Accurate FA calculators

Paying for College
1

<p>Ok, so long story short, I am a pretty good student in school and I go to a fairly tough private H.S. I've got a 4.1W and a 3.8+UW, but my standardized test scores are, meh average. I got a 27 on the ACT, so still the 90th percentile, but not going to land me any big schollys. I'm just a sophomore so I know I've got time, I'm hoping for a 32+.</p>

<p>Ok, so on to the real question. I had my dad fill out the FA calculator on College Board, it took him two minutes, rough estimates. The FAFSA number was 28k, but the institutional aid would be 23k, they estimated. I was content with this, though I knew it was not the real number. Then, the next day,my parents went to these college financial planning "experts"(they charge, but they were going for a free trial). They were there for a while and they told my dad our EFC would be 35kish, and my heart sunk when I heard this. I don't think we could pay that. The "experts" said if we got rid of my 529 plan, cash it in, then our EFC would go down to the 27k range, which is ok, still a little higher than I'd like. </p>

<p>But some of the schools I'm looking at like Notre Dame, Cornell, Northwestern, etc... are expensive, but meet your need. But I'm not happy with our EFC(Well who is?), and those types of schools don't give merit aid or if they do, I wouldn't get any with my 27 ACT, much less get in. </p>

<p>But even my safety schools, Alabama, CofC, ASU, etc... places where I think I could get some very nice $, I'd need a score higher than 27 to get near full tuition$. I haven't taken the SAT, but I've never been a great standardized test taker, but I'm hoping to do slightly better. </p>

<p>And will our CSS/Profile EFC # be higher than the FAFSA? Some people have told me yes, some no, so I don't know. </p>

<p>Ok, so does anyone have some good calculators I could have my dad punch numbers through that are fairly accurate for institutional EFC's? </p>

<p>Thanks, kind of a weird question.</p>

2

<p>The College Board calculator is very good-- it's dead on in predicting FAFSA and Profile EFC if you input the correct numbers.</p>

<p>I'd trust the CB calculator, given good input, over the college financial planning guys. Have Dad re-run it and take a few minutes to input the actual numbers for '07 or '08 (if you have them). </p>

<p>And the advice to "cash in" your 529 plan seems totally off-base to me. 529 college savings plans are counted as parental assets under both the Federal and Institutional methodology-- so they get assessed at a much lower rate than student assets, and then only to the extent that the exceed the parent's Asset Protection Allowance (typically about 45K for FAFSA, and there's a similar but somewhat more modest allowance for Profile). So if you liquidate the 529, you've still got to report the asset, but you'd have to report it as a student asset (and perhaps pay a penalty), which would cause your EFC to go up.</p>

<p>Profile EFC's are often higher than FAFSA EFC's, in part because the Profile includes home equity. But sometimes they can end up lower than the FAFSA EFC (particularly when there's no home equity involved). Individual schools that use the Profile will often make their own calculation of EFC, which may be different than the EFC generated from the calculator.</p>

3

<p>But the 529 plan is in my name, the student, so is that what makes our EFC a little higher?</p>

4

<p>The 529 is in your name because it is supposed to pay for YOUR college expenses. It is assessed at the parents' rate however.</p>

<p>Any organization that tells you to cash in a 529 and then re-invest the money with them, and on top of that pay them X dollars for their services, is not an organization that has your best interests at heart.</p>

5

<p>From the FAFSA detailed instructions:</p>

<p>"If you are a dependent student who owns qualified educational benefits or education savings accounts, such as Coverdell Savings Accounts, 529 College Savings Plans, or the refund value of 529 prepaid tuition plans, you must report the values in Question 92, along with your parents' asset information."</p>

<p>I believe that Profile has a similar instruction this year, but I don't have the reference handy.</p>

<p>The bottom line on student assets is that they get assessed much more heavily than parental assets (or assets you're allowed to report as parental assets, like the 529's). Best to have very few reportable assets in the student's name on the date you file FAFSA and Profile, if at all possible.</p>

6

<p>For Profile 2009-2010, the instructions on the CSS Profile SA-110, student assets, read:...
[quote]
If you have a 529 plan as part of a Uniform Gift to Minors Act (UGMA) account of Uniform Transfer to Minors Act (UTMA) account or that was funded from assets from an UGMA/UTMA, it is considered a student asset and should be reported here.

[/quote]
. It is not clear to me from the instructions how a dependent student would report a student-owned 529 (one that he opened for himself upon reaching 18). So, for UTMA 529 plans, they are reported along with parent assets on the FAFSA and as student assets on the Profile (at least for this year) (as far as I can understand the instructions).</p>

7

<p>OP,
One thing you might consider is to pay all of your first year costs out of the UTMA accounts (well, make sure mom and dad pay at least $2,400 so they can claim the Hope credit). Your first year EFC will be high, but should go down in subsequent years (unless you wind up going to a school that keeps track of the original amount of student assets.)</p>

<p>Another idea is to apply to FAFSA only schools so that your student-owned 529 plan is reportable with the parent assets.</p>

<p>And, yes, because of the reporting difference, the Profile EFC will definitely be higher than the FAFSA EFC (at least until the instructions or the laws change once again...)</p>

8

<p>OP, </p>

<p>Ignore that comment about the HOPE credit...I think the UTMA funds would count...H</p>

9

<p>
[quote=]
And, yes, because of the reporting difference, the Profile EFC will definitely be higher than the FAFSA EFC

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Thats what most people tell me, but how come on College Board, it said the FAFSA EFC # would be about 27k and the institutional EFC(I'm assuming this is modeled after Profile/CSS, no?) would be about 23k.</p>

<p>Am I lucky or is CB just not going in depth enough and my Profile EFC will be around 30K, or at least somewhat higher than the FAFSA EFC? So say my profile EFC is 30k. That means my family would pay 30k out of pocket if I went to a school like Notre Dame, Cornell, USC, etc..,that meet 100% of need. </p>

<p>So for the middle class, is the FAFSA is worthless, because I'm definitely not getting the Pell Grant, loans from gov't and FAFSA are crap from what I understand. But you have to fill it out anyway to get anything, so whatever.</p>

10

<p>"Thats what most people tell me, but how come on College Board, it said the FAFSA EFC # would be about 27k and the institutional EFC(I'm assuming this is modeled after Profile/CSS, no?) would be about 23k."</p>

<p>Profile EFC is often higher than the FAFSA EFC, but not always. And each college has their own way of using the Profile data to calculate an EFC that they use (for example, colleges treat home equity differently, and many colleges recalculate the income for self-employed parents after disallowing some deductions listed in their Schedule C). Our calculated Profile EFC ended up a bit lower than our FAFSA EFC this year, assuming that our home equity wasn't counted by colleges that cap home value. </p>

<p>"So for the middle class, is the FAFSA is worthless, because I'm definitely not getting the Pell Grant, loans from gov't and FAFSA are crap from what I understand."</p>

<p>No, not worthless. FAFSA-only schools also use the FAFSA EFC to calculate need, and to disburse their own institutional grants and need-based scholarships. So many state schools, and some privates relay on the FAFSA EFC. Our daughter applied to three LAC's that are FAFSA-only schools, and all meet 85% need, or better, on average. So they're disbursing considerable institutional need-based $$ based on the FAFSA info.</p>