<p>Is there a way to legally reduce your estimated family contribution on the FAFSA. Just beginning to understand this, and could use lots of advise from you who are experienced</p>
<p>There are some ways. My best resource for FA, getting started, was the Princeton Guide, How to pay for college without going broke.</p>
<p>It covers possible strategies like paying down your mortgage with savings, moving $ into a retirement fund, whose name college funds should be in, and so on. Also explains the process well.</p>
<p>Thanks, ohiobassmom. I will definintly get this book. If you have any more tips, I would certainly appreciate it. I have a son that is a Jr. and we are thinking ahead to next year and all the things we must research and be on top of. Overwhelming, really.</p>
<p>You can run your numbers through an EFC estimator to see where you are now: [ACT’s</a> Financial Aid Need Estimator](<a href=“http://webapps01.act.org/fane/docs/]ACT’s”>http://webapps01.act.org/fane/docs/)</p>
<p>…and it’s good that you are thinking of this now. There isn’t really time to save much more than you may already have, but there is definitely time to get organized and work with what you have now. </p>
<p>My best advice is to get your FAFSA done ASAP next year (get PIN first) - I did mine Jan 2 with estimated tax #s - and complete your taxes as soon as you can after that. This stuff is in that book.</p>
<p>Look at colleges that offer merit money especially if your EFC is high.</p>
<p>I also like this site for ballparking possible financial aid offers - in a couple of weeks I’ll tell you how accurate it was in predicting my S’ FA packages: <a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/promo/promo_netcost_tmpl.jhtml[/url]”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/promo/promo_netcost_tmpl.jhtml</a></p>
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<p>Just be careful with the advice, because not all colleges follow the same formula. For a college that caps home equity, for example, paying down a mortgage can be a good idea. But, for the majority of Profile schools that do not cap equity, you are only moving money from one pocket to another. The impact on financial aid is zero.</p>
<p>staubmom: you also need to be concerned about timing. Moving assets can be helpful if done prior to senior year, the base year for college. Any funds contributed to a 401k during senior, for example, get added back to income to calculate the EFC.</p>
<p>^ staub specifically asked about FAFSA, not Profile. </p>
<p>But new college parents often have no idea about Profile vs FAFSA so that’s why I recommend the book…it explains all that too. And timing.</p>
<p>When our college freshman got his acceptances, he had a wide array of choices and costs. If he stayed at home and commuted he could go for free to a private school. He got a very nice scholarship to a local private. If he went away to a state school, we could afford to pay his whole way there as we did for his brother. No loans for anyone. The full price privates that we knew would be long shot in terms of merit money, went off the table immediately as they just weren’t doable without putting us in a bad place, where we already are and working our way out of as we paid full price for a private for our first son. </p>
<p>Some nice surprises too when you apply to a varied hand. A surprise merit award put a private that he was sure would be off the table into the running.</p>
<p>I think the young lady in the article has her bases covered well. She did select a number of schools that are low cost and commuter as well as some schools that might come up with merit money. Surprising that she was not accepted to the Baruch program. It looks like a lot more kids are going for the low cost, high quality of this commuter option.</p>
<p>Exactly. I was talking with my husband yesterday about just that. In a society where children are expected to take care of their parents financially and physically when they age, it makes sense to invest all you have on your children. Here in the US, the best favor you do to your children is to make sure you are out of their hair when you age, and the best you can expect is being tossed into a retirement home. It does not make sense to throw your last card on your child, it does not do him/her a favor.</p>
<p>Flagship schools are NOT particularly generous with low income residents. Yes, there are some that are, but not most. If you are lucky enough to live right within commuting distance from your state flagship, that may be the case since you can then commute and PELL and Staffords come up to about $11K right there, but a school like Penn State, a great state flagship, doesn’t give out much aid and the tuition is still several grand more, not to mention commuting costs, books, It isn’t easy in a state like PA. </p>
<p>In our state, we don’t really have a flagship, but have 4 main universities, none of which are within commutable distance from NYC. That means a smaller state school, and, yes, we do subsidize them well with low tuition and generous programs like TAP, HEOP for thoe who are PELL eligible or close. I think that is the way it should be. But if you want to go awary to college, you do have to find the funds yourself for that portion of the cost as none of the schools guarantee to meet full need.</p>