<p>I don’t understand the punished for savings mentality. FAFSA asks for 5.6% of assets over a protected amount. SO, 10K in savings, results in an increased EFC by 560. Use it for college, and you still have $9,440. </p>
<p>How is having an EFC lower by 560 better than having 9440 in the bank? This is sarcastic (and I’m sorry for that) but gee, think I’d rather have that extra 560 in fin aid, please. </p>
<p>@twoinanddone, if my EFC was $20k, then my 4 year total would be $80k. Notre Dame costs according to them are about $57k. Seeing as 97%ish students receive full need (Total expenses minus EFC), my total need would be $148k. Seeing as the ratio of grants to loans is $30k to $6k, my understanding is that I would receive about $123k in grants (free financial aid, right?). So, assuming my assumption is right, I wish my family would have spent that $123k on vacations, houses with granite countertops, and fancy cars.</p>
<p>Also, my parents did not include IRAs or 401k in their investments.</p>
<p>Also, an AFROTC scholarship is not tied to any university except in the case of the commandant’s leadership scholarship, which is the equivalent of a type 1. You can apply an AFROTC scholarship to any university you attend. An NROTC scholarship, on the other hand, is tied to one of five detachments as indicated in your preferences. I received an NROTC scholarship to my first preference, but have the option to request a transfer to any other detachment within my list of preferences (that includes both Stanford and Notre Dame in my case). In my situation, I am AF before Navy. Assuming I get an AFROTC scholarship, I will attempt to transfer my NROTC scholarship to Notre Dame. If I get a type 1 AFROTC, which is full tuition anywhere, I will attempt to apply it at Stanford, pending acceptance. From what you’ve told me, NROTC at Stanford is a real chore, while AFROTC at Stanford is much more feasible, so transferring my NROTC scholarship to Stanford is out of the question. </p>
<p>Your parents are NOT being punished. If your EFC is really $294,000, they have millions in assets…millions. They should easily be able to,pay your college bills. </p>
<p>Plus as noted upstream…an EFC of $60,000 would net you NO need based aid. An RFC of $294,000 will net you NO need based aid.</p>
<p>What is the difference? The only difference I see is that a $294,000 EFC would indicate VERY VERY significant assets, which should be able to fund your college costs.</p>
<p>Even with an EFC of $60,000, we’re you expecting need based aid? And if so how much?</p>
<p>Here’s the thing: how much in assets do YOU think a person should be allowed to protect and have before having to spend how much of it for college? Someone with billions, millions, hundreds of thousands should get financial aid? The lines have to be drawn somewhere and somehow, and has to be done in a way that isn’t costly to track.<br>
So yes, there are income and asset thresholds, after which a person does have to put a certain percentage towards college.Your parents are punished just as anyone who is over any of the threshholds is punished. What they truly get is the ability to pay for any college in the country for you in the event you do not get any scholarship and the school does not give financial aid. There are very few colleges that meet full need, and very few people get full need met. So your parents did not have to take that chance that you would be one of the few that would get that kind of package. That’s what you get for having enough money to easily pay for any college in the country. </p>
<p>So if your parents had not saved to be able to pay, then you would not have even the opportunity to be able to pay what most colleges could ask of you. There would be that limitation to your school choice. Most kids cannot go to private schools, sleep away schools because their parents can’t afford it and they did not get financial aid needed to go. </p>
<p>Also, I would do research about Stanford and ROTC. Not that many ROTC students there, the school does not recognize military science credit, there isn’t a lot of support of the program there–quite the opposite, and factions trying to eliminate any connections to ROTC there. Seriously do check it out and talk to students at each school doing ROTC. Also find out the chances of transferring ROTC to various sites. I told you the issues my nephew had. I don’t know what the availability for spots are at the schools you mention. Just do check it out. He was caught aback at how limited the slots were for his first choice school.</p>
<p>"'I wish my family would have spent that $123k on vacations, houses with granite countertops, and fancy cars."</p>
<p>if you had done that, it seems that your EFC would still be too high. it certainly wouldn’t be reduced to $20k.</p>
<p>@twoinanddone, if my EFC was $20k, then my 4 year total would be $80k.</p>
<p>Only if the school you attend meets 100% of need without loans. My income is similar to your parents’. I have two starting college, and the EFC was over $20k each. Neither is getting ANY need based aid. If the school costs $60k/yr, it expects me to pay $20k and borrow the rest. One child is getting very little in merit based aid so chose a much cheaper school. The other chose a much more expensive school and has earned merit aid because she knew I wasn’t borrowing $40k per year plus the EFC.</p>
<p>If you go to Princeton, then yes, your parents’ savings would require you to pay more than the student whose parents spent wildly but probably not as much as you think. Princeton would look at that $140k in salary and determine your need was not as great as a family that made $50k, and if you had no savings, you probably wouldn’t be going to Princeton. Princeton doesn’t have to accept the EFC of $20 and can decide yours is $45k, and then where does that come from?</p>
