<p>In a true mistake, I have seen the numbers change drastically, but i do agree that if there is disagreement on how to treat a line item, there isn’t going to be such a big change in aid. It would be great if there were, but can’t count on it. A gap year if the situation will change next year, and another alternative for college if the way GT calculates the needs, given the OP’s financials results in that package.</p>
<p>What am I missing here? The OP is living off the interest on $300,000 yet claims to have no retirement savings (won’t that money continue to be there at retirement age??) You are going out of the country with your daughter for her senior class trip?? Wow. My son’s class is going to an amusement park for a day in May. What exactly will you be doing with your time when you will no longer be volunteering at her school for tuition? If this is the most important thing in the world to you, you will find a way to get a job and make some additional income. I am trying very hard to not be insensitive, but I can’t imagine trying to get by and pay for college for my kids without working. It’s not even a remote possibility for me or most people I know.</p>
<p>I am very sympathetic to the OP and her D - but I would like to play devil’s advocate for a moment. What the OP is saying is that she does not want to use up her assets, she does not want to work at a paying job and she wants her D to get a full ride or close to it from Georgetown. Really? Wouldn’t we all like that?</p>
<p>Paying for college is generally some combination of funds the family has saved, contributions from current income and then loans and gift aid where warranted. I feel bad for the OP that the original info she rcvd from Georgetown was erroneous - that is very unfortunate. But I have a problem with the idea that she wants to protect her assets and does not plan to look for a paying job.</p>
<p>OP - I wonder what you see yourself doing all day when your D goes off to college. It sounds like she is an only child. If you are no longer volunteering at her school for her education expenses - what will you be doing all day? What if Georgetown meets you part way and you need to come up with $20,000 per year? Are you saying you would not even consider looking for some type of job to earn that amount of money? In this economy, a lot of people are taking low paying jobs that they previously would have thought beneath them. If your D’s education is as important to you as you have written here - would you not consider doing so?</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong - I wish you the best and hope it works out. But I think you need to take a hard look at what you are really asking for.</p>
<p>Rockvillemom, I am looking at this in terms of the discrepancy between the estimate GT gave the OP and the actual dollar amounts. I get the impression that the assets and income were given to fin aid to get the estimate. Upon completing the fin aid form, my guess is that additional information arose that increased the estimate. What do you get as a need figure from $400K in assets and a $30K income? Is it in line with the expected contribution or does it look like GT is taking other factors into consideration.</p>
<p>I’d like to protect my funds for the next generation if it’s at all possible</p>
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<p>Please do not tell a financial aid officer that you want to preserve your funds for the next generation. Do I even need to explain why?</p>
<p>Wow, OP, I’m so sorry. You sound a lot like my mom. 
She also is very story- and person-focused and it is hard for her to see how others will deal with numbers she gives them. You need to organize your thoughts a bit more here, though I understand it must be difficult when you’re under so much stress.</p>
<p>Unlike many parents here I am not an expert, however, I do want to say that you must clarify three things with the school; you have two basic questions; and you have one decision to make.</p>
<p>CLARIFICATIONS
- I mentioned the value of services received for barter–a private-school education. Was that considered as a cash income? If so, I request that you please reconsider, because it was a one-time opportunity and is not reliable income.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I mentioned that I am receiving interest from a loan at 3%, and also that I have an annual income of $30+k. I hope you did not extrapolate from this that the whole $30+k comprises 3% of the loan. It does not. 3% of the loan is only part of the $30k, and my total assets are as follows (including the loan): [list assets here, with numbers]</p></li>
<li><p>We had to report social security income on our taxes. However, my daughter’s social security income ends this year, when she will be 18. I hope you have not calculated this in expected income as it will be gone.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>QUESTIONS
- Taking into account your answers to questions 1 - 3, how did you calculate my EFC? How would you recalculate?</p>
<ol>
<li>What specific steps may I take now to ask you to recalculate? Which forms do I need to fill in, and where and when do I need to submit them? Is there a form asking for special consideration? May I write anyone else regarding this? When may I expect to hear back?</li>
</ol>
<p>The bottom line for them:</p>
<p>This is my daughter’s dream college but I cannot risk us losing our home and sole retirement for it, which my contribution would suggest doing. I hope very much we can work out a more reasonable package.</p>
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<p>I hope it works out.</p>
<p>“What the OP is saying is that she does not want to use up her assets, she does not want to work at a paying job and she wants her D to get a full ride or close to it from Georgetown. Really? Wouldn’t we all like that?”</p>
<p>What I understood was that the OP had around $300k for retirement beyond fixed income, and a house in which to live.</p>
<p>She is willing to pay some of that, but not the entire amount, because of the presumed cost of living. Also, she has no job, and she is 58, so presumably she has taken a “forced early retirement” to get her daughter through private school.</p>
<p>$32k +$100k total is not a lot to retire on. If you live to 70, that is $42k annually in Connecticut.</p>
<p>However… I might be mistaken. Does she have retirement <em>as well</em>?</p>
