Amherst College Financial Aid Appeal

Paying for College
1

<p>I'm having financial aid troubles with Amherst College. Below is the appeal letter I sent. It explains my predicament pretty well. I removed numbers for the sake of privacy, but I replaced them with estimates. Based on my situation, what's the likelihood of getting aid? Why do assets have such a large impact on my aid? Do they expect us to sell our house so I can go to college? Otherwise my loans coming out of undergrad would be overwhelming...</p>

<p>I have just received my financial aid package and would like to appeal.
I understand that you have determined that I have to pay full tuition. However, I believe that the aid office may have overlooked some key details in my family's income and expenses that cannot be seen simply by evaluating our tax returns and assets. According to FAFSA, our expected family contribution is less than 10k. Paying full tuition would mean paying six times the amount the federal agency believes we can afford. I have been told that this discrepancy is due to our assets. My parents do own our house and business, but our family's monthly income after taxes is minimal, and the majority of it goes toward paying off the mortgage for my home. The house listed under our name actually costs us more because of the mortgage, rather than providing us with disposable income that can go toward my tuition.
Amherst College is my dream school. I am inexplicably thrilled to be accepted, and would be devastated if I could not attend due to my parents' inability to pay the amount requested of them. My parents cannot afford to pay this much for my education, but I cannot imagine myself anywhere else, even if another school can provide us with more aid. Amherst College's Financial Aid has been reputed to be generous, meeting 100% demonstrated need. I would deeply appreciate if you reconsidered the amount my parents are expected to pay. It would mean the world to me if I could go to Amherst College with a tuition that my parents can afford.
That being said, I did sit down and discuss with my mom the amount my parents spend just to support our family. Hopefully this will help administrators determine how much aid my family would need. Our monthly breakdown is as follows: (bunch of numbers)</p>

<p>As you can see, the amount my parents have left over does not add up to much. My parents' savings aren't extensive (less than 5k) and they do not have a trust or any savings under my name. I also have a younger sister who will be going to college in the 2015-2016 academic year, and my parents would like to plan ahead and save to pay for her education as well.
My mother is looking for another job to help my father in anticipation for tuition costs, but she hasn't been employed full-time outside of our family business since before I was born (right now, she is working part-time during the tax season). It will be very difficult for her to bring more income into our family budget.
Thank you so much for your time, and I hope you will be able to help me enroll at Amherst College in the Fall.</p>

2

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<p>Amherst uses the fafsa to determine a student’t eligibility for federal aid. Amherst uses the CSS profile which takes a more in-depth look at a families income and assets to determine how they are going to give out their institutional aid.</p>

<p>Amherst does not care that their estimate is more than what your EFC is on the fafsa as this is not an unusual situation for most families that in this situation. Amherst has determined that according to your family’s income and asset that you have no demonstrated need. How much realistically can your family afford to pay?</p>

<p>Based on what you wrote it is highly unlikely that you are going to get additional funding. Is there something that Amherst overlooked; unreimbursed medical expenses, job loss, care of elderly parents, special needs child?</p>

<p>Amherst or any other school is not expecting you to sell the family home to pay for college. You and your family are first in line in coming up with some affordable options. I really hope that you have an affordable school in your group of acceptances.</p>

3

<p>I talked to my parents and they think if they scrape everything together, they can pay full for a year, but not after my freshman year. I haven’t asked how much they think they can pay. My other options are financially sound, but academically they do not compare with Amherst, and I don’t want to sound selfish, but I don’t want to end up attending a school I don’t want to enroll at.
My parents do help support my 80yo grandmother financially every month, but she lives with my aunt.</p>

4

<p>I’m very surprised to hear this about Amherst unless you were an international student. Owning a business I know can throw a wrench in things. The business owners we know are all almost full-pay even with additional kids in college. I don’t know what to say other than send you letter but start looking seriously at your other options. If your EFC is less than 10K and that is an accurate of what your parents can do without killing themselves over second jobs while trying to keep family business afloat, then Amherst just isn’t the school for you. Maybe it’s time to make dreams past college and see the next for years as a way to get to them as opposed to Amherst being the dream.</p>

5

<p>This school sounds completely unaffordable for your family. It even sounds unaffordable if they came up with a little bit, which is all that could be expected. Adjust your expectations and give your parents a break. Accept that this just isn’t going to work. You are really too narrow minded in what you will be able to do elsewhere.</p>

