<p>NMF full-scholarship schools would be the least expensive. Also look at schools that meet 100% of need and do not use loans, or have limited loans for families with your income. Check out some of the fin aid estimators provided by the schools them self just to get an idea. Dartmouth, Williams, and Princeton all their own. There are probably other schools too. These can be instructive.</p>
<p>“Or maybe because dad’s income was actually 76K (2K went to his 401K)? I’m not sure.”</p>
<p>The money that goes to the 401K or IRA this year, is counted as income this year. Next year that 401K or IRA savings will not show on the FAFSA as savings. It will be invisible to the FAFSA. So the income that you used for your estimates should have been 78K.</p>
<p>Junior’s savings should be transferred to the parents (probably put into the 529, especially if 529 contributions give you a deduction for state income tax purposes), since student assets are assessed at 20-25% and parent assets are only assessed at 5.6% (and this only after the asset protection allowance has been exceeded).
Definitely empty out his savings account before you complete your FAFSA and Profile - he gives the money to you, you could give him a monthly allowance (would give him good practice on living on a modest budget), or just give him $$ as needed.</p>
<p>I have heard that some highly selective schools will work with a family if they really want a student. (We can dream, right? Ha-ha.) Have any of you heard this?</p>
<p>I <em>really</em> appreciate all the information!</p>
<p>*I’m not sure how it came out to 10K but I went through all the steps in the link and our EFC was about 9400 and juniors was 550. Maybe because we have 0 savings? Or maybe because dad’s income was actually 76K (2K went to his 401K)? I’m not sure.
*</p>
<p>You have to add back in any 401k contributions. </p>
<p>You should have ONE EFC…what is it? 9950?</p>
<p>*I have heard that some highly selective schools will work with a family if they really want a student. (We can dream, right? Ha-ha.) Have any of you heard this?</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>I don’t know how true that is. I would N Highly selective schools have enough super stats kids that unless your child is somehow unique (like a male URM), I don’t see how that’s going to happen. Frankly, even male URMs don’t often get special consideration financial aid-wise. Last year I was helping a young black male (super stats) with his FA packages from MIT, Columbia, and Brown. Those schools would not budge on giving more money.</p>
<p>MomCat2, our credit union gave us a hassle because all checks are in junior’s name so they basically made us set up a custodial savings account for him. Any way around this?</p>
<p>High stats boys should take a look at Deep Springs College. Tremendously appealing for some, not for others. Free. Incredibly selective; graduates (it’s a two-year school) transfer to pretty much anywhere they want. </p>
<p>Pomona is another relatively local school with no loans in their FA packages. You can look at the other colleges in the consortium at the same time, AND stop at Donut Man in Glendora for a fresh fruit donut. Tour USC. Even if he ends up disliking either or both of these, it will give a sense of what his likes and dislikes are without flying to the other coast. If he’s attracted to Harvey Mudd, why not Caltech? </p>
<p>I am very fond of the University of Pittsburgh as a safety for high-stats kids. Honors college, some very very generous merit awards, and rolling admissions which can put an acceptance in your pocket by October, if not earlier.</p>
<p>Note that money in a 529 counts as a parent asset, even if it is in the kid’s name.</p>
<p>Don’t spend down the 529 - park your kid’s earnings there- most of them anyway - some could be given to mom & dad, then doled out to the kid for his school year and summer personal expenses, as I mentioned above. Use your state’s 529 plan if contributions are deductible from income for state income tax purposes - this can add up. We saved more than $900 on state taxes last year by funneling all the out-of-pocket money we pay toward eligible college expenses through the 529 plans.</p>
<p>Avoid buying an extra car if at all possible - the insurance for a teenage boy having his own car is astronomical! It’s a bit less if he’s a part-time driver on a shared vehicle.
Just in general, the annual expenses for owning, maintaining and insuring a car, plus gasoline, are quite a bit more than people would think, even if it is an older car that is paid off.
Best ways to trim your budget are to eliminate restaurant meals as much as possible and to minimize car expenses.</p>
<p>Before it comes time to actually do FAFSA, your son should use some of his savings towards college related purchases…a laptop, printer, dorm supplies, etc.</p>
<p>sbjdorlo, re: the savings account – if it’s primarily in a parent’s name and the interest statements at the end of the year are under a parent’s SSN, then it most likely counts as a parent asset. – others here may know more about this.</p>
<p>Just to be sure, you could just keep a tiny amount in that savings account to keep the credit union happy and transfer most of his earnings to the parents or a 529 like I mentioned.</p>
<p>What we’ve done for a daughter’s summer paychecks when she doesn’t have an account here is to just have her endorse them as “pay to the order of MomCat2”, then we cash and/or deposit them to our account.</p>
<p>Oh, BTW, I’m not really suggesting that you as parents “take” all the kid’s money - with decent record keeping of how much he’s earning and how much he’s spending, you can keep track of how much of “his” money is left.