<p>
The math doesn’t work that way.</p>
<p>"My EFC according to FAFSA is $294,000! "</p>
<p>You need to “do the math”. If your parents had spent $150k on luxuries, your EFC would still be SUPER HIGH. You seem to think that your EFC would be so low that you’d get aid.</p>
<p>Do you realize that with an EFC THAT HIGH, without a very high income, that means that your parents have a super high amount of assets. </p>
<p>Your EFC with your parents’ income should be about $40k-45k. So the fact that it is several times higher (and assets have an easier formula), that means that your parents’ assets are generating a $250k EFC. Think about it. </p>
<p>Only about 6% of assets goes towards EFC. So, do some math …your parents have $4 million in assets. Is that right???</p>
<p>Noooo, our assets are much less. 450k house plus 250k business plus 400k investments which puts us at $1.1m. The checking, savings, and cash balance only totals around $6k. My parents savings don’t sit, they are almost all invested. We are nowhere near $4m assets. If we were, we would have a wakeboard boat, new snowmobiles, and a second house, none of which we can afford.</p>
<p>^^
Then something is not right.</p>
<p>If their income is about $140k, and their assets are house (not counted on FAFSA)…and $650k, then your EFC would not be that high.</p>
<p>What do you mean by “$250k business” What does that mean?</p>
<p>Your parents can afford a wakebord boat, new snowmobiles (do they have old ones?) and a second house. I know families with your financial profile that do. </p>
<p>Not that it matters. For Profile purposes, at a million dollars, you are pretty much up there. Your parents are millionaires, for goodness sakes. You think they shouldn’t have to spend any of that on your education and you should get financial aid because if they didn’t have it, you would be getting it? How about the argument that if my DH didn’t earn what he did, my kids should get financial aid because they would other wise be getting it? IF you want aid, spend the money, give it to charity, and then reapply next year without it ans get your financial aid. Sheesh, getting rid of the money, the job is easy. Getting it is the hard part.</p>
<p>The FAFSA accounts for business value, which is about $250k in our case. You may be right in saying that someone with a similar financial profile could afford those things, but I don’t understand how. I know a fair chunk of my parent’s pay checks are deducted for various investments, etc., but it cannot be to that extent. If it was, my parents would be able to buy a new snowmobile or replace our crappy TV control center thing. They’ve commented that the vacation we are going on is going to cost $5k in money they don’t have. Also, my father’s business has been losing a lot of money as of late. He lost $60k last year, but he paid off all his debt when times were good. He is trying to sell, but that’s outside the point. We are facing financial hardships like everyone else. With the propane price skyrocketing in MN, my parents are quite scared of running out of propane, just like everyone else.</p>
<p>Also, the FAFSA would not let me input my father’s business income from last year as negative, which it was. I put $0, but missed out on $60k actual losses. The PROFILE let me put a negative in, however.</p>
<p>The business loss should be accounted for in the AGI already. (1040 line 12, business income/loss.) It’s strange that FAFSA won’t let you enter it in the business income line as a loss and only want to see it if it’s >0, but it is there indirectly in any case, once they start comparing wages and stuff to AGI. They’ll figure it was farm/business/cap gains loss.</p>
<p>I could be way off base here, as we aren’t business owners, but I was under the impression that if the business is family owned with fewer than 100 FTE, you don’t declare the value as an asset on FAFSA at all. CSS is a different matter, I imagine. Am I wrong? Does your family own more than 50% of the business?</p>
<p>It could also have to do with how much assets are in your name. My EFC is not quite as high as yours, but is still more than my families income (single parent household). With an income of $120K, our EFC was $125K. I have around $200K in my name in assets and I believe that had a high impact on my high EFC (along with my Moms high assets as well). </p>
<p>The business is 100% ours and we also own 50% of a smaller one.</p>
<p>Read the rules. You shouldn’t have to declare the value of the 100% owned business on FAFSA as an asset, only the business income. hat is the case if you own more than half. Assuming there are <100 FTE employees. If the one you own 50% of has extended family owning the other half, you don’t have to declare that either. If not, you do declare it. 51% no, but 50% yes.</p>
<p>Again I’m going to say…go LINE BY LINE on your FAFSA. Something is NOT right unless your assets are a LOT higher than you think, or income is a LOT higher than you think…or both. You would need MILLIONS of dollars in assets for an EFC of $245,000. You would need an income of about a million dollars a year…or more.</p>
<p>But at the end of the day, whether your EFC is $60,000 or $245,000, you will not qualify for need based aid. Period.</p>
<p>But you should still find out if there is an error on your FAFSA. What you are posting here would NOT create a $245,000 EFC amount. It just wouldn’t.</p>