@thumper1 I apologize, i dont know what qualifies as an asset, but my family only has our house (still paying mortage) and a couple stocks. No other homes, businesses, etc.
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Our income is only about 170k before taxes,
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“Only”. I have to tell you, even if your parents don’t have savings/assets, you’re still going to have a very high EFC.
That income alone would have an EFC of about $55k per year.
are their retirement funds in stocks/investments?
Or are their retirement funds in some sort of protected IRA, 401k, or similar?
You need to deal with this NOW. What schools are you applying to?
Do your parents own a business?
How much will your parents pay each year? Ask them, please don’t guess. We see later posts from a lot of disappointed students who thought their parents would pay more.
If your parents won’t pay at least $50k per year, then the only schools that will be affordable for you are low cost schools or schools that will give you big merit scholarships.
You are only dealing with the fafsa here. Many schools that give a lot of aid also require the CSS.
I don’t think you’ll be very successful arguing that your parents want to retire at 60 so you are hoping for aid. We ALL want to retire. Now with the fafsa using p4ior-prior tax information, it will be hard to retire and qualify for need based aid.
That’s not what was said. OP said that both parents were over 60.
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@thumper1 I apologize, i dont know what qualifies as an asset, but my family only has our house (still paying mortage) and a couple stocks
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“A couple stocks”. If there are large amounts of money in a couple of stocks…
you also mention your parents retirement funds. What kind of accounts are those in?
Either way, your parents income alone will cause them to have a high EFC.
Families are “first in line” to pay for college.
ASK your parents how much they WILL pay for college. What is THAT answer?
@moms2collegekids I get the idea, thanks for your help.
Our EFC was around $99K so the number may not be an error.
NOW is the time to find out what they will pay for college for you. YOU can only borrow around $27k for 4 years of college. Apply accordingly. You don’t want to come to your decision time in April and find you can’t afford to go to any of the colleges that accepted you.
You don’t need to go to a $65,000 plus a year college. There are plenty of good options that are less expensive.
If your SAT/ACT score is high enough,…and your GPA too, you could get significant merit aid at some places…but they won’t be HYPSM.
You posted this a year ago:
This was a chances thread for Stanford. In addition, you indicate a lot that says you intend to go to medical,school. Is that still the case?
Do go back and check your entries onnthe FAFSA. It is possible you entered something incorrectly. Even if you find an error, your EFC is still going to be in the $50,000 plus range. Can your parents pay THAT amount annually?
I would very strongly suggest that your parents NOT use retirement funds to pay for your college. Simply put…they are in their 60’s and do not have enough time between now and retirement to replenish those important retirement funds before they actually retire. Using retirement money when they are over sixty is not a good plan!
Even a generous school like Stanford is going to exoect your family to make a contribution. A big one.
There are plenty of less expensive college options. Find some.
P.S. Run the net price calculators on the college websites. Make sure your information is accurate.
There is some factor already built into the formula for how close a parent or both are to retirement. Small, but there. But agree, the first issue is the income.
Anyone lurking who doesn’t realize. they don’t ask for retirement assets in “qualified” plans. Only about unprotected assets (roughly, everything but qualified retirement plans/QRP.)
Yes, run the NPCs for a view directly fro the colleges.
YOU can only borrow $5,500 for freshman year so please don’t assume you can borrow your way.
Listen, I understand that this is shocking. You have your heart set on some tippy top big name pricey schools. You probably don’t want to hear that those schools won’t give you the aid you want. You probably don’t want to come up with a new list since your focus is on top privates.
You have to pull the bandage off quickly and deal with reality.
Go ahead and apply to a couple of those faves…but…quickly apply to a few schools that will give you huge merit for your stats. Those schools probably have scholarship deadlines that ARE SOON, so you can’t “wait and see” and then apply.
Every year we see kids apply ED or EA or whatever, get the results and then can’t afford those results…and then it’s too late to apply to schools that have early scholarship deadlines.
Protect yourself. You don’t want to end up with no affordable schools and then you have to either do a gap year or go to a CC.
I stand corrected on my $300k comment. Thanks guys.
Paying for college with retirement funds is a bad idea. It’s generally not good to borrow more than the federal student loans either. Those amount to about $5500/year. Look for a schools that offer merit for your stats.
Plus you say your parents are already in their sixties. This is very close to retirement age. They would not have sufficient time after you graduate to replenish their retirement funds.
Please…don’t expect your parents to do this. Find an affordable college.