<p>
</p>
<p>With the exception of the lowest incomes, FAFSA is usually 25%-33% of pre-tax income. They post-tax income would still be $270k, which is way above average.</p>
<p>The costs of college are supposed to include past savings and loans as well, not just your annual income.</p>
<p>My two cents, fill out the FAFSA only if you decide you want to take out government loans otherwise forget about it at that income level. Each state is different, but some states also have some merit money for students based on standardized test scores and GPA. You should be able to find this information on your state’s website. In my state kids qualify regardless of the enormity of their parents income, but I believe the student must matriculate high school in the state so if your kids are prepping out of state look for that particular circumstance.</p>
<p>I hear you on wanting a little help with college costs. College is expensive for one, but you have two to put through!</p>
<p>So here’s how you get a little help with college costs:</p>
<p>1.) File FAFSA and have your kids take out $5,000/year in loans. They will owe $20K when they graduate, which is not an unreasonable burden for a student to carry.</p>
<p>2.) Have them work while in college and during the summers so that they have funds to pay for their walking around money, their books, any trips they want to take (except for coming home for holidays/the summer), their shampoo, dinners out, and entertainment, room and board during the summer if they decide not to come home, and so on. You cover tuition, room and board and essential college fees – anything billed by the college – and they cover the rest. That should save you at least $5/K year per kid.</p>
<p>If you do this, you will have reduced your outlay for college for two kids by $80K. That your kids may learn something along the way through this method is gravy.</p>
<p>A friend who is in the 0 aid fafsa bracket filled out the forms anyway and was offered $10,000 merit aid at a private school. She doesn’t think she would have been considered for aid at all if she hadn’t filled out the forms.
And as for ‘morally’ being obligated to pay full tuition- I find that offensive. Why do I have money? Because I worked harder and/or smarter than those who don’t, and I don’t see why I should be punished for that. I find it morally wrong to have more children than one can afford to raise the way they want to raise them.</p>
<p>Some schools require the FAFSA for consideration for Merit money. I’d guess that they want the financial information as it’s probably useful for fundraising. Some schools don’t require the FAFSA for consideration of merit money. Check with prospective schools.</p>
<p>To the OP…you will not qualify for need-based aid, but depending on the college you may need to fill out the FAFSA to be considered for merit-based awards. It doesn’t really make sense, but we were in that situation for D1. Filled out the FAFSA (and CSS Profile, also required at her college)…no need-based aid (didn’t expect any), but D1 got a nice-sized merit scholarship. So in that case it was worth filling out the FAFSA.</p>
<p>Yes, do look for less prestigious schools with merit aid that will reduce your costs, then find out whether or not those schools need the FAFSA to administer merit aid.</p>
<p>Well, despite some of the blunt comments (which I somewhat expected), I do appreciate the feedback. As one or two people noted, that income is before taxes (federal, state, county AND personal property - our state is one of those that hits you at every turn), which we pay a considerable amount. We also (since DH is self-employed) pay full for health insurance, life insurance, etc. We also, as I noted, live in a very high cost of living area (one of the highest in the country). So while I do realize how fortunate we are, we certainly do not fit the “wealthy” category and it is still a drain on us. And, btw, DH and I both come from VERY modest backgrounds, so I know where some of the posters are coming from. We are probably one generation ahead of the people who said that our income is 1/10th of their family income…we did what I think we all want to do - work hard and do better for our children. I don’t want to feel punished for that.</p>
<p>I am not expecting any need based aid and am fine about that. Perhaps I wasn’t as clear about that as I should have been in my original post. What I want to know is should I file at all - by not filing, am I pulling us out of the running for some merit aid? My son has high GPA from very competitive school, high SATs, good ECs, so I am hopeful that he may qualify for some from somewhere. Though several of the schools he is interested don’t offer merit, some do. In the current climate, though, I don’t want it to hurt his admission chances if schools think he will require need-based aid. Does that make sense?<br>
Thanks!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>As has been mentioned several times above, it depends entirely on the school. Please check the web sites of the schools your son is considering to find out whether they require filing FAFSA (and possibly Profile) for merit aid.</p>
<p>If you took your AGI and divided by 10, you’d get my AGI.</p>
<p>We ALL pay. My city wage tax is 4%, higher than the state tax.</p>
<p>I can’t even FATHOM spending 42K on private HS. that is my take home pay for almost 18 months. Just to give you some perspective on how the rest of us ‘middle’ people live.</p>
<p>Thanks, Sue…don’t need the “perspective” as I grew up in a much poorer household than yours. I’ve been there. I have really tried to ignore the snippy comments…why should I have to justify our success? Sorry you can’t “fathom” us spending the money on HS tuition - I went to public school my entire life (college, too) and back then I’m sure that I couldn’t either. But through education and a lot of hard work, now it is something that we can do for our children and I think that was a decision for our family to make, no one elses. I’m not going to apologize for this. And I never referred to our situation as middle class…</p>
<p>I came here as a parent, just wanting some information, not to be belittled for our family choices.</p>
<p>There are colleges and merit awards that require FAFSA tp get any money. In some states where they have scholarships for state tuition for all students who perform above a certain threshhold, they require FAFSA. For government backed loans, you usually need FAFSA.</p>
<p>Thanks, cptofthehouse…I appreciate the info.</p>
<p>I think the information you have received here is good stuff. Bottom line, on paper, your family (barring anything you have not shared, such as terminal illness, family members living with you who require support, and so on) likely does not qualify for need based aid, but may be eligible for merit aid, and best of all, anecdotally, full paying students probably have lots of priority at certain schools. Personally, I would not apply for financial aid and would increase chances of admission. The merit aids people mention are like 10K off of 45K and they may be automatically awarded. </p>
<p>No one is dissing you here – it is more of a gasp that someone with such an income is in the same boat as the lower income folks here.</p>
<p>my2sunz,
Congrats on your family’s success! (Which certainly is not worthy of belittlement, imo.) Your question is a legitimate one, and as others have stated, the answer will vary by school, depending on whether they are need-blind, etc. If I were you, I would plan on filling out the FAFSA, then inquire at each school about whether it is required for merit aid. Good luck!</p>
<p>As others have noted, you are LOWER Upper Class, not Upper Middle Class. Not even a school like Princeton, which allows you to deduct a portion of boarding school costs from your AGI when calculating institutional aid is going to give you anything. You will NOT qualify for any Federal financial aid, nor any need-based aid from any college I am aware of.</p>
<p>If you want, you can take out the unsubsidized Stafford loan. You can also apply to colleges that offer merit scholarships. </p>
<p>I’m sure that if you are living in the Bay Area or the NY Metro area $450K might not seem like much, but it is. Good for you on your financial success!</p>
<p>Agree, it seems to me that when the OP’s oldes has their college list together it would be fairly easy to ask admissions: “We will likely not qualify for any income based aid, but should we fill out your required aid forms to qualify for any potential merit only based aid or is that awarded directly from the transcripts and application you will receive.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062373982-post3.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062373982-post3.html</a></p>
<p>I put everything the OP asked for in the 3rd post in this thread. </p>
<p>Everyone else has responded saying the exact same thing.</p>
<p>Some schools give aid based on Merit irregardless of need. Look for them. It won’t be an Ivy school. </p>
<p>I do admit that when someone making 450K a year is struggling, I wonder how the rest of us manage. </p>
<p>42K for HS = ~3 years of my EFC</p>
<p>Yes, Sue, but I think it took many of us a long time to get our jaws off the floor so we’re stuttering and alittle slower than normal. We just keep coming back and reading the original post and responding again.</p>