Financial aid troubles: questions about EFC, demonstrated need, and deciding on the CSS profile?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
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I have already paid my enrollment deposit so I am certain I am attending… The money is just a little funny.

My father owns his own small business, and taxes were a bit complex/delayed, so my FAFSA was not completed until a week or two ago, at which point we supposedly did not qualify for anything. My parents hired our accounted to fill it out because of two frustrating reasons: they are very secretive when it comes to their finances, while also being very inefficient using technology. They cannot manage to fill anything out online themselves, nor will they let me help them.

I gave my parents documentation on when to fill out financial aid documents and when, however they did not complete the CSS profile nor the 2014 tax return, as I was notified via email by UofM to turn in these documents by June 1.

So the FAFSA was filled out(as they only paid attention to this, I suppose), with $100 paid to the accountant of course, with no money awarded. My mother(head of the finances, really) is very much leaning toward NOT attempting the CSS profile at all. She assumes that it will be an “exorbitant amount of effort” with no payoff (like the FAFSA). Of course I’ve told her to do it anyway, with many rational arguments and figures from the aid booklets from UofM.

She has “a pretty good idea we are not going to get anything” and finds this reason enough to not fill out the profile. My parents do have a great deal of money in investments, mostly for retirement, however she thinks that because this year the income was 50k we have no shot. Other years it’s been as low as 17k.

Now… As the FAFSA has been filled out, I clicked around and looked at our “eligibility” or something. It stated our expected family contribution is ~$19k, and our demonstrated need is ~$8k. I understand that UofM “matches” 100% of this so called demonstrated need… Could someone help me out with how this might turn out? I noted that the award is comprised of UM gift aid, work study, loans, pell grants… Is it a guarantee that our 8k need will be matched by some combination of these?

Could someone link to some documentation / anything that can help me… It’s an absolute horror to think about passing up aid because my parents are secretive of their finances to me and the university, and having to take out loans for what I could have gotten help with :frowning: my parents are paying for a lot of my college (which I am thankful for) but not all, so I am worried

UofM is pretty generous and different than other schools as far as aid(to the best of my knowledge). This really is stressful for me and any advice anyone can offer is appreciated in advance. Thank you a lot.

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The FAFSA can be initially submitted with last years tax return as estimation. So there is no excuse to wait till the 2014 tax to be done. Same for CSS profile. With the $8k need, they may at less fill it with workstudy and loan. You may be able to get some grant too but not the Pell grant. Just make sure you submit all the required document by June 1 as they said. There are likely money from the declined student FA. Note that the EFC calculation at UMich may be slightly off from the FAFSA.

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You are instate, correct?
If you’re in-state, yes, Umich meets demonstrated need, but not without the CSS. And the later you are, the less likely that aid is to be grant (instead of loan). Michigan itself gives grants in addition to fed programs, etc.

The question to ask your parents is if they’re willing to pay the full tuition and housing bill by not filling out the CSS. If their answer is no, but they won’t submit the CSS, then you’re stuck unless you can earn enough to go. Paying a deposit doesn’t mean you’re going to Umich. The only thing that means you’re actually going to Umich is paying the BILL :wink:

The CSS is a pain-in-the-butt for a business owner, and includes a calculation or valuation of the business, not to mention, investments. I understand their reluctance. But they may be leaving money on the table here, and you need to make that clear.

My bet is that based on investments, they’re clear they will not qualify for aid, but are likely prepared to support your college education. Which is their choice to make.

Where it gets tricky is if they’re not willing to support your instate colege education, which is where their decision now has a great impact on you.

And just so you know, good chance they’d be selected for verification which requires submitting the tax return. If this would be another stumbling block, I thought you should know.

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The FAFSA just determines if you get federal aid for low income people. That would mainly be Pell grant (up to 5,700 per year only.) So you are saying you don’t qualify this year for that 5 grand. Well maybe you will qualify another year, when the income is lower, not sure. But filling out FAFSA also gives you access to a Student loan if you want one in your name (up to 5,500 for freshman year.) FAFSA also qualifies for work/study but that is just given by the school according to availability and is not really different than getting a part time low hours job you can usually earn just several hundred per semester.

