the (victim) poorer schools for not being rich? Do you show the same disdain to the non-HYP Ivies for not giving out as rich a package as H (up to $180k income)?</p>

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<p>Fairfielder, I think you need to stick to the point in your Email. Why do you even mention the sweat equity at the school and put a value on it? How is that different from a parent who makes that amount and pays it to a school? I know a lot of parents who work just to pay for their kids’ private schools, and yes, when the kid goes off to college, those earnings are considered even though they did not go towards anything other than the kid’s educaton (may not even have covered it in many cases). If it’s not reported, you should not even have mentioned it, because if it is in the picture, I can see where it can be included as income. Throw in the social security payments as well, and you have your number. </p>

<p>But this is all guess work. You need to go over this line by line with officer and find out exactly how they calculated your D’s need and aid package. If it is a temporary thing like the sweat equity and social security, perhaps your D can take a gap year, and next year those items won’t be in the equation.</p>

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<p>Fairfield,</p>

<p>Many folks are concerned because we haven’t heard much about a financial safety. It’s quite possible that you have that covered, but, if you don’t, you should have your daughter apply to one of the schools that gives large amounts of merit aid to NMFs. You don’t want to wait for your financial packages to come in from the other schools only to find out that you let the NMF package from some place like Alabama slip away and then find you are uncomfortable with all the financial packages you receive. If your daughter applies and still gets a suitable offer from GU, then you’ve lost a little time and money for the peace of mind.</p>

<p>Best wishes as it plays out…</p>

<p>Ooops, guess the html is not needed for the title…</p>

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<p>Yes! Please listen to Mom2ck and everyone else and get a backup plan that is affordable in place ASAP!</p>

<p>Other than that, good luck.</p>

<p>So far, reading these boards, I’ve never yet heard a story where somebody who was this far apart in numbers with the FA offer got anywhere near to a comfortable number. I could be wrong, but it would seem to me that the sooner you let your daughter know what’s going on, the sooner she can begin to mourn and adjust her expectations.</p>