<p>Shorttracklover, the thing is that even Harvard, which has the fattest endowment and the most generous aid policy in the country, doesn’t grant aid to families with $200,000 incomes.</p>
<p>You may feel like you’re making sacrifices, but our gross family income is a third of that and we feel like middle class Americans… which we are. Well, actually we’re above middle class.</p>
<p>We don’t have smart phones either, we have one 1000 sq. ft, 60 year old house with a leaky roof, a thirteen year old car and an eighteen year old car. I feel very blessed to have a house! We don’t live in a very expensive part of the country now, but we used to… Santa Monica and San Francisco… and we lived on even less income then.</p>
<p>It’s all relative. I think Kelsmom is right. People tend to live at the level of their income and think that’s “normal.” In any case, your child is lucky to have parents that can help with college costs to such an extent. Toast yourselves, you’ve done a great job!</p>
<p>And even on Long Island there are quite disparate ways of life.</p>
<p>We are living on less than $70K a year, in a 1600 sq. ft. ranch, near Westhampton Beach. You could put three of our house inside a lot of houses around here. Between my husband and I (second marriage for us both), my youngest child will be our fifth child through college. So I also know about paying for siblings.</p>
<p>The point I made in my initial post on this thread was - it doesn’t matter whether you think you are rich or not, it really doesn’t. You can argue until you are blue in the face, it still won’t change anything. Whether people posting think you spend too much or are unaware of how the “other half” lives, is not relevant. Even if you were able to cut your EFC in half, you will would not be eligible for any aid, except for merit aid, should your stats enable that. </p>
<p>You could go to UB, Geneseo or Binghamton for a very reasonable price. Alfred University’s tuition is about half of most private school tuitions (and some programs are SUNY rates). Cornell has some land grant colleges ([Colleges</a> Established by New York State](<a href=“http://landgrant.cornell.edu/colleges.cfm]Colleges”>http://landgrant.cornell.edu/colleges.cfm)), if they interest you, that have lower rates. Or you can go to a full-price private, and borrow what your parents haven’t budgeted. </p>
<p>So stop trying to prove the numbers are not correct or not relevant. They are what they are and it is time to be an adult (or almost an adult) and figure out what will work so you can get your education <em>hugs</em></p>
<p>"I just filled out the fafsa and apparently our EFC is 96,000?? How does that even happen? Our adjusted gross income was about 200,000 but that’s HALF our income! A ridiculous number. Did anyone else get a number way off like this? "</p>
<p>YES. An EFC=$96,000 happens. </p>
<p>Nor should you be discouraged. Here’s why.</p>
<p>I know of a family, 2 kids (ORM) at college with an EFC like yours. Only 1 parent works, small house, but maybe lots of income, assets, who knows.
Anyways, they are paying in full tuition for both kids, in state college.<br>
They too were astounded by their EFC. And YES, they submitted forms for fin aid.</p>
<p>I also know of another family, only child (ORM, average SAT, grades, etc.) HIGH EFC and yet got 17K scholarship (no loan) to go to a very small East Coast college. Some colleges are looking to round out their student body may choose to offer you $$ even
with a high EFC. And YES, they submitted forms for fin aid too.</p>
<p>Larger income doesn’t automatically equal “lavish” lifestyle. Families may have other financial responsibilities. Parents may be paying off their own student loans, supporting other family members, have current or recent medical expenses above the norm, have a special needs child, or be recovering from a protracted period of unemployment, to name just a few possibilities. Or they might be making different choices than the type listed above. They might be spending more on charitable donations, retirement savings, home repair or private K-12 tuition. </p>
<p>Yes, the OP’s family income is high. That doesn’t mean we can make assumptions about how they spend their funds. Judge not, and all that.</p>