Filling out the CSS Profile (with the FAFSA) gives you access to UM gift aid. When you submit the CSS Profile, UM will determine it’s own EFC for you and if there is still demonstrated need then yes you will get those funds. Since we don’t know your numbers there is no way to tell what it will be like. Investments in retirement accounts are protected from the formula usually, but if they are not in IRA or 401k type accounts they are just savings and will be used partly in the formula. People who run businesses often take tax deductions like phones and cars and the colleges will look at those and sometimes add it back in, because they consider it like income you spend on standard of living. Businesses deductions can make it look like you have nothing when you live very well sometimes.

So, the federal aid just give a small amount compared to the cost of the school. It is the UM gift aid that can be the greater amount. The good news is that most colleges (not sure UM) only require the CSS one time. You only have to file the FAFSA every year. Filing FAFSA automatically gives you access to student loans at very good rate of 4.66% You don’t have to start paying them back until 6 months after graduation. That may be one way to delay some of the cost and if your parents can help with repayment all the better, although you might want to pay the interest as you go so it doesn’t accumulate and capitalize.

freshman 5,500
sophomore 6,500
jr 7,500
sr 7,500

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^ Yes, only freshmen need to submit CSS profile. For renewal, you just need to submit FAFSA. They also said the grant amount will likely at a similar level afterward unless you have big changes reported in FAFSA. The initial estimated FA package we got last March had loan and workstudy but no grant on it (since she got 2 scholarships from UMich at that time already). Then they replaced all loan and WS with Michigan Grant. Later, the grant amount was reduced twice for the exact amounts of incoming external scholarships. I am hoping they will resume the full grant amount next year as none of the external scholarships are renewable.

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@billcsho‌ @kmcmom13‌

Thank you to all of you for this information, it is very helpful. I’m in state, yes. I get a lot of heat about how much this costs, and hear every other day that she won’t pay for any of it. However I’m fairly sure she’ll actually come through and pay for first year room and board plus tuition for the last 3 years, which was her offer. Which is really generous, but I have no idea why she’d want to pass up money and not fill CSS. I don’t want to put any more financial pressure on my parents than I have to, but they’re REALLY making it sound like I’m pushing them to fill out the CSS profile for my own selfish reasons. I obviously don’t, but my parents are very stubborn/ignorant about technology things, and my mom definitely believes that we would be at a definite risk by putting all of our financial information online… this is a huge reason she doesn’t want to do it… I really need documentation about this to show them, but I don’t know where to find “you won’t necessarily get your identity stolen by filling out the CSS profile”.

@BrownParent‌
“When you submit the CSS Profile, UM will determine it’s own EFC for you and if there is still demonstrated need then yes you will get those funds.” so does this mean that the 8k demonstrated need on my financial profile after only filling out the FAFSA isn’t really accurate? I am confused as to if I qualify for this 8k to be matched or not. Also, as you mentioned retirement accounts, the unfortunate part is that I think a lot of the problem is that my parent’s money is not in a designated retirement account. Thanks for letting me know that you only need to fill out CSS once, that might be key in persuading my parents.

My parents keep key information behind closed doors, however I’ve eavesdropped and think we have 80k for college, also I plan on Ross so that’s an additional 7k(?) per year sophomore year and up. I really don’t want to be selfish or greedy, at this point (if my parents just go ahead and pay for first year r/b and tuition all four years, is pushing for the profile to be filled out really worth it, as I may only qualify for loans? I don’t want to burn my parents’ money but I’m not going to fight them daily so they save.

My mom wants me to schedule an appointment with a UM financial aid adviser for her. The frustrating part is I don’t even know if she’d follow through. We live 30 minutes from AA.

This is a daily stress/tension between my parents and I. They don’t even care I want to go to UM, they wish I were going to Madonna or Schoolcraft then MSU. If anyone can provide me with links that can persuade my parents… :frowning: Thanks again…

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You know the Tuition and Fees is around $16k and the R&B is around $11k for lower classmen. Upperclassmen will be $2k-$4k more (depends on Ross or LSA). So with the $80k from your family plus the loan, you should be fine even you stay in the dorm for all 4 years if you have a summer job. Otherwise, you may commute or share an apartment with roommate(s) to reduce the cost.

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Since you live close to AA, why not schedule the appt, and ask if you can fill out a PDF of CSS instead of submitting it online. I know when I did the business supplement, it was a hard copy, not online - here’s a current one I found online to download, but didn’t find the base CSS form. That ay help your folks feel more comfortable. Believe me, I didn’t love having all this info out in the ether either!
https://www.brynmawr.edu/sites/default/files/2015-16_Business_Farm_Supplement.pdf