6

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<p>You can’t explain why you are thrilled? I don’t think that’s what you meant.</p>

<p>As sybbie says it’s not unusual that the css profile determined contribution is greater than fafsa efc, though 6 times is a lot. But you mention a business and that is probably the source of much of the difference. While for taxes after deductions the net income on taxes may be low, schools do disallow some of those deductions. The fact that the mortgage payments consume much of your family’s income each month is probably irrelevant, Amherst may feel you have too much house for your income and that is a choice your family made. For a small business with less than 100 employees FAFSA ignores the asset value, css schools don’t have to. What value did you place on the business for profile?</p>

<p>You can ask Amherst to explain how they came up with the award, or lack thereof, and perhaps bring something to their attention about the business that they might not be treating correctly, but I don’t think a month-to-month explanation of finances is the thing to focus on.</p>

<p>Have other profile schools given you need-based aid?</p>

7

<p>My only other options are SUNYs, which are definitely more affordable, but not ideal. My parents say that Amherst is a worthwhile investment, and I wonder if this is true. I am trying to be more open to my other schools but it’s hard to say no to Amherst.</p>

8

<p>Say this with us, slowly; a dream school is not a financial nightmare.</p>

<p>Amherst is a worthwhile investment at what cost? </p>

<p>You can’t tell your employees and vendors they are not getting paid because you have to pay Amherst. </p>

<p>Your mortgage holder will not say “oh, you are paying for Amherst, so I won’t foreclose on your house”. </p>

<p>Your sister will not say"no problem mom and dad, I won’t go to college because you’re paying for Amherst".</p>

<p>I love Amherst, just not enough to stay up nights trying to come up with 240k to pay for it</p>

9

<p>"You can’t tell your employees and vendors they are not getting paid because you have to pay Amherst.</p>

<p>Your mortgage holder will not say “oh, you are paying for Amherst, so I won’t foreclose on your house”.</p>

<p>Your sister will not say"no problem mom and dad, I won’t go to college because you’re paying for Amherst".</p>

<p>So why do you think you can tell Amherst that they have to drop their prices because your family has a house and a business worth $X that they want to keep, which most people do not have? Those are things FAFSA exempts but not most schools that give generous aid. Also with businesses, deductions and credits are added right back in, not just for your family but for every family in that situation. Your case was likely so valuated because that it the way Amherst does this for absolutely every single student, so you aren’t going to get them to move an inch there.</p>

<p>If a parent or you can find out exactly how they are assessing the business, then you might be able to counter that if it’s a unique business with arguments that can be made that some things would not be fairly represented in a certain way. </p>

<p>That your parents have a house with an equity value puts them way ahead of a lot of people who do not Are they reporting the true value of their home? Really our home hardly has any equity in it after the home sale tumble from a few years ago. </p>

<p>If you can go over what exactly, how exactly things are upping what Amherst is valuing and come up with arguments as to why your case is different, or find inaccuracies in what was provided are assessed, maybe you can get some things changed, but I really doubt you will go from being expected to pay $60K a year to $10K , as your FAFSA EFC shows FAFSA doesn count the home and the business. Most all PROFILE schools do. </p>

<p>I’d be hurting too. Amherst is a wonderful school If your parents can afford, it’s quite the prize. So is that gorgeous ruby necklace I saw that would look magnificent on me that I can’t afford. Or some of the super stellar cars, and I 'd live a grand world tour, go to Europe for a month or so…Oh, yes, I do have the list.</p>

10

<p>We own a very small family business with very few employees. It is not worth much, so I’m not sure it should impact our aid by a lot.
Just to clear it up - I’m not asking to pay only $10k. My parents are okay with paying more. But the gap from 10 to 63 - 53k just because we own a house - is huge. If I could get even 10-20k of aid, I’d be happy. My parents would be more than willing to pay the rest.</p>

11

<p>Try looking at your letter with unbiased eyes. Basically, what you’re arguing is that because of a mortgage that takes a very large portion of your parents’ take-home pay, you should be given more money from the institution. That’s really not a good argument. </p>

<p>No, no school’s fin aid dept thinks you should sell your house to pay for college, but it might think that your parents shouldn’t have tied up all their money in a house–and the lifestyle necessary to maintain such a residence–especially with college in the picture. </p>

<p>Bottom line, you don’t have a compelling argument. So, do you have anything that would be a compelling argument?</p>