<p>We just filed our FAFSA, and I think we should start calling it the FARCE-FA! Yes, the new online form is ridiculously simple. However, it is also ridiculously stupid. There is absolutely no way this short a form gives anything remotely resembling an accurate picture of ANYONE’s financial picture. You think your FAFSA EFC was high? Ours is 1/3 of our 2010 income. If they asked for last years income tax, they would see that we made 1/2 as much last year. We had to wipe out virtually all our assets to cover debts we incurred due to a disastrous injury/recovery period. Our son is also extremely high-functioning autistic, so while he can work, his processing speed is so slow (22nd%), he cannot work many hours during school. We do NOT have many less expensive alternatives since most of the in-state universities have few or no accommodations for autism. This is a brilliant kid, but we have spent all our time and money bringing him from the point at three years old when they said “figure out where you will eventually institurionalize him,” to a straight A student w/31 on ACT’s, who went to state last year in …speech! He’s already been admitted to his chosen Univ., but because of 2009’s disastrous year we can no longer afford to pay for him. I home schooled him until 10th grade, and therefore could not work. I don’t even qualify for Social Security. He was a P.S. child, and we’ve already put three other children through college. They are now 40, 35, and 26. When were we supposed to save for HIS college, which we didn’t even think would be a question of his going? When ARE we supposed to save for retirement? There used to be a section that allowed you to list unusual circumstances on the FAFSA, but now it’s gone. Our home was last appraised at 80K and we still owe 25K. We are almost retirement age. We have virtually NO other assets–certainly nothing like the “protected” amount. Be glad you have the problems you do. (But I DO think we should start blogging it as the FARCE-FA!</p>
<p>A shocker I know, but it has been 1/4 to 1/3 of practically everyones income at least since the first time I applied for my oldest which was over 10 years ago.</p>
<p>3rd: It’s the colleges that offer a “special circumstances” review. You sure seem to me to be the classic case. Call the school(s) and ask FA how they want you to handle this. Even if there were a place to put this on the Fafsa, I wouldn’t stop there. Good luck.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that having lower income in a prior year is a “special circumstance”. It sounds like it’s current income that is contributing to their EFC and, unless that income is expected to change/has changed (ie. a layoff notice has been received), there’s probably not much that a state school is going to do…unless they’re near the cutoff for state/federal aid, an adjustment won’t do them much good anyway. 3D, what is your EFC? Are you even close to being Pell eligible? Is your S eligible for merit aid?</p>
<p>3D - I hope your son is eligible for some money from his school - you are the poster child for special circumstances! Perhaps there are donor scholarships that fit his profile - he is definitely a success story!</p>
<p>Is that with unprotected assets under - say - $50k?</p>
<p>I don’t think I’ve ever seen that high of a % of an EFC for a 2 parent home with a moderate income - without high assets. (home equity is not part of the formula).</p>
<p>For example…</p>
<p>for family of 3, older parent 55, income 65k, unprotected savings $40k…
EFC is about $8k </p>
<p>for family of 3, older parent 55, income 80k, unprotected savings $40k…
EFC is about $14k </p>
<p>for family of 3, older parent 55, income 95k, unprotected savings $40k…
EFC is about $20k</p>
<p>for family of 3, older parent 55, income 120k, unprotected savings $40k…
EFC is about $28k.</p>
<p>none of those EFC’s are 1/3 of income…not even close…more like about 1/4 of income. So, does that mean you have a high amount of unprotected assets that aren’t in retirement accts or in home equity?</p>
<p>sk8 and 3rd:
I get the impression there is no aid offer yet, that they are waiting to hear-?
