<p>Are there some colleges that actually don't consider adjusted gross income as a determining factor for financial aid? I just completed a net price calculator for one of the schools I applied to, and while they asked for "all wages earned in 2011," they didn't ask for a net income or AGI. </p>
<p>The first question under the "Parents Income" sections is: How much did your parents earn in wages, salaries, and tips in the most recent tax year?</p>
<p>And the second is:
How much did parent 1 earn from work?</p>
<p>Since I'm coming from a single-parent household, wouldn't the answers to these questions be the same?</p>
<p>This school requires a CSS Profile, so does this mean they just ignore that the net income and AGI portion of the profile? Plugging in the amount from "all wages earned" took me from a net price of only $7,000 using my AGI, to $21,000. Am I missing something here? Should I fax my parents' Schedule C to financial aid offices which breaks down the business expenses that brings my "income to $100k+" to less than $40k?</p>
<p>The net price calculators are brand new this year, and I would take their results with a large grain of salt. It’s not clear how accurate they actually are. My impression is that the ones that ask just a few questions may tend to be less accurate than the ones that require a lot of information.</p>
<p>You should look at the school’s financial aid web site to find out which forms are required. FAFSA and CSS Profile both will require your AGI, but Profile will go into more depth to determine your family’s financial strength. For example, FAFSA will ignore primary home equity and retirement accounts, while Profile will want to know about them. How colleges use the information gathered in Profile will vary depending on their own internal policies.</p>
<p>You say mom is single mom, but then you say parents’ tax return. Is she remarried? You have to use BOTH incomes on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>**Plugging in the amount from “all wages earned” took me from a net price of only $7,000 using my AGI, to $21,000. Am I missing something here? Should I fax my parents’ Schedule C to financial aid offices which breaks down the business expenses that brings my “income to $100k+” to less than $40k? **</p>
<p>This is exactly why you are getting different numbers. Business losses will reduce your FAFSA EFC. Your Profile EFC is likely to be higher, since these schools will add back business deductions. I suspect that your NPC number difference stems from reporting income earned incorrectly. Income earned is ONLY the income on line 7 plus the income on line 12. If line 12 is negative, you treat it as 0 for income from work. The only other amount that could be included in income from work is an amount from schedule K that not many people have (if your parents complete schedule K, be sure to look for the line number that is in the FAFSA instructions).</p>
<p>And chances are, those schools want your entire tax form, including all schedules. Please make sure you look at the financial aid website for each school to see what they want … Profile schools are sure to want tax returns.</p>