Except the point of Mother working is to pay for the college (and likely med school). Putting her earnings into a retirement account does little to reach that goal of having cash on hand to pay for school.
We’ve already established that the father makes $58k per year plus the $14k into the 401k, which is income even if the OP doesn’t think it is. If the $58k included the $14k, the father would only have $44k in income on his taxes, the family would be filing FAFSA with a simplified asset determination, and the student would have Pell grants as part of the package. Since that didn’t happen, the father makes $58k + $14k which is an income of $72k. Both BC and Holy Cross are considering this low income and offering Perkins loans. Increase the family income just a little, and the Perkins loans may disappear.
After OP’s latest posts about the actual breakdown, BC and Holy Cross are giving much less than $48k in grants. There are $8000 to $8500 in loans, and $1800 to $2000 in work study in the packages The student is going to have to borrow or come up with $20-25k per year. Each school is basically giving him $40k and offering a way to work or borrow the $20k needed to get to the billed costs of about $60k, plus of course there will be the non-billed costs.
If the OP lives at home, BC will take off $10k in grants. The student would probably save about $13.4k in room and board (it looked to me like the cheapest room cost was $4200/sem and the meal plan was about $2500/sem), but may have additional commuting costs. Is that savings worth it? Up to the student. It is one way to chip away at the $25k needed.
They don’t want to give you enough money for you to attend and not hurt your family.
So go somewhere else.
Look at it as their loss, not yours.
There is no inalienable right for a student, regardless of grades or financial need, to be able to attend a particular college. I believe someone else said perhaps there was something you had, or don’t have, that made them decide to give you poor FA.
The NPCs seem to be ridiculous and unrelated to reality for the two schools my son got FA information from. Sad.
I’m still stuck on the fact that you think you’re too good for UMassAmherst (especially with your scores). Geez, pretty offensive to the thousands of kids with MUCH BETTER scores whose choices are also limited by income and will happily attend a school ranked #29 in the country for public universities (2015). Some might even consider it a BETTER choice.
I don’t see most 17 year olds as being in a good position to tell mom to go to work so they can go to a pricier college when they have good in state options. I don’t think that would go over well in most families.
Your SAT score is good, but not amazing, by the way. Large state schools like UMass Amherst have a very wide range of students. There will be many, many students who far surpassed your high school achievement.
One more thing needs to be stated. It really sucks to be just scraping by when there are a lot of affluent students all around you. BC has a lot of affluent students. If you were to go to UMass Amherst, you’d meet students from a much wider variety of economic circumstances.
Since their money will count as income whether it’s in an IRA, 401(k), stocks, savings/checking or property… your parents might as well keep it as liquid as possible for the next four (plus x number for med school potentially) years if they are intent on helping you (OP) pay for school.
Liquid = Checking/savings/cash
That, plus your hard work (save!) this summer, would make BC or HC far less difficult to afford.
If you have not yet and if they are unaware of this potential adjustment in strategy, you might – humbly, graciously – mention it to them.
The 401k amount is not income based. There is a maximum anyone can contribute annually (as long as they earn that amount). I’m not sure what the max is now. But $14,000 could be about it.
You can contribute $18,000/year. It’s a fixed cap, not percentage of income. The fact that the dad is contributing 20% (based off roughly $72k) and has saved up $20-30,000 for college (3 years by OP) on $72,000 gross tells me the family is quite fiscally responsible. Kudos.
Which is it? He earns $72k and $14k of that is deferred to his 401k so his W-2 Box 1 is $58k, or he earns $58k and defers $14k so his W-2 Box 1 is only $44k?
@mg29409 - I am a UMass Amherst alum, and it really is a terrific school, with lots of opportunities for a bio/premed student. Its science research facilities are top notch. The daughter of family friends is there now, majoring in engineering and is really loving it. She is challenged and is doing well. Amherst is a great college town and being part of the 5 college consortium will give you extra opportunities as well.
I understand your frustration. I have 3 children, 2 currently in college, with a 3rd starting college in the fall. The oldest is at her first choice school on a full-ride scholarship - truly a home run. My middle child is not at her first choice school, because the price tag was too high for our family. She was honored to be accepted by all the schools she applied to, but understood that the finances needed to fit our budget to actually attend. She is very happy and is enjoying all of the opportunities she has, doing research, participating in a club sport, volunteering and hanging out with great friends she has made. My youngest daughter is in the same boat, accepted to a bunch of awesome schools. Her 2 top choices have price tags that are about 10K per year too high for our family. After attending an awesome accepted students day, she will be attending her 3rd choice school, which she is fine with, because she knows it is up to her to make the most of her college experience, wherever that is. It is a good OOS public(not the flagship) which offered her a full tuition scholarship.
Instead of thinking of attending UMass Amherst as “settling”, think of it as the smart choice to help keep your family’s finances healthy and to launch you into med school/career without a lot of extra debt. As others have pointed out, there are many students as smart or smarter than you at UMass and you will be challenged there. A smart, hardworking student like you will be successful wherever you attend college, if you keep an open mind, actively seek out new experiences, and take full advantage of educational opportunities.
Then there may be a mistake in how you took tax form info and moved it to the CSS. Or perhaps in how you understand pre-tax deductions and how the W2 reports.
HC and BU make too much of this loans.
And OP is trying to figure this out. The earlier statements about deserving are old.
@lookingforward Thank you for finally moving on and helping me piece this together.
I just talked with my mom about the retirement money thing. I finally understand now; it turns out my father makes $63k a year, and put in $14k of that into his 401k, leaving $49k left as salary for his first job. He made around $9k at his second job, bringing the total to $58k. Sorry for the confusion.
So…he earned $63,000 at his first job plus $9000 at the second. That totals $72,000. The money he put into his retirement is still added in as salary. You can’t just subtract that.
But moving on.
You have some good choices. Look at yoir affordable options if you don’t think you can make the BC numbers work. Really, UMass Amherst is a fine school.
Added back in by the college. It ‘seems’ the 14k is what we call discretionary- from his total earnings of 63, he diverted 14 k to retirement. Right? The colleges tend to see this as a choice and that $ could instead be used for college now.
It’s good he does this, for your parents’ future stability. But you see the issue.