<p>As for working at a paying job at 58 after being out of the workforce for, how long was that, OP? Good luck. I believe she said she could not find gainful employment within driving distance, or something to that effect. That is not like not wanting to work. She’s been working for the past four years at the school.</p>
<p>Many have offered good advice here. One piece that the OP seems to be ignoring is the financial safety. Will she call the schools that had offered so much to see if the offers can be reinstated? Will D apply to Bama?</p>
<p>This is not going to be a popular post.</p>
<p>To the OP…you have a very serious financial aid issue to resolve with G’town. If it were me, I would NOT be taking that trip to Italy. I would be taking myself to DC to visit the G’town financial aid officers IN PERSON…ASAP (so that they would have all of the information PRIOR to any reconsideration after April 1).</p>
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<p>This predicament has absolutely nothing to do with the situation faced by ED applicants. In an ED situation, with the offer of acceptance comes a financial package that a family can decide to accept or reject within a very small window of time. The EA admission comes with no such obligation and a successful applicant can and SHOULD compare financial packages at a number of RD schools. The account of dropping “other” competing alternatives is simply mind-boggling, as this was the result of listening to poor advice or simply not seeking competent guidance. </p>
<p>It is obvious that the OP is a difficult situation, and it is blatantly obvious that she has not received a modicum of adequate advice, regarding both her finances and the impact of supporting her child choices. Fwiw, her financial future resting on the repayment of those “personal loans” secured by promissory notes is especially problematic. Although it is impossible to know how secure those notes are, I believe that the OP should seek immediate advice on a competent attorney to verify both security and the possibility of immediate demands for payments. After all, the regular payment of interest should not be a strong indication of the probable return of the capital. I hope that the OP was not caught in a web of deceit given her visible naivete in financial matters. </p>
<p>As far as the financial aid for colleges, the situation is pretty clear. Georgetown might review the entire financial picture and reassess how they viewed the notes/investments. The best approach should be a combination of a SIMPLE request to review the current assessment and a TELEPHONE conversation that will clarify how Georgetown assessed equity, cash, and investments. The decision to consider part of the assets as retirement assets will be theirs; it is extremely doubtful that this will be the case, and it is extremely doubtful that Gtown will veer away from the principle that the families and the students are the PRIMARY responsible parties for the cost of college. </p>
<p>There are six weeks left before decisions should be made, and this decision should include more than Georgetown.</p>
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<p>I can see why people would think that. However, in the grand scheme of things, the trip to Italy will make no difference. The OP should be able to answer to emails or even place phone calls to Gtown financial aid with ease. The important part is to start communicating in short and succinct terms with the financial aid officers. This can be done from Rome as well as from a caf</p>
<p>I have seen ED packages that had to be revised when the actual forms were submitted that turned out drastically different from the estimates given in the fall. I know a parent who is going through this right now. I agree that this EA situation should not have happened since the OP’s D had till the end of the year to hold on to all of her options. But what she did was take the estimate given by GT as sacrosanct and is now dealing with the real deal after the actual forms were completed.</p>
<p>As to what the OP’s investments are and the wisdom of them, that is not an issue that the college financial aid office is going to consider. They will look at hard numbers of the value of assets and the income from it. I am wondering if the OP received some lump sum money in 2010 that she stuck iinto the assets and is not including that as income. For instance, if she got the proceeds from her mother’s house she sold last year, the unfortunate thing is that not only are they assets sitting there to be assessed but also income. I’ve seen a lot of families sputter when they see things double counted like that especially at the hit it gets as income. </p>
<p>If getting this straightened out is the OP’s highest priority as she states in her letter, she might want to exchange her overseas trip for a visit to DC and a face to face with the financial aid officers. Something in the financials is being considered in a way that makes the figure what it is and the OP needs to know what it is.</p>
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<p>:( I am sorry but I agree. She needs to get a good lawyer for this–not a friend, but perhaps someone at the school where she worked, if that person is not connected to the network of friends to whom she loaned money, can recommend somebody.</p>
<p>“Also, she has no job, and she is 58, so presumably she has taken a “forced early retirement” to get her daughter through private school.”</p>
<p>Why would finding a job that pays 20K (the value of her previous sweat equity) be a problem for a 58 y.o? She is hardly ancient. It seems the OP is willing to pay sweat equity for private school but not for college.</p>
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<p>You are right. But this is an issue of trusting estimates versus financial REVIEWS. The estimates are only valid for people with simple financial situations (W-2, straight investments and retirement packages) and do not work well for self-employed, owners of businesses, owners of real estate, etc.) </p>
<p>At the end, all what families can do is to use the REAL finaid offers to make their decisions.</p>
<p>Letters to financial aid offices should be only one page & explain everything very clearly and precisely. There is no need to run on and on. Financial aid officers have to read a lot of letters, keep it very simple. Volunteering unnecessary information like the $81,000 free private secondary school in exchange for parent’s free labor only confused the issue, thus probably triggered a false assumption on Georgetown’s Financial Aid Office. </p>
<p>If it isn’t on your tax return, there was no need to bring it up!
