<p>We just got the good news/bad news that our FAFSA EFC was "99999" meaning we will get zero need based aid. Our conundrum is that our income is not THAT high and our cashflow is low, so making a $55K payment to private college, with after tax dollars, is really going to be a squeeze. I know some loans are available, but many subsidized ones are not. Any ideas on other ways to solve this puzzle besides killing our home equity line of credit? (PS - I am not ungrateful to have decent income, just trying to explore options besides eroding our home equity - which is supposed to be for our retirement.)</p>
<p>I hear ya! Don’t you just love those high EFCs?? LOL</p>
<p>Is your child a junior or senior? </p>
<p>If he’s a junior, then I’d have him apply to schools that will give him big merit scholarships for stats. </p>
<p>If he’s a senior and he didn’t apply to schools that will give merit, then you only have a few options…</p>
<p>1) have him do a gap year and then reapply to schools that will give merit.</p>
<p>2) Take out Paren’t Plus loans. (BTW…only a very small amount of student loans are subsidized…like maybe 3500…and your income is TOO high for federal subsidized loans anyway. You have to have “need” to get a small subsidized loan)</p>
<p>3) Have your child go to the state flagship which is a lot less than your EFC.</p>
<p>4) Have your child commute to a college.</p>
<p>5) Have your child take out a $5500 student loan, work over the summer to contribute a few thousand, and then you pay/borrow the rest.</p>
<p>Edited to add…I see that your child is a senior and has applied to ivies/elites. Well, then you just have to take out Plus loans, or do an equity line of credit, or have him go to his financial safety school. (did he apply to any financial safety schools?)</p>
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<p>If your FAFSA EFC is $99,999, then your annual income exceeds $200,000 a year (and I would say that is very high)…or you have very significant assets…VERY significant. Did you think your family would qualify for need based aid?</p>
<p>Most colleges and universities offer installment plans. You wouldn’t have to pony up that 55k (or whatever it is) in one big scary chunk at the beginning of the year. Call the colleges/universities and ask how each of them handle this. You may have more than one payment option that you can choose from.</p>
<p>Wishing you and yours all the best!</p>
<p>Many schools may let you pay 10 months out of the year through Tuition Management Systems or other companies. You enroll for about $65.00 for the school year. Some schools have their own payment systems and you pay online 8, 10 or 12 months out of the year. It may actually be better for you than paying by semester.</p>
<p>Probably the number one way is to apply to schools that offer merit aid to students with your child’s stats. Other options are drawing on whatever assets you may have or getting a loan. Certainly have your child take a Stafford loan which would be in his/her name.</p>
<p>No money trees around that need pruning. Many of us who have EFCs that are up there, find it difficult to pay for college, particularly the top priced ones. Those are after tax dollars in cost, and it hurts for most people who are lucky enough to be able to pay to do so. Hurts to borrow and repay the loans too. </p>
<p>Have you saved for college? Has your student saved for college? Break out the budget book and start seeing how much you can pay out of current income. Can your student start looking for a part time job now and full time for the summer? Then, what are reasonable amounts to borrow and from where ? Do you want your student to take out some of the Staffords? Should go via PLUS or HELOC? That’s how we are doing. Student is pitching in too. It’s not easy, nonetheless.</p>
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<p>How much does your retirement depend on the home equity? I hope it’s only a small factor. If it’s a large factor, then stop worrying about college and make retirement your priority. Your son can find ways to fund low-cost education. You cannot afford to under-fund your retirement.</p>
<p>* besides eroding our home equity - which is supposed to be for our retirement. </p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Home equity does not get counted on FAFSA. If your FAFSA EFC is 99k, then you have other huge assets or you have a very high income. If you have other big assets, why aren’t those for retirement?</p>
<p>Are you self-employed?</p>
<p>If you say that you’re “cash poor,” does that mean that your high income is already “spoken for” with mortgage, debt, etc? Or does that mean that your income is not that high, but your EFC is high because of huge assets…like real estate or stocks/investments? </p>
<p>Your child has applied to pricey elites. Did he apply to any financial safety schools? Since you had to be well-aware of your financial situation (income/assets), how did you think you were going to pay for college when your child was applying? Certainly, with the kind of income/assets that nets a $99k EFC, you had to have known that you wouldn’t qualify for aid. With that much, you wouldn’t even qualify with 2 in college.</p>
<p>Thanks all for the advice. Yes we are self employed and business has huge and slow turning inventory demands hence the high asset base. And yes we didn’t expect much/any need-based aid but went through FAFSA paperwork because we’ve been told it is required for some student loans. Yes, daughter did also apply to financial “in-state” safety schools (got in to 4 of 5 so far) and also got a 25% merit aid from another, lesser known out of state school. So she has great options already before the Ivy results come out. But her interests and personality appear better suited for smaller, privates/Ivys. If she gets in any of these, we will weigh the trade-offs carefully and if needed, will likely go with the monthly installment payments as suggested, coupled with loans - and have her pay for some via P/T job. Thanks again.</p>
