<p>I had a terrible feeling this would happen. Why is it that we look so much more solvent theoretically than we are in practical application?? We recently completed the FAFSA forms, and it appears that the powers that be feel like we can handle approximately $25,000/year of our sons college expenses!! In reality, well be lucky to get a fifth of that together. </p>
<p>We are a large family with one income (six kids and Ive been at home raising them, though my youngest went to first grade this year and I will probably return to the work force part time in the next six months or so). </p>
<p>Heres the dealmy husband is a motivated and committed provider, and he looks for every hour of overtime he can get. We really cannot make it on his base salary alone, but we have been lucky enough to always be able to hustle up enough overtime to make ends meet (barely). This year, my husband was able to work an independent contracting job in his field that was completely outside of his regular job. It was manna, but we have no idea as to whether or not that opportunity will present itself again in the future. Also, the company he for which he works is on the brink of a sale, and we have NO IDEA what the future will hold in terms of salary, benefits, pensions, etc. The bottom line is that this year, my husband very nearly doubled our base salary, which would have surely guaranteed us substantial need-based aid, based on our family size. This will probably never happen again.</p>
<p>So, what can we do? Can we issue a letter explaining all of this? I just really feel that the FAFSA is totally missing the mark because it was based on this one atypical year. Is there anything that can be done about this, or is this just the luck of the draw? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. </p>
<p>Nice to see you back but sorry you are having FAFSA worries.</p>
<p>We did the FAFSA and the Profile - also had a large EFC - and noticed that on the Profile, which only one of the schools required, there was space for special circumstances. I called the schools that required only the FAFSA and asked if we could submit a statement with special circumstances. Every school said by all means, to do so. Who knows if it will help, but I prepared one for each school and will call again this week to figure out exactly where to FAX them. </p>
<p>It simply has S's name and SSN on top, and then it notes that we submitted the FAFSA for our son so-and-so on such-and-such date, and that we would like to advise the school of the following special circumstances, which I then described. </p>
<p>If your other kids are in private schools, you could also mention that, and why you choose to send them to private schools.</p>
<p>My husband and I signed and dated it, again identifying ourselves as so-and-so's parents under our names. </p>
<p>On the up side (well, sort of ;)), the FAFSA must be done annually, so next year you will have a new EFC that will take into account your family's income, depleted savings (having paid for one year of college by then), etc., so in future years your EFC might be less. But by all means, submit a statement. It can't hurt and could only help.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it sounds like you did exactly what The Princeton Review's book, "Paying for College Without Going Broke" advises not to do ... earn additional money during the base year when that income will not be replicated in future years. However, how do you give up that opportunity to double your income? Catch-22 indeed. :(</p>
<p>It seems to make sense to write a letter(s) explaining the circumstances.</p>
<p>No, Berurah, FAFSA is FAFSA and whatever happened during last year determines this year's EFC. FAFSA is primarily a determinant for eligiblity for government funds and also serves as a clearinghouse for a number of things. It is pretty clear you will not be eligible for federal money with your numbers and unless there is a mistake made, that is not going to change. However, if I remember correctly most of the schools where your son applied will require PROFILE which does have a section for comments where you can explain that this year's income is an anomoly. You may want to send a letter to the financial aid offices of each of the colleges as well with copies of prior year returns as evidence. But that is a flaw of the financial aid process in that it does not take into account the history of family income. I know many families who enjoy a blip of income in a key year, and the way it works, 30-40% is claimed for college expenses, absurd for a family your size. The way it works is if your family income goes down next year, the EFC will be reduced at that time. </p>
<p>Whe you last posted, I remember telling you that this sort of thing could well happen, and suggested a number of schools along the lines of what Originaloog's son pursued because they are very generous with merit aid, and your son seemed to be the sort that would eligible for some of these awards. Financial aid is truly a dicey thing and it is always risky counting on it.</p>
<p>Wow! I just noted that this thread has 4 views and 3 answers! It is lovely to see how CC posters reply so quickly when the need seems urgent. Another reason I love CC.</p>
<p>We have the same problem. I haven't finished the FAFSA yet for this year- the finaid.org calculator gives the same amount but I hear that the FAFSA calc has changed.
My H also makes most of the money- he works two weekends a month and often 10-12 hr shifts( changing shifts required). Because of his schedule, I have had to be more flexible, and a lot more 50's style wife than is my nature. If our income was split then our EFC would be about $3000 less, as it is , it is expected that I would be able to make the same income that he is.</p>
<p>I was not happy to hear that not only have Pell grants been cut quite a bit, but Perkins loans ( which my daughter has recieved for the past three years) are rumored to be completely cut as well. I think this will trickle down to impact all financial aid. We'll see.
