<p>The FAFSA does expect that it is the family's primary obligation to educate their children & if there are assets in the family, a portion of that will be liquidated to help pay for college. Not sure what happens with retirement pensions and/or parents' earning potential. When we tried applying for financial aid for our kids' private school, the school considered our earning potential based on our education, training, etc., regardless of whether we were earning "up to our potential."</p>
<p>The FAFSA does take into account the age of the older parent in calculating the EFC as well.</p>
<p>It never hurts to write & speak to the colleges financial aid offices & explain circumstances that may not have been apparent in your application.</p>
<p>For us, because when we did the FAFSA worksheet it always showed that our EFC would be well over the cost of tuition, we didn't file a FAFSA & just hope our son will get some good merit aid to help us. We did save some for our kids by buying some savings bonds when son was born that are maturing now & when sister graduates from HS. We told son any money he doesn't need for college we can save for his grad school or start up expenses or to help him purchase a place to live. We'll give daughter the same offer.
We feel fortunate that we have been able to save & help the kids get quality HS educations & hopefully great colleges as well.</p>
<p>A $6000 mortgage? If your family can afford to pay that, I wouldn't expect to be getting much financial aid.</p>
<p>But you apparently missed that after they pay out that $6,000 a month for their mortgage, they won't have enough left over for full tuition- therein lies the problem.</p>
<p>As to rmellor62 post: if your SAR says EFC: 00038, it means your EFC is $38.00. You should gets lots of aid.</p>
<p>As to the posts regarding 6000 month mortgage:</p>
<p>FAFSA does sorta take into account a familys mortgage/rent. When FAFSA calculates an EFC, one of the automatic deductions is the Income Protection Allowance. For example, for a family of 3, approx. the first 18K of parental income (AGI) is not included when your EFC is determined. Any parental income (AGI) over this will be assessed by FAFSA. This 18K is what FAFSA believes a family of 3 needs to feed, house and clothe themselves for one year. So, FAFSA is taking into account your parents mortgage, albeit in a sick way. </p>
<p>On the one hand I understand that there may not be a lot of money after the mortgage and/or in some areas of the country the amount of $18K is absurd as to feeding, housing, and clothing a family of 3, but on the other hand, your family made a choice to build a home with a mortgage payment of 6000/month just as college was approaching. I suspect that colleges and the federal govt. will not view this decision favorably. Im not trying to be mean, just stating the way it is.</p>
<p>Regarding the 6000 mortgage, here in the SF bay area where the median house price is well over 600K a mortgage like that is pretty much the norm for a 3 bedroom under 2000 square foot box in a neighborhood where you wont get mugged when you go out to your car. By the time you pay your mortgage you have just about enough for food - infact most people dont even have enough for that and grandually build up credit card debt and refinance their homes to pay it off. People in the rest of the country with under 1000 mortgages just dont get it. We are all regarded as rich but its so far from the truth. Can you imagine if the FAFSA averaged your income out with Mexico and decided that you were all rich because you could afford a $1000 mortgage and so you dont get aid - sure you can always live in mexico and use the savings to pay for college. Ugh.</p>
<p>I was just at the Junior College night for my D and they has a speaker for the association of private schools who strongly encouraged kids to pick a school first and worry about the money later. The reality is that most people in our city are just scraping by and almost nobody will get any aid - it was as sleezy as some car dealer taking yor kid to the corvette lot and saying pick one and let your dad worry about the cost. Makes my blood boil.</p>
<p>The math isn't working for me. If you borrow $600K at 6.5% (I would think you could do better) for 30 years, you get a monthly mortgage payment just under $3800.</p>
<p>*my efc sort of sucks too b/c my family is in the process of building a house, so we currently don't have a mortgage, we only have monthly rent of like 1500. so my efc was like 99,999. </p>
<p>but when our house is built in july/august, the mortgage will be a little more than 6000 a month.*</p>
<p>I think their loan will be larger than $600,000 they are building new.
The payments are estimated to be $6,000 a month</p>
<p>In HI, most of homes on the island where I live are in the $500,000-$1,000,000+ range. They aren't mansions by any stretch but include many homes that are 50+ years old on about 5000-7000 square feet of land. The home itself may have 1000-2000 square feet of land and perhaps a one car carport (not even an enclosed garage). Rentals go for $2500+ for a simple 3 bedroom 1 bath. I don't think I've ever met anyone in my state with a monthly mortgage payment of $1000--most are MUCH higher. Unfortunately, wages here are generally low & many folks work part time because employers don't want to/can't afford to give benefits so many have multiple part-time jobs.
