For better or worse, the deadline has passed for most scholarships. All of his are submitted.
We can use every $ we can get, and my kid is definitely competitive for some outside $ (e.g., a scholarship for a graduate of his high school who’s taken 3+ years of Spanish, three scholarships for music majors from our school district, one for a kid in marching band). CU Denver had a few available for incoming freshman music majors and the like.
Fortunately, both our state and CU Denver provide portals to apply to several scholarships at once. I won’t say it was easy at all–the state portal in particular was horrendous to use, and so S L O W–but he was able to apply for almost 30 scholarships with just two forms and five 250-word essays. So happy that day has passed!
Just be aware that some schools “stack” private scholarships so that you get the best deal and some (perhaps many) will use it to reduce your need-based financial aid. However, if a school does that, you can usually ask that it be applied to any student-loan awards or student earnings awards.
That’s my plan. We do not want S taking any loans, if possible, but that means H and I need to raise another 15 to 20K per year from various sources, if S goes to one of his acceptances. If we can reduce the amount of money my H and I need to raise, WE can do some things with our money, too. LOL.
ETA: I don’t think it would be the end of the world for S to take a small loan each year. We’re just trying not to, because of my experience with debt from my BA, and his entering a career with unknown prospects. He is saving a chunk of his own money to have a fund to live on for the first few months out of college. It will be a puzzle.
Depending on the “best deal” available, you can still have him take the subsidized federal loans but just pay them back for him when he graduates. The nice thing about the subsidized loans is that the government pays the interest that accrues until the student graduates.
Good point, thank you for that insight. That definitely alleviates pressure, especially in the early years. It makes sense given my work situation that putting off some of that money could help.
We also heard a great idea somewhere on CC about a family who bought a condo near the school. Their D and two friends lived in it for senior year, the friends paying modest rent that helped cover the mortgage, leaving the family with a rental asset after graduation. (It makes us sound rich to be able to do such a thing, and we’re not, but we have saved some money specifically for that kind of investment as our retirement plan.)
ETA: Denver does not offer us financial aid, so those would actually come off the price. (However, I’m feeling like it’s going to be Loyola, depending on what grant they offer.)
If you have retirement money in a condo instead of in, say, a 401k or IRA or other designated retirement plan, then financial aid officers will consider that an asset that can be used for tuition, whereas the assets in a 401k or IRA are not assessed as assets for need-based aid. (Although the assessment is a relatively modest 5.6% so it may not be worth worrying about).
There are limits to student loan amounts – I think it is 5500 first year, 6500 second year, and 7500 years 3 and 4. And that will be allocated between subsidized and unsubsidized, depending on the student’s particular needs and financial aid package. So it’s not going to make a huge difference as to what you need to borrow, but it will hopefully help!
These things are why it’s such a puzzle for us. We do own one rental condo, a modest one bedroom, nothing $$$. We also rent out an ADU on our property. Before filling out the FAFSA, we worked out every detail about how to report our investments. With all the study we had to do about assets, you would think we owned a chain of posh hotels.
I read that 5500 was the max, and on some of the NPCs (including Loyola’s) the loan suggested was specifically that max, subsidized. I’ll make sure that’s the kind offered if we decide to pursue it.
I still feel like $3K from outside scholarships will beat $3K of loans, if that comes to pass, so we made S put in the effort on those two portals. We’re all happy that’s done, though.
We had more than a handful of friends who did this. It was a fine enough financial arrangement while their kid was at school…and managing the property. In ALL cases, these families could not sell these condos (which were in great condition and in great locations) when their kids graduated. All were long distance landlords for a bit…and all decided this was not their thing…getting calls about this that or the other thing that needed to be repaired. And collecting rents. All looked into property managers as well…and that wasn’t exactly a bargain.
All sold the condos and none made a dime on their “investment”.
Frankly, I would not advise this as a financial help.
Thank you, that’s really good to know. It sounds like a good idea, but if we are looking to live far away it can become difficult. For our current condo, we have a property management company take care of everything. We’ve experience the life of being a hands-on landlord when running an airbnb for several years, and we would not want that kind of a life. It was hard.
ETA: An investment in a condo is a very long game. I’m not surprised they didn’t make a dime. Typically, if you’re paying a mortgage and a manager, you don’t start to make an income for a few years.
The CSS is not friendly to us. I hope S doesn’t end up at a school that requires it, though there are several on his list. We had a traumatic time filling it out, and I never want to go there again.
@kelsmom if a family owns a rental property as of the date of filing the FAFSA, does that get listed….or is it only if that rental property was owned in the prior prior year.
(Just as a glimmer of hope – my son’s school required the CSS Profile only for Freshman year, and then only required the FAFSA for future years. But they did ask for some extra information that would have been on the Profile had we had to fill that out).
No, honestly I don’t, so I should not assume anything. I’m at the limit of my understanding of the issue now. I assumed those schools wanted the additional/different info that’s in the CSS (different than the FAFSA), which includes more detail about properties.
I think it will only start to appear in the future, because we bought it last year and the FAFSA was for 2 years ago. But like I said below, I’m at the limit of my understanding of the issue now.
I assumed those schools wanted the additional/different info that’s in the CSS (different than the FAFSA), which includes more detail about properties.