<p>I’d also advise you to consider what you would realistically need to attend and the likelihood of attaining that amount. A large amount is probably not forthcoming. Would a small amount make the school affordable? It doesn’t sound like it would. It may be healthier for you, at this point, to revel in your acceptance, and then move on.</p>

12

<p>Then inquire of Amherst how they calculated your aid and find out for sure what hit so hard. But doing a month by month analysis of income and outlays isn’t a relevant analysis for this purpose.</p>

13

<p>53k over the FAFSA EFC is a large difference. Instead of the letter you have composed right now, I would ask a clarification for the difference. And as much as you can, try and find the reason for that difference. </p>

<p>For instance, what is the business paying for? Are there cars that are business property that are also driven for personal use. Are there losses in the business or profits that are driven back into the business instead of coming home. They have the discretion to add all kinds of things back in. </p>

<p>I really don’t see how a large home or home payment can add 53k into a financial aid award. Unless you would have something like 1 million in equity plus. It’s a big difference. There should be more of an explanation than a big house payment. </p>

<p>Also they don’t care if your parents are supporting a relative. Colleges expect you to use every available option to fund your college. They even add any money saved for retirement as available to pay for college. </p>

<p>It’s very hard when a small business is owned, but colleges that use the Profile can take what they see and make their own determination of what they think you can pay. </p>

<p>Did you run the NPC for Amherst? I know they can be off for business owners but what does it say?</p>

14

<p>Run the NPC for Amherst using the value you used on PROFILE for everything except the business. Leave out the business but include the home value. Then you will see what impact your home equity has and what that business has if you truly don’t have much else in assets. </p>

<p>I’m not sure what to say, because you are saying your parents have a large home payment? So they have a lot of equity in the house AND they have a large mortgage payment too? That must be some house. The value of your home that you reported should be a market value for a quick sale, net proceeds, that also subtracts out what is owed on the house. The amount a school usually assesses on a primary home value is about 6% after the asset protection allowance, so even a quarter million dollar house with a $50K asset protection would hit about $12K. Doubling that for a half million dollar house would still be under $30K. That’s if the house at that quick sale value in net proceeds has NO mortgage on it. Yet you are saying most of your parents income is going towards mortgage. </p>

<p>Also income taxes paid are taken off your parents income figures, so that absolutely is not affecting your financial aid except in a positive way. It’s the AGI figure used which is net of taxes that is the income figure used. So the mortgage is reducing the value of our home and the taxes are reducing the amount of the income being used. Do you see how you make no sense here? You need to find out what is driving the amount up there so you can address it. Right now you look like a fool with your arguments.</p>

<p>The fact of the matter is that there are plenty of families out there with the same income your parents have who do not own a home, have no home equity. Why the heck you should be equated with them, makes no sense to me at all. You have that much more, so you have to pay more. It’s only fair.</p>

<p>My guess is that the business is a main culprit. That it’s a small business means that FAFSA will ignore it but PROFILE does not. There may be some room for discussion about that, but you have to know precisely what the assessments on it are, to counter argue them. </p>

<p>Did you get any other PROFILE schools with aid offers? If so, what were the results of that? There can be a variance as some posts here will show. To have SUNYs and then Amherst is really a bit odd in terms of a college list.</p>

<p>That your sister will be in college later is a non issue . Lots of kids with siblings that will be in college later. That’s not this college’s concern this year, so that’s a not going to get anywhere. Supporting other relatives is a choice too. You have your nuclear family defined by dependents. If the family member is a dependent by IRS standards and has unusual needs, medical or because of handicaps, there is some possibility of professional judgment there, but if it’s a relative living else where that is getting some money from your parents, that’s not going to count. Lines have to be drawn, so that is where it’s drawn. Legal dependents, the schools will listen and maybe give. Not so, too bad.</p>

15

<p>Actually the figures I sent were based on the 1040s, before taxes were paid.
I don’t know how mortgages work and I didn’t realize that the fact that it’s still being paid off would give the house less value. I did apply to target schools, but I was not accepted to them. Not sure how that can be, but that’s just my situation right now. I have SUNYs and Amherst. I realize that not everything I said could necessarily help my case, but I was told that explaining everything is helpful in these cases. </p>

16

<p>The figure used does take out the taxes as shown on the 1040, if they differ from actual taxes paid in 2013, you can add that information. But the info provided is used.</p>