I was thinking that- if the son’s needs kept mom from working before- there’s some case to be made that even after 10th grade home school ended, he still needed considerable support/attention from mom. If the oldest child is 40, mom is at least approaching 60. If still unemployed, she may qualify as a dislocated worker (not that I think colleges make much out of that, but it does apply to homemakers unable to easily reenter the job market. At least, it adds to her special picture.) Add radical income drop and wiping out assets due to injury/recovery. These may be exactly a case where the numbers entered into the Fafsa are totally inadequate to describe and providing the school with all the addl info might work out. If they are waiting for an offer, now is exactly the time to discuss the extra details- before pkgs are finalized.</p>
<p>And, I am under the impression this is NOT a state school, based on the comment that the in-states have no/few accomodations for his needs. A private that knows what he overcame might want him in their mix enough to consider the extra details. Whatever combination of factors it is, it seems worth a try. Yes, if this year’s income is back up- and high enough- there may not be much . It’s a lot of “mights” and “maybes” but…</p>
<p>ps. you don’t list the val of the primary home as a Fafsa asset. Even if there is Profile involved, you don’t use appraised value- you use fire-sale. Appraised tax value is never considered a potential sales value and most of us find appraised value by a RE professional is not reliable in this market.</p>
<p>Mom2- I think she means the EFC is 1/3 what they made in 2010, based on a higher income in 2009—?</p>
<p>I think around $130,000 is where the EFC jumps & can go up to about 1/3. That’s not scientific … just my gut feeling after seeing a lot of EFC’s.</p>
<p>FAFSA info can only be adjusted within the guidelines of federal regulations. Past situations are not reason for adjustment of the present information. Unusually high medical bills might be something to look into, but that’s about it. That does not mean that the school itself can’t decide to use its institutional money/scholarships funds as they wish, however.</p>
<p>Yes, definitely, seek out scholarships for students on the autism spectrum, those who have overcome adversity, etc. Also seek out local scholarships that are based on need and may be more flexible about defining need than a federal program really needs to be.</p>
<p>*Mom2- I think she means the EFC is 1/2 what tey made in 2010, based on a higher income in 2009—?
*</p>
<p>She also said that her EFC is 1/3 of their 2010 income. For it to be that high, they would have to either have a high income or highish unprotected assets.</p>
<p>With the same scenario as I posted above, if income is $140k, then EFC is around $35k…still not 1/3 of income.</p>
<p>BUT… if you have an **income of $140k and unprotected assets of $200k, then your EFC jumps to…about $45k…which is about 1/3 of income. **</p>
<p>Is this child a senior in high school? With an ACT 31 and a good GPA, there are schools that would have given him generous merit.</p>
<p>Our EFC is also ridicilously high, just over $70,000. </p>
<p>My husband has a similar gross income to OP’s family plus we have the proceeds of the sale of our primary home sitting in a bank account while we look for a new home. We will be discussing the reason for the large amount of unprotected assets with individual financial aid offices.</p>
<p>Our EFC amounts to over 1/3 of our after tax income. We expected that we would qualify for very little financial aid but the actual figure was still a bit of a shock.</p>
<p>deega, that pile of money most likely makes no difference. If you were to remove that money from the formula, would you still have an EFC greater than the cost of attendance? If so, it’s not hurting you.</p>
<p>Not sure if anyone has mentioned this before but do not include retirement savings when calculating FAFSA. It maybe one reason why the EFC is so high.</p>
<p>*Our EFC is also ridicilously high, just over $70,000. </p>
<p>My husband has a similar gross income to OP’s family plus we have the proceeds of the sale of our primary home sitting in a bank account while we look for a new home. We will be discussing the reason for the large amount of unprotected assets with individual financial aid offices.</p>
<p>Our EFC amounts to over 1/3 of our after tax income.</p>
<p>We will be discussing the reason for the large amount of unprotected assets with individual financial aid offices.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>$70k is 1/3 of your “after tax” income…and you’re shocked that you won’t qualify for aid. LOL </p>
<p>Do you have any idea that there are many families that GROSS less than $70k per year? OMG It never ceases to amaze me who thinks they should get need-based aid.</p>
<p>Even without the house money in the acct, you won’t qualify for aid. Please don’t embarrass yourself by “explaining to the FA offices” about that money from the sale of your home. They’ll have to fully restrain themselves until you leave the room. </p>
<p>We, too, have a ridiculously high EFC, but we’ve never applied for FA because we know we won’t qualify for any free aid.</p>