<p>In all honesty, it’s not a ridiculous EFC. Your parent’s can afford it. It’s supposed to hurt. Colleges assume they have been saving since birth and are willing to take loans. </p>
<p>All ut the very wealthy are surprised by their EFC. the issue is, if it will compromise their quality of life and effect their retirement years, may kids choose schools where they can get merit aid.</p>
<p>*My mom did say that she’d take as much money needed out of her CDs and checking to pay for college, but I don’t want to drain her bank account.
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<p>*I don’t think our financial situation is so extreme that I’d have to go to a junior college or take a gap year. My mom is insistent on sending me to a good 4-year college and if it costs $30K to do so, she has agreed to do that. *</p>
<p>I think others only made such suggestions, because your mom wouldn’t have to spend as much if you had applied to several other schools in various parts of Calif and outside of Calif that would have given you free tuition for your stats. </p>
<p>As it stands, your mom will have to spend about $120,000 for your UC education or about $100k for your SDSU or Cal Poly education. That’s a lot of money for people who don’t have high earning power. I don’t know how long it took for them to earn that much, or if that was supposed to be for their retirement, but it may be difficult for them to rebuild that savings after you’ve graduated.</p>
<p>Frankly, I think it’s odd that your mom is willing to spend so much of their savings. It’s almost as if she hasn’t “done the math” and hasn’t realized that you’ll need $100,000 plus. Do you have any siblings?</p>
<p>Well, what’s done is done. Frankly, taking a gap year wouldn’t help in many cases, because many big merit schools specifiy that the scholarships are awarded to seniors who will be starting school the following fall.</p>
<p>I understand where the EFC came from, but I also understand the OP’s feelings. His family didn’t invest in a family home, because if they had, the money would not be used in the FAFSA calculation. If there’s three people in his family, the EFC might have been closer to $29K or $30K in that situation.</p>
<p>I think that the cost of attendance at any of the California publics is going to be lower than the EFC calculated either way though, so I think that the point is actually moot.</p>
<p>But the FAFSA system is weighted in favor of people who put money into a home rather than renters. In fact, two families with $100K incomes, one of whom is living in a completely paid for $300K home, and one of whom is living in an apartment with $300K in bank have enormously different EFCs, and that isn’t particularly rational.</p>
<p>The EFC reflects financial choices of all kinds. Not buying a home is just one of them. Most homeowners recently lost much of their equity. Not owning a home leaves this family wealthier than many in their income range if they had kept the savings in cash. Thus, better able to afford college.</p>
<p>The idea that those who saved are being ‘punished’ by having to pay for their children’s education is a very strange one IMO. This is not a socialist country.</p>
<p>plushminkie, are any of those savings or investments for your parents’ retirement? If they’re 401K or IRA type accounts, those shouldn’t be listed on the FAFSA. On the other hand, if they’re not “official” type retirement accounts, but they ARE going to be used for retirement, and there’s no other retirement savings, then you’re right to be concerned. It’s a scary thing to spend money meant for retirement on college costs. You can borrow for college, but you can’t borrow for retirement.</p>
<p>One thing you’ll really want to watch out for if you attend a public college: make sure that you finish in four years. Students sometimes end up taking five years because they can’t enroll in the courses they want, or because they change majors. Plan carefully from day 1 to avoid spending another $30k+.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>True…</p>
<p>But, I’m a little concerned that this money should have been put in some kind of protected retirement account, if possible. Because now this family must spend such a large amount towards college, they will less prepared for retirement. I’m wondering if the mom has “done the math” and realizes that 4 years of a UC will essentially wipe out her savings. </p>
<p>Many FAFSA rules are ridiculous. Affluent NCP info is not included - even if he’s been financially involved in the child’s life. Correct me if I’m wrong, but a student could get a 0 EFC thru FAFSA and qualify for full Pell, but then apply to a CSS school that requires NCP info that will include her wealthy NCP’s income.</p>
<p>Would that child still get Pell? From what I’m guessing, the answer would be yes, since Pell is based on Federal methodology.</p>
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<p>In Soviet Russia, university pays you!</p>
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<p>In all seriousness, there’s obviously a huge difference between $300,000 in a bank account and owning a $300,000 home. You can’t necessarily “withdraw” the same amount of money from your house that you spent on it.</p>
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<p>If the noncustodial parent is paying some kind of alimony or child support, I’m almost positive that you have to report it.</p>
<p>“In all seriousness, there’s obviously a huge difference between $300,000 in a bank account and owning a $300,000 home. You can’t necessarily “withdraw” the same amount of money from your house that you spent on it.”</p>