The Profile schools do expect a hefty (unrealistically so in this economy, IMO) contribution from the student’s summer earnings.</p>
<p>It just doesn’t make sense to have money sitting in the student’s checking or savings account (though in later years, money earned from work/study or other FA is not counted) at the time the FAFSA and Profile are completed, since it is assessed so heavily.</p>
<p>Contrary to what others have said, hubby and I are saving quite a bit of money with the kids out of the house.
The cost of their sports and music lessons really added up, especially travel to out-of-town meets and tournaments. Even fairly local competitions meant gate fees and money spent for fast food. We’ve gone from buying a gallon of milk a day to about one a week.
Way fewer miles put on the cars, a saving of around $600 a year now that they’re not on our car insurance (GEICO doesn’t charge for college kids going to school far away who only drive your cars during breaks), fewer lights left on, the dishwasher doesn’t run nearly as much w/o the kids using 5 or 6 cups/glasses per day each (WTH?) plus other dishes, fewer loads of laundry, no more half-hour long showers, etc. We’re keeping the thermostat lower too, since we don’t mind dressing a little more warmly during the day and enjoying the snuggly down comforter at night!</p>
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<p>Short of taking a full-ride scholarship to a school that will offer Junior such based on his NMF or general stats, not much, really. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that if your EFC is 10K, most schools, even if they meet full need, will be including at least 5K of loans for Junior each year in the “financial aid” portion (i.e. that 5K does not go toward the EFC, you need to come up with 10K <em>on top of</em> the loans Junior will be offered as part of his aid package. Same deal if he is offered work-study in his aid package – that income goes toward the “need” part and not the EFC.</p>
<p>So, your choices really are: (a) find a combination of scholarships that exceeds your “need” (Cost of Attendance minus EFC) and thus cuts into your EFC, or
(b) find a way to come up with the $10K/year.</p>
<p>Even if Junior got a full-tuition scholarship somewhere, that still leaves about $15K in books, incidentals and living expenses (assuming he lives on campus and cannot commute). Junior would probably be offered $5500 in Stafford loans, leaving another ~10K for you to come up with :-/ </p>
<p>If Dad can afford $5K, can junior earn 5K (on top of any work-study job he may have to fill the “need” portion)? It’s a little paradoxical because if he earns more this year, he’ll be expected to pay more next year, but not by as much as he earns, so he’ll always come out on top. </p>
<p>A co-op program might be a workable option, as Junior will be able to earn some real money during the co-op terms, though unless he gets a co-op job where he can live with the parents, he’ll have living expenses to pay out of his earnings. But… I think that maybe co-op earnings don’t count, or aren’t counted the same, in terms of reducing his financial aid for the next year. </p>
<p>Northeastern and Drexel both offer full tuition to NMFs and have well-established co-op programs. </p>
<p>It’s good that you’re thinking about this now, even though it can be scary and depressing, especially when you realize that merit scholarships, unless they are huge, don’t cut into your family’s EFC!</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>It really depends on where your child applies whether the merit helps take care of the EFC. We have a higher EFC but my d’s merit awards definitely make it so we would pay less than EFC. Plenty of colleges that are LAC’s in the top 100 (but not the top ten or so) have great merit awards and often cost much less than some of the top schools. My d has applied to a number of private schools that have total cost of attendance at mid 30’s or slightly higher. Then when you get half tuition or higher merit scholarships. it does leave us with less than EFC to pay.</p>
<p>If you really do end up having an EFC of around 10K, that is about the the usual cost of housing and board. Most merit scholarships are geared toward tuition.</p>
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<p>Just an FYI…“Junior” will be able to take the Stafford loans in his name only. The Stafford for a freshman is $5500 for the full year. Some students also get Perkins loans in their names only but that would be school dependent (meaning the school determines who will be eligible for this loan). Any loans beyond those will require a cosigner as “Junior” doesn’t have the collateral to secure loans in his own name. Are you (the parents) able and willing to cosign loans for junior to attend college? And remember, that would be for four years, not just one.</p>
<p>Re: the comment “some of the more selective colleges will work with you”…sort of. The MOST selective colleges provide need based aid only. They will sometimes work with you if you have received a more significant award from a peer school (e.g. Harvard gives you more money than Yale). But the first hurdle is to get accepted at these highly selective schools.</p>