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<p>OK I love this…and break out the budget book just went down with my all time favorite quotes like love the kids on the couch. OP you’ll be amazed at what you can trim when you have to. I’m the sole breadwinner with a retired husband and I was unemployed for over a year and zero income coming in and 2 kids in college out of state. I was shocked at how much I could save simply by being aware of what we spent. I used to drive 1/2 mile to the grocery store for a bottle of creamer and a bag of coffee beans…no more. I lost 3 pounds and saved a bunch on gas. We now turn off the lights if we’re not in a room and we clean our own home and don’t wash dishes or clothes til we have a full load, smart grocery shopping trimmed $50 a week and so on and so on and so on…money makes life easy…lack of cash makes for a smarter life. My depression era mom was correct, expenses expand with income. </p>
<p>You’ll be fine, it’s not necessarily “fun” but it also isn’t for the rest of your life. As soon as the kids are done with college in 6 years (I’m done with the first 4) I’m taking those monthly tuition bills work a couple more years and sock it away for a bang-up retirement. 50 is the new 40 so I’ll only be mentally 50 when we’re done with college tuition payments!</p>
<p>You do save some money being rid of a certain college aged teenager too. I love my middle son, but the OJ and milk disappears at a steady pace when he is home. He never turns out the lights, he takes long hot showers, is on the computer, watches tv to all hours of the night, leaves the car needing gas and eats like a bear out of hibernation. The shampoo disappears and there always the trips to CVS. Always short on socks and underwer and cash. There also seems to be a litany of wants and needs when he is at home. When DH took my two youngest on vacation this year, I hardly used any gasoline that week. The car was nearly as full of gas as it was when they left. I drive all over the place for them for basketballs, this, that or the other. When my youngest is gone, I think our expense will go down drastically as we end up not just feeding our own kids but all of their friends. </p>
<p>My college student takes care of his own needs with his part time job and savings from the summer. But when he comes home, he’s back on our tab.</p>
<p>Love it cpt…we should move to the cafe and discuss the cost of raising boys! (And feeding them and their friends…constantly…they can clean out a kitchen in 10 minutes flat) I watch my girlfriends’ daughters eat one strawberry, or nibble on a carrot and call that a meal. When all 3 of mine were home I had people ask at the grocery store as I barely could wheel my cart if I was having a large party and when I told them I had three teenage athletic boys over 6 feet tall say “oh I’m so sorry” plus boys eat 5 times a day. Breakfast, lunch, after school, dinner and evening. Oh my gosh the cost of feeding and raising boys…perhaps that is why girls pay for weddings. It’s the bonus moms of boys get for feeding and paying for them when they are teens.</p>
<p>One positive is that I think boys cost less in college…they rarely do laundry, food service feeds them at the same price as girls as much and as often as they require and they don’t “decorate their dorms” or require massive amount of sheets and towels or new clothes every season and they can make fun on campus without spending money.</p>
<p>^^wow. Whose ds are those? My hs freshman tells me she’s “fond of” meat and eats 5 meals a day. Now I get that at 90 pounds she doesn’t need as much fuel as a bigger bodied person, but a carrot as a meal? Those girls aren’t hanging out at my house.</p>
<p>Yes, they are all pretty “skinny” girls 
dancers and fashion forward types. I do try to feed them when they are at my house…“do you want alittle peanut butter with that carrot stick??”</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>I can relate. I went shopping at Sams Club a few days before my boys came home from college last year for the summer. I went with a friend who has 2 skinny girls who live on air. She was shocked to see that I grabbed a flatbed and had it completely full by the time I checked out. Her bill was $78…mine was nearly $500.</p>
<p>My mom, who had 4 boys and 3 girls, used to say…“I can tell the girls: ‘No more clothes’, but I can’t tell the boys: ‘No more food.’”</p>
<p>There are some savings when they are out of the house and stuck on the budget you give them. DH and I don’t need a full dinner with all of the trimmings every night. With 5 boys, that was my life, making such dinners for a long, long time. My youngest is only 13 and right now he’s a skinny thing, but eats more than 2 men–he’s in that growing stage. Have a few of his friends over, and they can clean out the fridge in no time. I cannot keep milk and OJ in stock for more than a day or two no matter how much I buy, so I buy so much and we do without when it’s gone. But my “to pay” list is filled with school related things for the kids still at home. With a high school senior, you can imagine what the list is going to be like in the next few months. </p>
<p>I wish i could just pay for whatever school my kids want, but we have financial constraints that are going to make even the budgeted amount tough to meet. We have gone over budget each year with each of our college kids in miscellaneous costs, so we stick to the sticker price that we are willing to pay. It gives us some structure. I am ashamed we don’t pay more; our EFC is very high, but we made certain lifestyle choices a long time ago that make it difficult to pay what we should be able to pay according to the calculators. Those are the decisions we made. I do not blame the system one minute for it. My kids have enjoyed the privileges and advantages those decisions brought.</p>