Aid Negotiating--General Question

Paying for College
1

<p>I won't bore you with the specifics, there are already a bunch of threads about asking for more aid. It's something I'm planning on doing. I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on how to phrase it? Should I play up my academic strengths (eg. National Merit finalist)? Should I give them a long list of financial hardships, or just what they need to know?</p>

<p>I'm not the kind of person who is given something and then comes back asking for more. I feel guilty and greedy, but I have to do this, because I really want to go to this school (University of Pittsburgh) but I do not have enough money.</p>

<p>In case it helps: they gave me a full tuition scholarship, for which I am very grateful, but no need-aid for room and board, despite the fact I live in a single parent family making $40,000/yr, and only because my mom works three jobs. I have no money for room and board. They only used FAFSA calculations, which include $14,000/yr child support for my sister and I from my dead-beat dad, which stops when I turn 18 this summer.</p>

<p>And this ended up being long. Suggestions, please!</p>

2

<p>I think it's best (from what I've read) to politely ask for "reconsideration" of the aid award-- particularly the need-based aid.</p>

<p>What was your EFC? With a single mom making 40K it should be very low, and you should be eligible for federal and state (and likely institutional) need-based aid. </p>

<p>Point out that the $14K ends in a few months, and won't be a contribution to your family income when you start college. They can use "professional judgment" to adjust the FAFSA and eliminate that portion of the income to better reflect your family income next year, and that should drop your EFC to near zero and raise your aid eligibility.</p>

3

<p>Sorry, I should have posted it. Our EFC was $10,000--1/4 of my mom's salary. And, no Pell Grants. Totally rediculous. What makes me even angrier is that they consider both mine AND my sister's money (we each get 7,000 a year), which is completely unfair. Even if I could use my money for college, her money should not go towards it.</p>

<p>Do you know how long it will take them to reconsider? Do you think I'll a new (or the same) decision by May 1st?</p>

4

<p>That's a pretty high EFC for 40K income + 14K child support. I'd double check your FAFSA input (maybe try the FinAid calculator and see what it shows). I did a quick run through, assuming few student assets, and parental reportable assets of 10K, and came up with an EFC of about 5K.</p>

<p>Make sure you showed the 14K child support on worksheet B, and not in the AGI.</p>

<p>Here's the results with those assumptions (and assuming Mom is about 50):</p>

<hr>

<p>Need Analysis Methodology:</p>

<p>2007-2008 Federal Methodology</p>

<p>Student Status:</p>

<p>Student is a dependent with one parent. Student is enrolled full-time. Parents were required to file a 1040.</p>

<p>Family Information:</p>

<p>Number in Family: 3
Number in College: 1
State of Legal Residence (Student): CA
State of Legal Residence (Parents): CA</p>

<p>Parent Information:</p>

<p>Age of Older Parent: 50</p>

<pre><code> Father Mother Results
</code></pre>

<p>Income:<br>
Earned Income 0 40000 40000
Adjusted Gross Income 40000</p>

<p>Worksheet A (Untaxed Benefits) 0
Worksheet B (Tax-Deferred & Untaxed Income) 14000
Worksheet C (Student Aid Included in AGI) 0</p>

<p>Total Income 54000</p>

<p>Allowances:<br>
Federal Tax Paid 5000
FICA 0 3060 3060
State & Other Tax Allowance 3240
Income Protection Allowance 18680
Employment Expense Allowance 3200</p>

<p>Total Allowances 33180</p>

<p>Total Income 54000
Total Allowances 33180</p>

<p>Parents' Available Income 20820</p>

<p>Assets:<br>
Liquid Assets 10000
Net Home Equity ignored<br>
Net Worth Business or Farm 0
Adjusted Net Worth Business or Farm 0
Other Investments 0</p>