It is worth a try certainly to express your changing financial status to the colleges, but our experience has been that they won't change anything until your income actually is changed. Its up to the school though, and on how flexible they are and how badly they want you.</p>
<p>I do want to welcome you back to the Forum, Berurah. Didn't mean to sound so brusque (just re-read my post, and hated the tone). I just see this happen all of the time.</p>
<p>Your advice is really helpful! I did write an explanatory note on the Profile, but I didn't see any provision for it on the FAFSA. I hadn't thought of contacting the schools, though, so I really appreciate your suggestion! </p>
<p>All of our kids are enrolled in public school. We would not ever be able to afford private! One thing I noticed about the FAFSA was that it hit very little on expenditures and a great deal on what you made. The only expeditures they did hit on were of no help to us...for example, we own three cars outright, but our newest one is a 1993!! So, what WOULD go to car payments goes to car repairs! :(</p>
<p>I will do a letter...it can't hurt and maybe it will have a slim chance of helping.</p>
<p>twinmom,</p>
<p>You are right...we certainly knew that it wouldn't help our financial aid efforts, but we can't even make it on our base salary, so we HAVE to make all of the extra we can! </p>
<p>jamimom,</p>
<p>That is depressing advice about the FAFSA. I know our situation will change soon, though, both due to income fluctuations and the fact that my next child will enter college just two years after my first. </p>
<p>We did add a couple of colleges to our original list, and one of them was one that held a very good possibility of merit aid for my son, so we will see what happens. </p>
<p>If you send copies of prior year returns, if the last, say 3 years were significantly lower, it may help. Colleges do have discretionary funds of their own, and FAFSA just dictates the government money. Given your S's profile, he is certainly a desireable student, and some schools may well stretch a bit to give him more. And when you have a second child in college, it will make a difference as well, but then, of course, the total cost increases. The schools where this will be a problem would be out of state public universities where the state residents get first and sometimes only crack at the money. Your state U will probably have some good merit awards in an honors college or progam that will be a good low cost option if the numbers do not work out with the PROFILE schools or the school with merit possibilities.</p>
<p>My oldest daughter will enter in the fall of 2007, two years after her older brother.</p>
<p>wish<em>it</em>was_april,</p>
<p>You are right in that this forum is unbeatable for its advice and support!</p>
<p>jamimom,</p>
<p>Thanks for your welcome back...I found nothing wrong with the tone of your first post! I really appreciated the input. :)</p>
<p>emeraldkity,</p>
<p>Could you explain a bit more about the EFC being lower if the income were more evenly split?? I think this will impact us if I do go back to work parttime soon. Are you saying that if both people work, they expect the income to be more evenly split? Also, if I were to work full-time and we were to have the income we did this year, would the EFC be lower because we had two incomes to make that amount? Just wondering. Thanks for your input! ~berurah</p>
<p>We definitely are counting on our state school as a back-pocket option. If it were to make a substantial merit offer, we would have a real decision on our hands. Since it is the only school for which he's received an acceptance so far, it is looking pretty good right now <em>lol</em> :) ~berurah</p>
<p>Berurah, if indeed the company where your husband works should fall apart, you need to have a game plan about how to treat any assets that may come from it. When my friend's H had this happen, the pension which he used to start his own business was hit up for college by financial aid methodolgy. They go after just about every cent, and plans for future and current income does not count. You need to see what payouts may come, and if they can be sheltered from FAFSA/ Profile, and you should do it before it happens, as things can move very quickly in business.</p>
<p>All you need to do is try the calculator with the income evenly divided and without.
I assumed that the finaid.org calc was fairly accurate as it was pretty close to FAFSA.