<p>From an economic or accounting standpoint, not much difference at all. In fact, had the OP’s family gone out a month ago and purchased a home for $300K they would today have a much lower EFC. Their balance sheet has the same bottom line each way. FAFSA rewards those who’ve used their incomes to purchase a home (especially if it is fully paid), and penalizes those who’ve rented instead and banked the difference.</p>
<p>**Affluent NCP info is not included - even if he’s been financially involved in the child’s life. *</p>
<p>If the noncustodial parent is paying some kind of alimony or child support, I’m almost positive that you have to report it. *</p>
<p>HUH???</p>
<p>Reporting child support is NOT the same as reporting NCP income. And, that would only be for one year. Once the child is IN college (over 18), there wouldn’t be any child-support for that child.</p>
<p>It’s not so much that it “rewards” them, but it does recognize the fact that one family still has $300,000 in cash that they can spend towards college and the other one doesn’t. The latter family could have blown all the money on prostitutes and drugs and the outcome would be roughly the same, FAFSA-wise, wouldn’t it? </p>
<p>Now, I’m not saying that it’s fair or rational, but then again the cost of college isn’t usually thought of as fair or rational, especially for those people who can’t afford to pay full-price but can’t get merit aid. Although it’s much “fairer” to rich people than to the destitute…</p>
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<p>I wasn’t talking about income; I was talking about child support paid towards the child and alimony paid towards the parent. If the non-custodial parent isn’t contributing anything / involved, then why is his or her income relevant? We already get a huge amount of threads by kids stressing because they have an estranged father somewhere who won’t turn over his information or help out with the FAFSA at all…</p>
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<p>Well, it’s not clear from the OP if the parents have additional protected retirement accounts or not. If they do, and they’re funded adequately, then all’s well.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to highjack the thread, but I have a question. Say my EFC comes up really high for me (I’m talking like $2,000 with an AGI around $35,000). Am I allowed to use outside scholarships to lower this amount? I won a Horatio Alger Franklin Scholarship which is $2,000 a year for 5 years.</p>
<p>My parents have separate 401k and IRA accounts that are not included in the investments that I mentioned. The investments that total to 175k only include stocks and CDs.</p>
<p>I do realize that spending 30k each year on a UC will drain my parents financially. My mom is thinking about paying 30k with the money that we’ve saved up for my freshman year. In my sophomore year, I’ll probably have to get a loan.</p>
<p>And I do understand the whole home situation. It would have been better for my parents if they had purchased a home, but homes in our area are $1 million+.</p>
<p>The FAFSA doesn’t include anything about the noncustodial parent, right? That’s the CSS? Because my biological parents got divorced and I haven’t been in contact with my noncustodial parent for 12 years (and he hasn’t paid any child support either). For CSS, I contacted the colleges and was told to write letters explaining my situation so that I could get a waiver.</p>
<p>And also, I don’t have any siblings. It’s just me, my mom, and my stepdad.</p>
<p>*My mom is thinking about paying 30k with the money that we’ve saved up for my freshman year. In my sophomore year, I’ll probably have to get a loan.
*</p>
<p>You’re thinking of borrowing $90k+ for soph thru senior year? Will your parents co-sign for that? You can’t borrow that much w/o a co-signer. Do you know how much your monthly payments would be? About $1000 a month for 10 long years!</p>
<p>I think you should quickly apply to a school that gives generous merit, whose deadline hasn’t passed.</p>
<p>*I don’t mean to highjack the thread, but I have a question. Say my EFC comes up really high for me (I’m talking like $2,000 with an AGI around $35,000). Am I allowed to use outside scholarships to lower this amount? I won a Horatio Alger Franklin Scholarship which is $2,000 a year for 5 years. *</p>
<p>You’ll need to contact your school and ask. Many schools reduce loans and work-study that are in the FA package, instead.</p>
<p>My parents have enough to pay for at least 2 years at a UC right now. It’s just that I don’t want to take all their money and not leave them with anything, in case an emergency comes up. If I do decide to get a loan, then my parents would be willing to co-sign.</p>
<p>My parents are thinking of buying a home in a more affordable area after I graduate. So when I apply for FAFSA again next year, will this give me a much lower EFC?</p>
<p>If they take their savings and buy a home that they will live in, then that will likely reduce the EFC.</p>
<p>Sounds like you’ve got a plan. The federal tax credit will help $2500 a year, so that’s good, and should cover about 10% of your expenses even at a more expensive UC campus. Perhaps in soph. year you’ll want to try and get a campus job for 10-15 hours a week, which would be some additional help, and summer earnings can also help.</p>
<p>Best of luck – I think you’ll have some good (and workable) choices.</p>
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<p>Which is STILL not going to qualify this kiddo for any federally funded or state funded need based aid in CA. My understanding is that the Cal grant is for those with incomes of about $40,000 or less (CA folks…is that right?). An EFC of $29K-$30K would not make this kiddo eligible for anything except a Stafford loan.</p>
<p>Thumper1’s absolutely correct, but at least that $29/30K EFC is likely to look more rational to the OP than the mid-40K EFC actually generated.</p>