If it wasn’t on the FAFSA, or CSS PROFILE, under “Special Circumstances” there was no need to bring it up!</p>
<p>I would suggest to the OP that she have ALL of her tax records, investment records, and all other things a school might possibly request when they do financial aid verification. This is a verification target…too many bits of conflicting data.</p>
<p>“What I understood was that the OP had around $300k for retirement beyond fixed income, and a house in which to live.”</p>
<p>“$32k +$100k total is not a lot to retire on. If you live to 70, that is $42k annually in Connecticut”.</p>
<p>I am frankly surprised that having 300k set aside for retirement is considered not much. When looking at costs for my sons we ruled out schools like GU because of what I potentially have set aside for retirement and it is far, far less than 300k and based on EFC via FAFSA and estimates in private we knew we would be expected to fork over full cost if just one son attended college…having 2 in would decrease the EFC substantially. And note, my “fixed income” is a little higher than OP’s, but all in all when I look at OP’s stats I am not at all surprised that they are asking for full cost.</p>
<p>Having said that I know a family who was promised a certain aid package early on, and when it came in writing it wasn’t close. This was Rice U, and upon appeal the student got a package that worked for them.</p>
<p>In addition whether you call it sweat equity, volunteering or whatever, you essentially received 20,000 per year…there is no way around that in my mind. I don’t care who came up with the idea initially, or how you term it, if you weren’t volunteering your daughter couldn’t attend. It is essentially income; it is free tuition, which is worth 81,000.</p>
<p>I trust you have the name of the individual who told the amount was 9,000? I believe you stated his role at GU, so have you asked this person directly what changed?</p>
<p>It seems you do have enough to retire on, and rightly don’t want to dip into that or go into substantial debt for a BA for your daughter. Essentially your daughter (and you) need to accept another offer that has already arrived that she can afford while you work this out. If GU changes their package, and you can keep your retirement, and not go into substantial debt, than you can forgo the deposit on the back-up school. </p>
<p>She will not be able to pay off substantial loans in this market. Many students assume they can, and their loans equal the equivalent of a hefty mortgage, yet they can’t afford to live away from home. I say this because you at one point referenced she would have the ability to pay of loans via her foreign service career…</p>
<p>I am guessing my post won’t be popular, but I honestly believe their finances are pretty good, and the first quote of 9,000 was way off the mark.</p>
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<p>Most colleges do NOT require a student to commit to attend OR accept scholarship offers until the May 1 deadline. If the student was asked to commit earlier (not ED but a RD or EA commitment), then all they need to do is tell the school they are not yet prepared to make a final matriculation decision. We had this happen. The school sounded like they wanted DD to make a decision ASAP but when we inquired they said by May 1 was fine.</p>
<p>This student and parent have until the end of April to sort this ALL out.</p>
<p>I do hope this OP has finalized her 2010 taxes AND sent corrections if any to the schools for both the Profile and Fafsa. Any award based on the estimated finaid forms would be an ESTIMATE only and yes…they can change.</p>
1 Like
<p>“”$32k +$100k total is not a lot to retire on. If you live to 70, that is $42k annually in Connecticut".</p>
<p>I am frankly surprised that having 300k set aside for retirement is considered not much. When looking at costs for my sons we ruled out schools like GU because of what I potentially have set aside for retirement and it is far, far less than 300k and based on EFC via FAFSA and estimates in private we knew we would be expected to fork over full cost if just one son attended college…having 2 in would decrease the EFC substantially. "</p>
<p>Well, my own mother, just two years younger than the OP, was told to have about $500k to retire on, plus a home in which to live, to have a modest retirement, provided she did not live past 80.</p>