<p>I think you need to look at a broad list of schools. It sounds like this kiddo has some excellent stats to bring to a college. If he really is a competitive admit for the Ivies and similar competitive schools, there are others that are less competitive where he could get merit aid and an excellent education. Some state flagship universities have honors college programs and merit awards to attract students (Ohio State is one, for example). Others offer excellent awards to high stats students (U of South Carolina offers the McNair Scholarship which is a full cost award for OOS students). </p>
<p>Re: merit awards and EFC…there are some schools which allow stacking of awards up to the cost of attendance…but most do not. In many cases, if you have financial need, and you get a merit award, that merit award reduces your NEED by that amount. This does vary by school so again you will need to check EACH school’s policies.</p>
<p>Gosh, this is somewhat maddening, isn’t it? I mean, it sure seems like there’s no feasable way to graduate debt free even from an Ivy, unless junior comes up with one of those merits that’s full ride + room and board. Maybe we need to wrap our heads around the fact that there will be some moderate loans for junior.</p>
<p>I do like the idea of moving junior’s savings into our savings account and keeping track of it. I’m hesitant to move it into the 529 because he might end up using it. Really, I feel kind of bad but he’s interested in so many things, he’s basically paying for most of them cause we just don’t have it right now. He’s very frugal and he tries to find ways to earn. His newest venture is busking.</p>
<p>Yes, music lessons have been a large cost, though junior hasn’t taken violin lessons in a year but will start again in March. (13 yo plays cello) Haven’t quite figured out where this will come from but lessons will stop at 18 since assistance from outside program will stop then.</p>
<p>Baseball was a big expense this year but again, junior bought bat, glove, shoes, and paid 1/2 the fees ($200), so I can easily see how his money will go down (but it goes up, too). I like the idea of junior buying college related expenses this year.</p>
<p>Ok, no extra car. If junior stays within California, he might just take the old car but of course, he’ll be responsible for his insurance as he is now.</p>
<p>Caltech isn’t appealing to junior for whatever reason right now; he’s vascillated on that school. No music there, though I know he could go next door to Occidental.</p>
<p>I’ve searched many schools to find ones that would work-strong math, physics, statistics, music, chess, baseball, diverse community with strong faith-based opportunities (like Princeton).</p>
<p>Family EFC really came out to $10,100 (they had you add together parents and student and that’s the total). Maybe because we live in California and taxes are higher there? I dunno. Maybe I did something wrong but I followed the directions and steps carefully I thought.</p>
<p>Mathmomvt, I’ve not heard the term co-op in the way you’re using it. Could you explain? I do think junior can earn 5K if he continues to have performance opportunities. It’s not that he’s world class or anything; he’s just hooked into a wide circle of people who seem to need a violinist. Plus, he gets good money per hour for teaching but he won’t be working much during baseball season which is happening for the next 3 months. Summer is up in the air, depending on if he gets into the program he applied for (doubtful!). Otherwise, he’ll stay here and do local research and will have opportunity to earn money, I think.</p>
<p>Does the local state u have a graduate program in junior’s field? Maybe, as a last resort, he could attend the state u and take grad classes since he is currently auditing the upper-division classes. This could lead to some cool independent study projects, maybe, and maybe this would lead to a transfer opportunity as a junior. Frankly, if he is auditing upper-division courses already, I would think this could be an issue at some other schools.</p>
<p>If you are in California, is UCLA or Berkeley or Davis a fit? Just wondering why the UCs are not strong on the list.</p>
<p>I agree…look at the UCs. There are many options at those UCs…and they have a huge variety of programs. What does he want to do music wise in college? There are many schools which have good ensembles for students who are not music majors…including some of the UCs. If finances are a significant issue, you might also want to consider some the the Cal States.</p>
<p>And remember if he comes to the East Coast, you need to also factor in travel costs. Our kiddo did the opposite…went to CA from the East Coast. Travel costs were reasonable enough when she was a freshman but those costs climbed substantially. She came home for Christmas and for a couple of weeks in the summer only (she had a campus job full time in the summers). We NEVER went for a parents weekend or any of her concerts (she was in the orchestra) or even just for a visit. It was too costly and it took too long to get there (and the time change didn’t help). So consider this factor as well.</p>