Many folks can't even find decent rentals for $1500/month, much less any mortgages anywhere in the area (even for condos or townhouses). It used to be that folks could get places further from the urban center at lower prices, but even those places have skyrocketted in price & homelessness is a growing problem.</p>
<p>Yes, the cost of living in HI is incredible. I can't imagine many families of 3 in HI being able to house themselves in HI for $18,000, never mind feed or clothe. The FAFSA is not really very fair to places where housing & the cost of living is extremely high, but it is what it is. Don't know much about the Profile, but am told it takes a lot more factors into consideration & requires a lot more detail. Many privates require students to complete this for financial aid.</p>
<p>:( our 105 yr old 974 sq ft house is on 5000sq ft. lot and it is estimated to be worth $420,000- and it isn't even in Hawaii!
( rains a lot though)</p>
<p>Not too many homes that old in HI--the termites & dry rot tend to make houses not able to withstand the test of time.</p>
<p>Many families here live as extended families because that's the only way they can have a decent quality of life & afford a place to live.</p>
<p>The GC at our school says everyone thinks his/her EFC is much too high & many folks have "special circumstances." Still, the feds require schools to follow rules for federal money that is distributed & FAFSA with EFC is a big part of those rules.</p>
<p>ummmm EFC 18000 is a lot for me... it's not my fault that my dad is not a businessman and makes HORRID investments and saves NOTHING....god bless 'im though. What ever shall I do? Doesn't harvard give everyone a crapload of money?</p>
<p>my hats are off to those who are able to make living with their extended families work- i cant even stand to be in the same room with my brother for 30 min
He is planning on getting a house with his nephew and his family though- their culture ( Columbian) has more history of sharing space with relatives-
but I would need a compound the size of the Gates to live with my relatives Im afraid ;)</p>
<p>We're spoiled & used to a lot of space as well. I love my parents & family but we were sure to purchase a home that was NOT within easy walking distance of any of them--short drive of 5-10+ minutes is fine.</p>
<p>Folks in HI learn to live together as an extended family for economic reasons as well as to take care of the elders, since it is not uncommon for many of us to have relatives live into their 80s-100s+. When we live nearby, we have the best of all worlds--can visit but can stay away when there's too much togetherness. It is a luxury unfortunately not all can economically afford.</p>
<p>Sorry to revive an old topic, but i was wondering how an EFC of 18628 would work? I just submitted my FAFSA and that was my EFC results. My great grandmother passed away left me some money, but I cant touch it until I am older, yet I still pay taxes on it, which have to show up on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>money that was left to you is considered an asset -- colleges will expect you to borrow money against that asset to pay for college.</p>
<p>You did list the money that was left to you as an asset, didn't you? You do have to list that asset even if you can't touch it until later, as long as it is in your name. Otherwise, if they find out (and they will -- like you said, you pay taxes on it) you will be in big trouble.</p>
<p>As far as how an EFC of 18628 will work -- do some reading of old threads on cost of attendance, EFC, demonstrated need and gapping. There are lots of threads where this is answered.</p>
<p>On the people building a home, the only special circumstance I can see is, IF you have a big chunk of cash in the bank that will end up being your equity by this summer, but is currently in your bank account, having to be declared on FAFSA, you could ask that the finaid officer reduce your assets by that amount. I am not sure if they CAN do that, but you could ask and possibly, because there is some reasonableness/common sense to that, it MIGHT help reduce your assets.</p>
<p>I have a friend who sold their home and the cash was in the bank, severely affecting finaid- they were not buying a new home, just renting and yes, they were "screwed" by that asset sitting there. If you are "in process" during the filing time, they may be able to adjust that to make the assets to reflect what the situation really is. Of course, your first $40-50k of assets are protected, so it would have to be a big big chunk of cash to make a difference.</p>
<p>Before you go through the letter, run the EFC formula both ways and see what the difference is, if your income is high enough to pay a $6000 mortgage, the likelihood of seeing a big difference in EFC just from the assets may be a waste of time</p>
<p>However, you need to understand- mortgage of $600, $6000, $60,000, none if those matter in the FAFSA, Profile they ask, but i dont know that they care about your payment, the Profile wants your equity number.</p>
<p>I got just a little over 12 grand, with my parents making (adjusted) sub 40, both work full time + overtime. my sis is currently a fresh at umich. I think I got screwed with investments because of a second home...</p>