<p>According to FAFSA, my family should only be required to pay $4,000 per year for my education. However, USC, the college I will be attending in the fall, has an FA offer that says they believe my parents should pay $23,000 (my family makes less than $50,000 yearly and there are four people in our household). When we spoke with USC, they said their package is based off of FAFSA and like two other forms we had to fill out that talked about assets. A few thousand of that $23k was on there simply because I had an income of $800 on our taxes. It just doesn't seem right. I'm grateful considering USC, Cal Grant, and Pell is paying 2/3 of my college education before all my scholarships, but I just think I should be getting even more aid. My scholarships should be enough to cover the rest except the $4,000 that my parents are responsible for as long as grant money is not taken away. The lady did say that we could file an appeal. What should I do?</p>
<p>Was your $800 income from investments? USC uses CSS Profile, and they will look at assets, home equity, business value, etc., things not counted on FAFSA. You, and your parents, will be expected to pay a portion of your assets toward college. If you own the assets, the percentage is higher than if your parents own them. So if you had interest or dividend income from assets, they are expecting you to kick in a substantial percentage of those assets.</p>
<p>When you say “$800 income on our taxes” does that mean investment income (interest, dividends) on assets that are in your name? If that is the case, then yes you are expected to contribute from those assets that you are holding. Apparently your parents also have assets/home equity if your EFC is 23k?</p>
<p>I just took a look at their NPC. A family of 4 with one in college with exactly 50K income would pay 11.3K, of which 8k if that would be work study/loan, leaving only 3.3K for your parents. There is more to your story. The is either more income or significant assests.</p>
<p>Could there have been an extra zero on that line? Review the documents: 800 dollars should NOT affect your EFC AT ALL. $8,000 earned by a student would add quite a few thousand dollars. </p>
<p>^ bingo</p>
<p>The FAFSA EFC is only the minimum that the family would be required to pay, right? USC is not a “meets 100% of need” school, is it? So, you’ve been gapped.</p>
<p>What was the source for the $800 of income on your taxes?</p>
<p>Sorry, but you don’t have a right to attend USC. There is no entitlement for all of your USC costs to be covered by someone else except for the $4000 that FAFSA has determined to be your EFC. It sounds like USC is unaffordable to you and you should consider a less expensive school.</p>
<p>^Actually, USC <em>IS</em> a 100% need school. A student with such a low EFC should have a much lower cost of attendance. </p>
<p>University of Southern California
The University of Southern California meets the demonstrated need of every admitted student. Students may be required to take out federal student loans as part of their financial aid awards.</p>
<p>OK, that’s why I asked the question. I would have thought otherwise, but apparently not. Perhaps OP can provide a complete breakdown of the FA package. And provide the source of the $800 of income on his taxes.</p>
<p>Maybe OP’s family is asset rich and income poor, because a $23k family contribution on less than $50k in income certainly sounds excessive.</p>
<p>OP’s parents rent out their former personal residence, so this (1040 Schedule E) income and real estate asset is likely contributing to the $23k family contribution.</p>
<p>I am guessing that the issue is high assets. The family may be eligible for Simplified Needs formula, meaning assets are ignored, based on AGI (and eligible for file 1040A/EZ or someone in family received federal means tested benefits in past 24 months or parent is a dislocated worker). This is only used for federal aid purposes. USC would compute an EFC based on info from the Profile, which would include assets. In addition, if one or both parents is self-employed, USC may have added deductions back into the AGI for their own purposes. Without understanding the full financial picture, we can’t really provide knowledgeable advice. You can call USC again and ask them to explain exactly what impacted your EFC. That is the only way you can know for sure.</p>
<p>Possibly being self employed too. All those business expenses would be added back to income</p>
<p>Are you an incoming freshman? If so, you had this financial aid package since at least the end of April. Did you previously have a plan to pay the uncovered costs?</p>
<p>If your parents are renting out your former home and another place is your primary residence, the equity in that home would be considered an asset. If your parents are self employed, some of the IRS allowable deductions are added back in as income for financial aid calculations on the part of the school.</p>
<p>As Kelsmom noted, if you were eligible for the simplified needs test for FAFSA purposes, this would NIT be the case for USC which uses the Profile. Your assets (that home, for example) would be counted in their formula for need based aid.</p>
<p>Absolutely check each line of your PROFILE. Make sure every single item is entered correctly…with no extra zeros. Make sure your parent income is listed ONLY in the parent section and not the student section.</p>
<p>The difference is between the FAFSA and CSS profile calculation of EFC. If the CSS profile determines you have a higher EFC, you will need to go with that number at USC when they meet with the need above that. I found it harder to follow in filling up the CSS profile. I may have made a few mistakes there. I actually made a mistake even on FAFSA but it was corrected by DRT at the end. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to correct CSS profile entry.</p>
<p>Because it bears repeating:
[quote]
Absolutely check each line of your PROFILE. Make sure every single item is entered correctly…with no extra zeros. Make sure your parent income is listed ONLY in the parent section and not the student section. [/unquote]</p>
<p>My situation is slightly complicated. We live in my grandmother’s home (which is paid off and 50% was given to us) and we rent off our other home for like $900/month. The $800 was money from my job with a local newspaper that was paid through a special program at my high school. And @Middkid86, USC’s offer was actually the least expensive offer in terms of remaining cost, including possible loans. It’s an honor to be selected into USC and Annenberg, so I would have been stupid passing up the opportunity.</p>
<p>thesportsman, why is this just coming up now, so late?</p>
<p>You must understand that FAFSA EFC is only to determine if you get Federal Aid. It doesn’t determine what you pay at private school that also use info from CSS Profile. That amount is determined by each school and they look at your other possible sources of contributing to school, like borrowing against assets or selling assets. </p>
<p>Sure appeal if you want, but it is sorta late. Before you appeal you’d better get more understanding of why it is 23,000. It is NOT because of 800 income. It is because of other things. So check for errors and understand those other things. If you have assets you will have to have a good reason you can’t use them if you want to go to an expensive public school.</p>
<p>Do you need to make other plans now or is your family going to try to come up with the shortfall? </p>
<p>My parents also have a retirement savings of like $4,000 and a college fund for me of like $7,000.</p>
<p>The issue is coming up now @BrownParent due to our conversation with USC, which is a private school. My mom had some questions about how my money and getting funded will actually work. The lady said we had to pay thousands more because of my $800, which did not make sense.</p>
<p>EFC looks like it is what it is in part due to 1/2 ownership in the home you live in ("grandma’s home), and ownership of another home (which you also rent out). Lots of assets in home ownership & income from renting out the home. </p>
<p>even if that rented out home still has an $80,000 mortgage and was bought for $110,000 fourteen years ago @MLM? I hate the assets aspect because how do you pay for college with a house? You can’t without selling it.</p>