Why am I required to fill out my financial information on my student’s account. I don’t feel that my salary, investments, etc. are any of my child’s business. Why can’t the parent financials be kept confidential from the student?
You really don’t HAVE to do any of these things. No one HAS to apply for FA.
Some parents who have the kid do it all and some fill out the forms themselves. You decide.
If you don’t want them to know, do it yourself.
The alternative is full pay.
Why? Because that’s the way it’s set up.
If you don’t want to have your kid see your financials, then you have two choices.
- Don’t apply for need based financial aid at all.
- Have your kid fill in their part, then without your kid there...you fill in your part. Make sure YOU are the only one who has all the electronic log in information. Then have your kid electronically sign, you sign and submit.
And don’t lose that electronic log in information.
I chose not to permit my children to apply to any CSS profile schools. As for the FAFSA, I followed the suggestion above and completed the income section, etc. myself without my children’s input and without giving them access. I agree with the OP that my finances are my business, not my children’s.
And we wonder why students have such unrealistic expectations for what collegs are affordable.
So you are okay with 10 college FA officers knowing your financial situation but not your own kids? Are you afraid they are going to push you if you stand too close to a cliff?
How can you have an open discussion with your child about college affordability if you won’t talk finances with them?
I don’t mind much if my son knows my finances, but in the OP’s defense, it is not necessary for my child to know the specifics of my finances to understand his options based on affordability. His understanding stems from what I tell him is affordable. Period. Whether I earn $1M/yr or $10k/yr, whatever I say is the financial limit is his limit.
What is wrong with giving the kid a budget and expecting them to stick with it? FA can help with the budget or supplement it, depending on the college. DH and my income or retirement savings is not my kid’s money to spend.
I have the same problem. We did not yet start filling FAFSA or CSS profile but we want to do everything we can to keep our finances from our children.
It has nothing to do with college affordability or having honest discussion with our children. We just tell them how much we can pay without any further details.
Folks…you do need to understand something. If your kid attends a college that meets full need for all…and the kid does or doesn’t get need based aid…it wouldn’t take rocket science math to reverse calculate what your probable minimum income is.
For example…if your kid gets a need based award that has $0 in need based aid at a school that costs $70,000 a year, your income is in the $250,000 and up range.
If they get a full ride need based award…they will know that your income and assets are below a certain threshold.
Our kids didn’t know every single detail of our finances…but the had a good ballpark of our income and assets…and they absolutely knew we could afford to send them to any college they chose…because we told them we would do so…and we did.
If you really don’t want your kids to know anything about your finances, that certainly is your decision. But maybe they should be applying for merit aid…where your finances are not a factor…at all.
The CSS Profile schools tend to be the ones that offer larger need-based financial aid, and they therefore tend to be more difficult to gain admission.
We figured early on that if our pups were smart enough to get accepted at these schools, they were more than smart enough to figure out our shabby finances. Honestly, they knew that since I am unable to work for income due to my medical issues, virtually all of our financial life relies on DH’s income. They knew in general what he does, and that he provides for us, but like many families we struggle, especially when unexpected issues arise like our car being totalled. They certainly understood that we are better off than many, but far needier than others. They attended information sessions at multiple colleges, and understood that they’d be applying to only “full needs met” schools.
It is not easy having to admit to your children that your financial situation is one where you need assistance paying for the enormous cost of college, particularly if you haven’t been having discussions all along.
If you are afraid that your kid will judge you somehow because you haven’t squirreled away $300K for them by the time they are applying to college, then you might have other problems more important than just the money.
The kids probably don’t need to understand every detail, and probably will care a lot less about it than you will worry about.
Pull your child and say:
“Johnny we can afford this much per year: $ (fill in the blank)
Apply to schools that are in this price range.”
Done.
If you’ve raised him right, Johnny won’t give a flying leap what your income and savings are. He’ll apply to the schools that you can afford.
You know your kid, and whether you can trust your kid with this kind of information. If you absolutely can’t trust your kid (and there are some untrustable ones out there), then the best advice would be to restrict the college applications to places that you can afford without aid.
If your kid is reasonably trustable, this could be a good time for you to start revealing part of your financial information to them, so that they have a better understanding of things going forward.
I filled out the forms. My kids did the minimum to set up the accounts and then I did the rest. They never cared enough to look up my info. I wished they cared more but they didn’t.