Hi. I really need some help here and would greatly appreciate any advice as I’m scared, shocked, and confused.
However, I ask that members refrain from commenting that we “should” be able to afford to pay for college and other remarks in that negative vein. My husband inherited his mother’s modest house that he co-owns with his sister.
It put our EFC in the stratosphere of over $100K with just owning 50% of it. Is there any way to get money to pay for college (outside of loans)? Are there schools that our daughter should considering applying to where she could still get aid with such a high EFC? Any advice.
We don’t have that kind of money. Or frankly, any money really to pay for college. Northeast with middle class income problem.
Is there any way to get money to pay for college (outside of loans).? Are there schools that our daughter should considering applying to where she could still get aid with such a high EFC? Thank you!
Are you referring to FAFSA EFC? If the inherited house was “modest,” these numbers don’t make any sense. If the FAFSA EFC is $100k, and we assume that half of that ($50k) was due to 50% ownership in the inherited home, that means with FAFSA’s 5.6% assessment of assets the total equity value of the inherited home is in the $1.8 million range.
Are you living in this house? Renting it out as investment property? Sister in law living in it?
And if you post your D’s stats and interests and where you live we can probably come up with some affordable suggestions.
Thank you, BelknapPoint. I used The College Board’s EFC calculator (both methods). Perhaps I did something wrong (let’s hope!) My husband’s share of the house is $159 (Zillow value $388K). Our home equity is $318K. AGI is $160K. How’s my math?
@Aeg203 Well the most obvious one is simply picking a college that is affordable. Our instate cost with a scholarship is 22k a year. NO college cost 100k a year. What can you afford?
AGI of 160K does not make you middle class. That’s fact number 1.
First, double check your numbers. As noted above, the FAFSA assesses assets at 5.6%. If that house isn’t worth that 1.8 million, you’ve got a mistake in your reporting.
Second, if the house is worth that much or your income is high enough to generate such a huge EFC, you still have options. What CAN you pay per year for college? That’s your starting point. Then you look for colleges where your child qualifies for the kind of merit to cover the gap. It may be that your child has to look at far less selective schools. Will what you have plus the federal loan cover tuition at a college your child can commute to? Those aren’t always sexy options, but they are options.
If your daughter has excellent grades and test scores, there are places that will offer her significant merit-based aid. Start with the thread at the top of this forum on the topic of Automatic Scholarships.
If your daughter has more normal test scores and grades, there still may be merit money out there for her if she’s not picky and/or doesn’t have a rare major.
If your daughter has less exciting grades and test scores, then commuting for two years to your local CC and then transferring to an in-state U might be the most cost-effective option. It was for us. And the kid got a great education for her major, and is well launched in her career.
Google for EFC formula 2019 to get a link to the PDF of the 2018-2019 formula. Print it out and re-work the calculations on paper. That will help you figure out if/where your numbers have gone wrong.
Under the FAFSA process, the $159k asset of the inherited house would at most add about $8,900 to the EFC, and primary home equity would not be a factor. If these are the primary financial numbers to consider, there’s no way that your EFC with an AGI of $160k should be over $100k.
Even when you get the EFC straightened out, if you truly don’t have any money to pay for college, your number is likely to be unaffordable. Your EFC will be 25-33% of your AGI, so up to 53K + 9 for the house asset and 5.6% of other assets above the protected amount. You could very easily have and AGI in the 65K-70K range, and that is likely too big for much need based aid at all.
As others have said, the options are to pay full price, or to pick an affordable university. Adjusting to today’s numbers, we found total cost of attendance ranging from just over $70k per year to less than $20k per year, with no need based aid (our EFC also exceeded the cost of attendance).
Like you we live in the northeast. The least expensive schools for us were in-state public universities, and schools in Canada. However, we did not look at the “high merit award” schools outside of the northeast.
As @blossom has suggested, if you post your child’s stats and what you are looking for in a university, and home state, folks here should be able to make some suggestions.
If you can’t help me, I kindly ask that you refrain from commenting. I specifically asked for that if members were going to reply, not to make negative comments about my numbers. It makes it very hard for people to ask questions. Please don’t couch this comment as “a fact”. You do not know our specific circumstances, where we live, etc.
Thank you all for your help and quick input! It’s nice to have a community that’s so willing to help with all this. I’m so very embarrassed to admit this, but I made a typo on the form. I went and double checked it after reading all your input and low and behold, I put our income down under both “parents” and “student”. Much relieved. Lesson learned, check your math!
Look for schools that offer merit aid for your child’s stats. It’s doubtful you’ll get (much) need based aid anywhere. Colleges cost quite a bit. Find a place where your child will be valued (by them offering merit aid).
At many private colleges, you can gain admittance and then immediately apply to take a gap year. In the gap year, your child could live at home and work and save every penny of the wages. I find this preferable to just delaying application, as it locks in where your child is going, how much it is going to cost, and gives them a concrete goal to shoot for. If you just take a year off to work before applying, then it can easily morph into several years and they don’t end up going at all.
My apologies for my last post (#12). I believe I misread the comment I was replying to and didn’t see it connected to the poster’s first comment. Both were helpful in their context. I have learned a lesson here that I truly need to slow down and read things more carefully overall!
@blossom Of course that’s not statistically middle class, and not an income to feel bad about! But bear in mind that what that income buys you depends a lot on where you live. If houses start at $500K in your area, $160K is can be the perfect “donut hole” with expenses too high to leave a ton of money available for college, but very little access to aid. First world problem for sure but it’s still frustrating.
@Aeg203 Something seems off here. We have very similar stats and our EFC was around $50K. Not much under, mind you, but enough to get need-based aid at a high-cost school that meets need. Regardless, I would suggest looking for in-state public and/or private merit aid colleges. DD received merit offers and they help a lot.
Thank you, Blossom! It’s a house that isn’t being rented. It’s used 2 months a year by our family. They don’t want to sell…We live in CT. My D is interested in either mechanical or biomedical engineering. Grades are good, 3.8/4.0 scale. 1500 on practice SAT without essay (waiting on actual scores). Still a stretch with my corrected EFC.
@Aeg203 Those are good stats. What can you afford per year?
@Aeg203 Also keep in mind the EFC is not how much you will definitely have to pay. Many colleges don’t “meet need.” This is a good time for you to be planning though NE is absolutely awful for good value options. UConn will probably be your safety and a very good one at that!