Big swings in income

Paying for College
1

<p>D will be at college -- somewhere -- Sept 2011. She has 2 acceptances, both with preliminary financial awards. </p>

<p>I filed my FAFSA and CSS Profile using actual 2009 numbers (which were low -- bad year -- me and H are both self-employed) and estimated 2010 numbers (+ 15%). Got my 2010 K1s and 1040s -- 2010 was actually much better (didn't feel that way -- probably all that money went to college board and application fees). </p>

<p>My question is: what is the significance of the "base year" (2009) in determining financial aid? Is it given more weight? Or will my estimated financial aid now disappear because 2010 is better? Does financial aid people ever use an average (which makes sense if you're self-employed because these swings happen often and one year -- good or bad -- doesn't necessarily mean every year will be like that). </p>

<p>Any insight would be appreciated.</p>

2

<p>Or will my estimated financial aid now disappear because 2010 is better?</p>

<p>2010 will be used for FAFSA.</p>

<p>I don’t know what a CSS school might do with an income swing. Each school may handle that differently. You’ll need to call.</p>

<p>How much was the difference? Are we talking just a couple thousand? or significantly more?</p>

<p>Have you gotten a new FAFSA EFC?</p>

3

<p>Significantly more. I guess first step is revise FAFSA, right?</p>

4

<p>I don’t think most schools will take the swings into account. </p>

<p>Let me know if you find out differently from any–I am also self-employed and it is totally a rollercoaster, hard to forecast!</p>

5

<p>I thought that financial aid offices computed entirely new need awards every year, based on that year’s final FAFSA figures. I’m looking at a big upswing in SE income next year, so am interested to know if that is indeed correct.</p>

6

<p>We also have swings in income, and we found that every school, and even need awards from the same school, can handle it differently. My son’s freshman year, his older brother was also in college and our income was not as high as this year. He received two need based awards – a larger one that was guaranteed for four years and a smaller “alumni” award. This year, he only received the guaranteed grant which we were very thankful to get since we probably would not qualify for it if they had reevaluated our need.</p>