It may be different for you, my H had one employer and I had one employer- the only thing I changed was the amount earned by each.</p>
<p>I haven't really tested it to the point that I submitted those amounts to FAFSA because they would be inaccurate, but when our EFC was higher than those with similar total incomes I did wonder why...</p>
<p>AACK!! Who could advise us on this? From what I understand, the company he works for will be sold, but the same work will pretty much continue under the new leadership. But everything will be up in the air--salary, benefits, pensions, etc. I'm pretty sure that they will have to honor the current union contract though, which is less than a year old. ~berurah</p>
<p>We had something similar happen to us. My husband was able to work a lot of overtime and as a result make a lot more money for the FAFSA for freshman year. For this year's FAFSA, which will apply toward soph year, he had about 2 weeks overtime total, so I think our EFC should be a lot lower. It was great to have that overtime just before our son started college but it sure ruined everythign as far as FAFSA goes. It's a Catch 22, you want the extra income but it messes you up when you manage to get some. I suppose they figure you should set some of that money aside, but it just doesn't happen that way, or at least it didn't for us.</p>
<p>It <em>never</em> happens that way for us! As I said, we need a certain percentage of it just to break even, and then we have three aging cars and all the expenses that go along with six kids...I hope that next year will be different for us financial-aid wise!</p>
<p>Not much comfort in this thought, but you do get some of the extra income. It's not like it is all channelled to college costs. And for years that you have less income, you will have to live on less overall even though you will get more financial aid a year later. </p>
<p>Berurah, there are often free workshops given for financial aid in communities or schools. Ask the GC if she knows of anyone who is well versed in the subject who can go over this with you. Or a parent who is a pro on this. I work with a lot of families on their statements even though I am not an accountant, as I am pretty familiar with the forms but I have resources that I need to call when specific situations arise. I don't quite understand what Emeraldkity is saying, but then I never did a double calc with the incomes redistributed evenly, and I will check this out tomorrow. Car payments will not help you as few expenses are taken into account in these calculations. Any payments to a pension plan are even added back in as income! Basically, with 6 kids, you will probably come up with 25% of pay as your EFC which translates to a sizeable income by any standars except for paying a $45K a year college cost. </p>
<p>If S gets into a dream school, and it just isn't possible, an alternative is to look into ROTC program, perhaps, delay acceptance for a year, spend it working and taking a some credits at a local state school which with a reduction in H's pay may be a net reduction in family income which may then result in more aid. But then if you are working and S is working that is added back in. Just make sure he has no assets sitting at the end of the year--that it is spent on any possible expenses for him or it could become a double whammy--charged for income and assets at the special student asset rate of 35%. That way too, you will have two in college for three years instead of two which would effectively halve your EFC.</p>
<p>Berurah - my company went through a merger/acquisition the summer daughter prepared to leave for college. The acquiring company - drastically different culture, I expected very bad things to happen. Actually, they're evil, but whatever. Now, her financial aid was all merit money - doesn't qualify for need based aid, my EFC was about $20,000. After merit scholarships the balance due is was a percentage of room and board. </p>
<p>I wrote a formal letter of special circumstance, delivered it via email, and the director of financial aid himself telephoned me within 48 hours. He gave me a few thousand in grant money right away. This is a large, well known university. He did mentioned knowing D's high school very well, that might have had something to do with his response. </p>
<p>BTW the very bad corporate stuff did happen exactly as I feared, however, it took some time to manifest, by then I had plan B in place, and haven't needed to write such a letter since. </p>
<p>Strongly recommend you write such letters. I've known other parents at other schools to write them as well, and no one has yet reported negative results.</p>
<p>Sophomore year - if you'd like some humor on this - I did my part of the FAFSA, and then told D to log in and populate the fields that relate to her stuff. D emailed back it was all done, so I forgot about it and moved on with life. Some weeks later I started getting weird requests from the university. They wanted information on stuff like what do I spend on groceries, all sorts of strange inquiries. Without thinking, I started to answer some of the forms that arrived, but the deeper I got into them, the stranger it all seemed. So I emailed D - why does your school seem to think we're starving? She of course had no idea, so I made more calls. Turns out she accidently populated her income from summer job ($2,000-ish) in the fields where my income gets reported. So the school thought I was suddenly destitute. It took some work for me to untangle it all.</p>
<p>why does your school seem to think we're starving?</p>
<p>LOL
that reminds me of the year that my daughter wore basically the same two outfits everyday. SHe had a fleece vest a tank top and shorts which she wore with teva sandals everyday until she decided to wear a tshirt and leggings which she wore until they were shredded. She had drawers and drawers of really nice outfits, patagonias sweatsuits, mousefeather dresses, other things that I had saved and purchased until I figured out that NO ONE was going to decide what she wore except her.
( she had a tactile thing going on)
It didnt faze her teacher ( she was in 3rd grade) his classroom was over heated anyway ( public school radiators) but the dance instructors that came once a week for that year, were SERIOUSLY concerned. ;)
I wish I knew then that eventually she would outgrow it and wear socks and underwear like everyone else!</p>