<p>So I just learned today that my father has a substantial amount of money in checking and savings (200k - 250k)... and that makes me very worried. I don't think he'll be willing to spend much of it for my college education unfortunately so I am wondering how much negatively can this effect my eligibility for financial aid (how much will my family expect to pay)? Thanks for any information!</p>
<p>Parent assets are assessed at 5.6% after an asset protection amount. If your dad has $250k in a bank account, about $200,000 will be used in the calculation. That would add about $11,000 to your family contribution.</p>
<p>This $11,000 would be in addition to the money based on your parents’ incomes.</p>
<p>Have you run a net price calculator for your schools? You should do
So. This will give you an estimate of what you will be asked to pay at each school. Do each school’s NPC.</p>
<p>Is any of this money in authorized retirement accounts…or is it all regular savings/checking?</p>
<p>It is all regular savings/checking. Thanks for the info!! ^^ Hopefully it will work out well in the end.</p>
<p>CG, while this adds about $11k to your family contribution, there is NO WAY to know whether this makes a difference difference in aid in your situation. Family contribution is largely based on income AND most colleges don’t meet full need anyway. If you are applying to schools that don’t meet full need, you might not have gotten much aid anyway. </p>
<p>I still suggest you plug your family income and assets into the Net Price Calculators for your colleges. This will give you a much better estimate at what the schools will be doing.</p>
<p>You didn’t mention if your parents are married or divorced . . . makes a big difference! If you’re not living with your father, then his savings won’t make any difference for some schools.</p>
<p>If your parents are divorced, and you don’t live with your father, this will not affect your FAFSA EFC. HOWEVER, if your parents are divorced and you are applying to schools that require non-custodial parent information either using their own form or the NCP Profile, it WILL be taken into consideration.</p>
<p>Woah! That’s good news (ironically). My parents are divorced and I live with my father. Income is in the low end (~50k/year).</p>
<p>And my mother lives on SSI + Food stamps if that helps at all.</p>
<p>It probably doesn’t help as much as you think. Most FAFSA schools don’t provide much Financial Aid. The most generous schools tend to use the CSS Profile.</p>
<p>^all my schools require CSS</p>
<p>This thread really enlightened my hopes on financial aid because I originally thought high savings would negatively affect my aid even if income was really low. Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>P. S. I did the price calculations and its between 10-15k for the most part.</p>
<p>Okay, I’m confused . . . your parents being divorced only helps if you are living with your mother and are applying to FAFSA-only schools. But you’ve just said that neither of those circumstances apply. Since you live with your father, his savings will be considered by every school you’re applying to.</p>
<p>So where’s the good news???</p>
<p>Your EFC with your dads income of $50,000 AND his assets is going to exceed $15,000. When you ran the NPC, did you enter his INCOME and ASSETS? That is what you should have done.</p>
<p>^Yes that is what I did, you can see for yourself. Heck I even tried with 300k and it still was below 20k</p>
<p>^^The hope was from the fact that non-custodial parents information is required too but honestly I’m not sure how much it matters but at least they take a look, right? I still know that most FA will be dependent on income + assets</p>
<p>Oh, I get it! :)</p>
<p>No, unfortunately, your EFC won’t be reduced because of your mother’s low income. It doesn’t work that way. Actually, it might make a difference if your parents were living together, 'cause then the number of people being supported on your dad’s income would be greater. But, since they’re divorced, it doesn’t help.</p>
<p>Is the money in the savings account instead of a retirement plan, or does he have a retirement plan in addition? If it is “instead of”, a CSS/Profile college may cut you some slack. In the Supplemental Answers section of the CSS/Profile you would want to explain that.</p>
<p>Your father can use the money to pay off any debt that he has before you apply for financial aid that might help. Does your father have any debt?</p>