<p>Total Assets 10000</p>

<p>Total Assets 10000
Asset Protection Allowance 19700</p>

<p>Discretionary Net Worth -9700</p>

<p>Parents' Contribution from Assets
(12% of DNW) 0</p>

<p>Parents' Available Income 20820
Parents' Contribution from Assets 0</p>

<p>Adjusted Available Income 20820</p>

<p>Estimated Parents' Contribution 4995
Adjusted for Number in College 4995</p>

<p>Student Information:</p>

<p>Student Age: 18</p>

<p>Income:
Earned Income 2000
Adjusted Gross Income 2000</p>

<p>Worksheet A (Untaxed Benefits) 0
Worksheet B (Tax-Deferred & Untaxed Income) 0
Worksheet C (Student Aid Included in AGI) 0</p>

<p>Total Income 2000</p>

<p>Allowances:
Federal Tax Paid 0
FICA 153
State & Other Tax Allowance 80
Income Protection Allowance 3000
Employment Expense Allowance 0</p>

<p>Total Allowances 3233</p>

<p>Total Income 2000
Total Allowances 3233</p>

<p>Student's Available Income 0</p>

<p>Contribution from Income (50%) 0</p>

<p>Assets:
Liquid Assets 100
Net Home Equity ignored
Net Worth Business or Farm 0
Other Investments 0</p>

<p>Total Assets 100
Asset Protection Allowance 0</p>

<p>Discretionary Net Worth 100</p>

<p>Contribution from Assets (20%) 20</p>

<p>Contribution from Income 0
Contribution from Assets 20</p>

<p>Adjusted Available Income 20</p>

<p>Estimated Student's Contribution 20</p>

<p>Estimated Expected Family Contribution (EFC):
Parents' Contribution 4995
Student's Contribution 20</p>

<p>TOTAL ESTIMATED FAMILY CONTRIBUTION: 5015</p>

<hr>

<p>You can see why the FinAid calculator is so helpful-- it tells you your allowances and where each portion of the EFC is coming from.</p>

<p>So go back and rerun your numbers and see how you got to a 10K EFC, before you call the FinAid people. If there was an input error, you can correct that online, and they will send you a revised finaid package. THEN you can call and explain that the 14K is going away after this year.</p>

5

<p>I concur.......rerun FAFSA. EFC of $10K sounds ridiculously high. Many schools have parent earning caps and you'd qualify for everything. Good luck!</p>

6

<p>You are so nice looking up that stuff for me! I really appreciate it. Fafsa doesn't change, though. I've checked it hundreds of times, everything's correct. I even submitted a correction, because our income was estimated, and was about $200 higher when our taxes were done, and it gave me pretty much the same number.</p>

<p>Maybe the problem isn't the child support, but assets, because my mom does have assets. She works for the state, so she doesn't have retirement or anything nice, but she has about $20,000 in stocks. Which isn't money for me, it's a modest investment for her to live on. Do they ask about plans and stuff like that? I don't know what any of these "allowences" are, but we didn't put down anything for them. She gets very little benefits from her first job, which pays her $30,000.</p>

<p>I hate these things with paper. But it's useless going over these financial things, because Fafsa won't change it's mind. Any advice on how to write my aid appeal letter?</p>

7

<p>You're almost certainly inputting something incorrectly, and it's hurting your aid.</p>

<p>You need to run the FinAid calculator here:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.finaid.org/calculators/scripts/estimate.cgi%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.finaid.org/calculators/scripts/estimate.cgi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>You should be able to input the numbers in about 10 minutes. Most questions have a "help" questionmark you can click on that explains it a bit more. Get the output, and you'll see</p>

<ol>
<li>whether it matches your FAFSA EFC (it's supposed to), and </li>
<li>If so, where the relatively large EFC is coming from.</li>
</ol>

<p>Your Mom has an asset protection allowance of about 19K, so if she's got 20K in non-retirement savings/checking, that would leave less than 1K to get assessed, and would only increase the EFC by under $100. So I don't think that's the problem.</p>

<p>If you feel comfortable posting the FinAid results here, I can take a look at them for you (or PM me).</p>