<p>Family income is about 180K and asset is in the neighborhood of 300K, is 51000 efc from a css school normal? i dont know whether I should appeal. thoughts?</p>
<p>You have no chance for an appeal with an EFC of $51K…</p>
<p>That sounds correct as a family contribution with that income, and assets. </p>
<p>Did you really think you would be eligible for need based aid?</p>
<p>thank you Gumbymom and thumper1. I just got the award letter and got less than 10K grant (need based I believe).</p>
<p>by the way, does it make any difference if half of the income is from capital gain?</p>
<p>Income is income…doesn’t matter where it comes from.</p>
<p>$51,000 plus $10,000 equals $61,000 which is likely the cost of attendance. Schools will not give you need based aid that will make your total exceed the cost of attendance.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine you have a basis for appeal.</p>
<p>but capital gain is not stable income, when we did our mortgage, the lender did not count capital gain as income. I guess college is different.</p>
<p>Taking a big capital gain in the base year to start applying for financial aid probably wasn’t the best move. Some colleges will increase aid if your income goes down, but I think not as much as they would if you had come in with lower income to start with (at least that is my experience this year with D2’s financial aid, big drop in income from year 1 to year 2, but only a modest improvement in FA).</p>
<p>There are plenty of good schools that quite a bit less than 51K. You would be better off finding a school that you can afford than you will be in asking for financial aid.</p>
<p>Does your college guarantee to meet full need for all students?</p>
<p>If so, and your income is reduced significantly this coming year, you could see an increase in aid the following year.</p>
<p>$15,000 of your family contribution is because of your asset of $300,000. $35,000 due to income. How much of your income was NOT capital gain? </p>
<p>I’m only asking because a family contribution based on $180,000 of income would be in the $50,000 range…not including the asset.</p>
<p>My kid is a rising senior, too late to find cheaper school. it looks like it is better off for me to save FA office and my time to write appeal letter. </p>
<p>not write an appeal letter. thanks for all your input.</p>
<p>This is your child’s final year in college? </p>
<p>Forget my prior question. </p>
<p>I guess under 100K they take 10% and 30% for the amount over 100K. that is my estimate.</p>
<p>Is that the school policy? Places like Stanford and Harvard charge 10% IF the student income is below a certain threshold ($100,000, I believe) and the family has “typical assets”.</p>
<p>Is your child a HS rising senior or a college rising senior?</p>
<p>college senior. We usually get half of COA. it is not standford or HYP. </p>
<p>As noted above, taking a capital gain while your kiddo was in college was perhaps not good financial planning. Can you use some of that (large) gain to fund her last year in college?</p>
<p>sorry, get to pay or get grant half of coa.</p>