<p>For colleges that use the CSS Profile Institutional Methodology versus the Federal Methodology (FAFSA), do they typically use the higher number, which ever that may be? My family is in the situation (probably unusual, I assume) of having a significantly lower IM figure, $35k vs. $45k. I'm trying to get my family mentally prepared to not be shocked when we receive financial aid offers (if any) from privates. Luckily, we live in California and our financial safeties are CA publics, some of which our D has already been accepted into.</p>
<p>Also, on all of these financial forms, contributions to 401k retirement plans are added back into AGI. I find it interesting that your 401k balances aren't available, but your current contributions seem to be. In my family's current situation, my wife and I must max out 401k contributions.</p>
<p>Schools that use FAFSA and CSS generally use FAFSA to determine eligibility for federal aid (which with an EFC of 45k will be loans only) and the CSS to determine eligibility for their own institutional aid. </p>
<p>I am assuming you are using one of the online calculators to estimate your CSS “EFC”. Just be aware that, unlike FAFSA, there is not a standard formula for CSS, every school uses the information differently according to their own criteria. For instance some may consider the primary home as an asset, some may cap the amount of the primary home at some % of income, some may not consider it.</p>
<p>Yes for FAFSA 401ks are not considered as assets in the formula. However current year income is not allowed to be reduced by contributions as that income is considered to be available to you for college expenses.</p>
<p>The colleges that require the Profile will be using IM – however there is no standardized IM since colleges can use the information you provide on the Profile in their own way and according to their own FA policies. They won’t all come through with the same outcome as far as a parental contribution. The online calculations available at the CollegeBoard website or Finaid.org are just generic estimates.</p>
<p>That said, it does sometimes happen that a student’s IM is lower than their FM numbers.</p>
<p>Schools (like the UCs) that do not require the Profile will be using the FM EFC.</p>
<p>Yeah, the 401K contributions are added back into your income since they are considered available to pay for college.</p>
<p>We’ve assumed from the beginning that we’d never receive aid from the UCs, and we haven’t applied for any (although we did do a FAFSA for one UC). I’ve already prepped our D that she may have to forgore some of the privates, if they don’t provide a good enough FA package. She says she’s okay with that. But we’ll see what happens if she were to get accepted into one of her top reach schools, like MIT or Caltech.</p>