Our 2015 financial data are atypical because we had to exercise the employee stock grant before the expiration and it really inflated our income. Obviously, we don’t want to represent this particular situation as our ordinary and typical year’s income. While filling out both FAFSA and CSS Profile, I noticed that there’s no place in FAFSA where I could explain this situation, while there is a box in CSS Profile where it asks you to provide any extenuating circumstances.
My question is: is it enough to explain the specific reason why 2015 is an atypical income year for us in the CSS Profile box, or do I need to provide additional documents to both FAFSA and CSS Profile? If so, where do I send these additional documents when neither sites offer any means of attaching these documents? Do I need to send them to each college’s financial aid office?
You cannot explain anything on FAFSA. If it is a school that makes awards based on FAFSA only, you can only appeal after any awards are made.
But really, if your 2015 year was normal, would your student have received need based financial aid? Did your income go from $40k to $90k, or did it go from $150k to $175k? Most aid based only on the FAFSA is government Pell grants and subsidized loans. Did (or would) the EFC go from $4000 (Pell eligible) to $30k? If not, it probably doesn’t matter.
@twoinanddone - Since most of the colleges that my son is applying to ask for both FAFSA and CSS Profile, I suppose I don’t need to worry about FAFSA as much since these colleges will determine the financial aid based on the CSS Profile data. For those colleges that only request FAFSA, I can send their financial aid office an email with my son’s full identity, including the FAF-id, and attach those relevant documents?
Our atypical 2015 income was big enough to determine whether my son could get tuition free or not. Stanford, for example, has $125,000 (or $120,000, I forgot) as their cut off for tuition-free if your income is below.
Each school will have an appeal process, so no, you don’t just send the documentation, you complete the appeal form and send the documentation they ask for. The forms usually have different categories for appeal - death of parent, loss of job, medical bills,etc. One area that people used to have to explain was an IRA/401k roll over, so there is probably a financial circumstances section.
You can ask for a reconsideration. We did that and we were granted one for the current school year and for next year, since they are using 2015 taxes again. We had a ( one time) large chunk of money on our taxes that we can’t use until my H leaves his job.
@tigerdad in my husband’s case the extra income reported on our 2015 taxes is not available to us until he leaves his company. In your case- if you actually have access to the money- they may ask you to use it.
@thumper1 - Why do you assume that we don’t have other things to pay for, such as our mortgage, car loans, our first child’s college expenses, etc. etc. etc. etc.? We’re not rich by any means. We may barely save enough for our own retirement. A comment like yours doesn’t help on top of all the stress of filling out all these forms.
TiggerDad, I hear you. And really many families would like to have some extra income.
Most don’t.
You had those other expenses anyway.
You will need to ask for consideration by the financial aid departments. These are handled on a case by case basis. Some schools might adjust your family contribution. Others won’t. Contact the schools and ask them what they would need to document this one year increase in your salary. The schools will tell you what to send and where.
But you do have extra income for the year, and there are many schools that will not make an adjustment for this.
Also, you don’t need to share this… but depending on your income anyway…and the awarding policies for need based aid for,the colleges, this might not make a speck of difference in the actual aid your child receives.
One other thought. On another thread, you indicate your son wants to take a gap year. If that is the case, his need based aid will be for the 2018-2019 school year and will use the 2016 tax year information.
If he takes a gap year, the income you earned in 2015 won’t be counted…at all. That would solve this issue for you.
But if you have any of that money in the bank when you file your financial aid applications, it will be counted as an asset.
@TiggerDad Let us know what happens. Of course, assuming your son gets into Stanford. We had a somewhat similar situation. We had to make a large withdrawal to pay for unexpected expenses. It significantly added to our income for that year. We explained it and asked for “professional judgment.” You have to use those words. We were lucky; they didn’t count the one-time withdrawal. Your situation is different because you didn’t need the money to pay for an emergency that year. But maybe you can ask for it to be counted as an asset (assuming you still have it) instead of income.
@TigerDad when this happened to us last year I called the school to tell them that I explained our situation in the additional information section of the css profile. I was told " We do not even read that part of the profile." I was then instructed to fax over a letter explaining our situation, and at the same time fax over supporting documents from my H’s employer explaining the situation.
You may want to call the schools to ask if they actually read the additional information section or if you should send an email. I suspect most schools read it, but some do not.
The extra income in 2015 is money that is available to you to save or spend. Colleges are not going to allow you to rank them low in your financial priorities.
@thumper1 - You’re correct. My son wants to take a gap year, so when he actually starts college after the gap year, we’d be using 2016 tax info. However, we’d still need to supply those colleges he’s applying to now with the 2015 tax data. The extra “income” is now all gone in paying off various expenses. It’s my understanding that colleges look at regular income and assets separately. If I had any money left from the extra income, it’d count in the category of assets and not income. My mind’s going to be at ease as long as these colleges are able to discern that the one-time additional income is not our regular income level. I’m sure they deal with such similar situations all the time and that they’d know how to calculate financial aid package with that info.
The CB guidelines for professional judgment do include a one-time windfall as an example. But it’s a process that comes later and can take time.
Expenses other than, say, unexpected or high medical or some serious challenge, are considered somewhat discretionary, a result of your choices. So, eg, if you used a windfall to pay off credit card balances or pay down some of the mortgage, that may not give you much traction.
Income and assets are both part of the calculation. It may help to bone up on what goes into fin aid calculations.
My take on all this is that the FASFA wants X% of your income to pay for college. Lets just say it is 25%. If income in one year is 100K, then they want an EFC of $25K. If in year two you come into money and it shoots up to $200K, then they want an EFC of $50K. I think that is why they make you file each year.
Remember, the flip side is also true. Someone loses a job in 2015 and has very little income. That particular years EFC will be low.
I feel for you when it just happens to occur in 2015 which is effectively used twice due to the FAFSA deadline change.
2015 is only used twice if you have kids in college during 2016 and 2107. For a student who is a senior in high school now, it will only be used once.
I agree that a school can look at a one time event and consider it for financial aid, but I think they are less likely to do that if it is income than if it is inheritance of non-liquid assets (grandma’s house, or some stocks). If it is income, it is income. Many people make more in one year, get a big bonus or more in commissions, than another year. Why would a financial aid officer overlook income just because it was earned in one year? The next year, when you fill out another CSS or FAFSA, it will show the income for that year and financial aid will be based on that amount.