<p>If you did not reduce the value of the house by the mortgages and HELOCs secured by it, then you can let them know that, and that can be adjusted. I do believe the form does provide a space for what is owed on the house so that net worth can be calculated, but you might want to make sure you did not make a mistake there. If your family is living in a house with that large of a home equity and still paying a huge, mortgage, then, well, that ‘s a choice and you really cannot expect a school to give you quarter on that. Your parents are getting a tax deduction for the interest paid as it is, and how can any school give preference to a family that wants to spend more on rent or house payments over another who cuts it down way low. It’s unfair enough that some folks do live in areas where the housing costs are higher than others. I’d be in a lord’s manor and estate in some parts of the country with what I pay, but where I live, where my brother lives, mmmm, not so much. But we can still find housing for less. That we want a better neighborhood, school district, panache, location, value, is our choice and no school is subsidizing that, just the good ol’ federal government.</p>

17

<p>Something isn’t right here. It’s only the equity in your home that Amherst would be using, and only a portion of it. Do your parents have large savings accounts? Are their retirement funds in authorized retirement accounts or regular savings. Do you, the student have savings in your name? </p>

<p>The Net Price Calculator is NOT going to be accurate for your family vpbecause you have a family owned business. </p>

<p>Here is my guess. Your parents have a MUCH larger gross income than AGI…and net income as well. The difference is due to deductions allowed by the IRS for businesses that are NOT allowed for financial aid purposes. In other words, Amherst added back in some of the business deductions your parents took on their taxes. </p>

<p>What you need to do…</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Drop the “dream school” wording. It is fine to say Amherst is your top choice school…but please, drop the dream school wording.</p></li>
<li><p>Please understand that your parents owning a home probably isn’t the tipping point here. The school is NIT going to adjust your aid because your family has a large mortgage. That is considered a family choice.</p></li>
<li><p>Just ask Amherst if they could please explain why your FAFSA EFC, and the amount Amherst has calculated for you to pay are so very different. Start there. They will be able to tell you.</p></li>
<li><p>As a question…did you apply to any other schools that meet full need? Of so, what did their packages look like?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>ETA…the value of your assets would need to be nearly one million dollars for a family contribution solely based on assets that is $55,000</p>

18

<p>I just remembered something else; probably really important. I got into a private university EA but I didn’t send them my FAFSA because I would rather go to a SUNY. However, I did send them my CSS and they gave me 20k of aid. I’m going to send them my FAFSA now and see how much the lower my EFC for their school. My EFC for them is already lower than for Amherst, and it will probably go down- if I inform Amherst of this, will they match it?</p>

19

<p>From what I can see there are a few scenarios that could be going on. </p>

<p>One, the business is worth a lot more than you imagine. With a business it doesn’t matter how much you are bringing home, because you can pay yourself as much or as little as you want. I have a relative with a small business. For tax purposes they try to get as many expenses as they can go through the business and pay themselves less. I don’t really understand it but they are in a higher tax bracket and every little bit helps. </p>

<p>2, something on the CSS Profile was entered wrong. Maybe the value of the house was entered without putting down the mortgage so the entire house looks like equity. </p>

<p>3, Amherst made a mistake and entered something on their end wrong. </p>

<p>My relatives with a small business have tax returns with something like 100 pages. It is a small business with less than 25 employees. But their taxes are very complicated and I know the value of the business is worth more than they take home by a lot. </p>

<p>I don’t think that it will be a problem to have Amherst clarify how they have an award that is 53,000 more than your EFC. </p>

<p>Go through the CSS Profile you sent line by line. See if there are any mistakes on your part. Talk to your parents about the value of the business. They may not want to discuss this and that is every families business. But this big of a difference has an explanation. You just need to figure out what it is. </p>

<p>Your have received great advice here. As usual. Does anyone else have any other ideas of what might be going on other than what I’ve brought up? </p>

20

<p>Amherst is a very competitive private college. Unless this EA school is a peer school, Amherst isn’t going to care at all what they gave you for aid. </p>

<p>That EA private school clearly uses the profile. Don’t expect to see a change in your aid from them based on your FAFSA. They awarded you THEIR institutional aid based on the profile.</p>

<p>As noted upstream, the FAFSA really is used to determine federally funded need based aid. With a FAFSA EFC above $5000, all you would be guaranteed is a direct loa of $5500.</p>