<p>^^^ I remember one year being selected for verification and we had a similar situation with a bill for the entire tuition, times four (each of four kids) at three different schools. The letters came first and then we received e-mail for the verification. It just sounds like an error.</p>
<p>A sib graduating from college or going from full to part time can definitely have a negative effect on aid for the other student. A big bonus or even a severance package can also increase the parents wages for that year, which would not necessarily be the reality for the following year. </p>
<p>Talking to financial aid and submitting any verification docs are key to resolving issues like this.</p>
<p>SumuraiLandshark,</p>
<p>Love your post count … you’re like McDonalds over 2 Billion served. </p>
<p>Anyhoo, unless the O.P. gives us some specifics this is all just dust in the wind.</p>
<p>Some sort of technical glitch that amuses many of our CC math whizzes, in particular.</p>
<p>At one point it was 4 billion +. If only I can lose pounds as easy as post counts that have disappeared, or earn enough money for each one of my alleged post counts, it would be great!</p>
<p>It’s hard to hypothesize without seeing a fin aid package, or in the case of a sophomore, seeing what it was last year. So many variables.</p>
<p>momma-three,</p>
<p>we just got the verification letters, for the first time since my kids went to college. It’s a pain and some family circumstances have changed, so now we have to prove it. </p>
<p>I anticipate less financial aid when my oldest graduates, and my younger child still has another year of college. Then I get to start the whole merry go round again, this time with one child in college at one time - much less aid than what we had with the first two, plus the added fun of the parent loans. </p>
<p>Seemed like a great idea at the time - the loans, that is. Can’t help the spacing of the children.</p>
<p>Her school does not participate in National Merit program. They do not offer merit based aid at all and said that last year’s award was based on need. I do think they wanted her because of SAT scores, National Merit etc. Her GPA at the end of this year is 3.675. There was not a huge increase in our income. Husband was out of work from November 2008 to August 2009. He did earn money doing freelance work to keep us going, but we have two other children, had COBRA payments to make etc. I had no clue they would adjust our contribution to 4x what we contributed last year. A friend of hers said that she heard that they didn’t have as much money because of large awards to incoming freshman.</p>
<p>3xamom
Are either of your other kids currently in college? Were either in college last year?</p>
<p>*There was not a huge increase in our income. Husband was out of work from November 2008 to August 2009. *</p>
<p>Since this is a CSS school, they can use their own formula. </p>
<p>From what you’ve written above, it seems to me that they aren’t basing their aid on 2009 income (which was less because of lengthy unemployment), but on the expectation that your H will be fully employed this entire year and making a lot more money (total) in 2010 than was earned in 2009.</p>
<p>What I mean is… last school year’s very generous aid might have been based on the fact that your H was unemployed at the time CSS and FAFSA was filed during winter/spring 2009. However, when filed in winter/spring 2010, he was employed. So, the school is projecting that the earnings for 2010 will be a lot higher.</p>
<p>I would absolutely contact the financial aid office to find out what happened. I hope that this is a mistake. Please let us know the final result.</p>
<p>I hope it is a mistake or a case of them needing additional paperwork. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.</p>
<p>Can they do that? Assume something for the next year? I thought they would use actual 2009 figures for the 2010-11 school year and if there is an increase in income due to full employment in 2010, it is attributable to the following school year. </p>
<p>Did they give some sort of leeway for this last school year by not using the 2008 income since the father was unemployed at the end of the year and at the time of filing that gave an artificially low need figure for the 2008 year rather than what would have been generated using the actual 2008 income? However, since for this year they have an actual income number of 2009 that they do not have to adjust for unemployment since he is working, it is completely by formula. </p>
<p>If the above scenario is the case, your student got a bit of a bonanza for her first school year since her dad was unemployed at the time of filing FAFSA, and they adjusted the income accordingly. The fin aid was not strictly by formula and would have been lower if it had been. Since this year, there is no mitigating factor, due to the father being employed, the actual formula was used generating a much lower need.</p>
<p>Again, you need to ask them. All of this is speculation, but I do know of cases like this.</p>
<p>If your income has gone up substantially than you will be expected to pay more. It has happened to us every year since our kids are in college.</p>
<p>Did the OPs husband receive a severance package in 2009? Did the OPs family withdraw money or take money out of a retirement plan and not roll it over into another one in the allotted time?</p>
<p>Conn College meets full need. Unless there was a significant change in financial circumstances, the family contribution would not have increased substantially. As pointed out, the OP knew there would be an increase early in the year…what was the thing that made the OP suspect this?</p>
<p>If it is a CSS PROFILE school, they do take income information for not just that one year, but project backwards and forwards what a family’s income might be.</p>
<p>Our other 2 children are twins, finishing their sopomore year of high school. Last year’s and this year’s pkg. did include Federal Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans and work study.My husband started working full time about 3 weeks before we took our daughter to school. Yes our income did increase, but it is not 6x what it was when we filed our FAFSA before her freshman year. I did not know there would be an increase I had just read an article about college aid that stated that this scenario sometimes happens and wanted to know if anyone had had that experience. We did not take money out of a retirement plan.</p>
<p>I just have a comment – this is not directly related to the OP’s situation but is something that could be important for other parents reading this thread – and is based on 4 years of experience with my d. in a need-only school. </p>
<p>If, as your child is progressing through college, you are aware of any changes in circumstances whatsoever, you need to be proactive in contacting the financial aid office and discussing the circumstances and policies related to them along the way. It’s best if you can cultivate a relationship with someone as far up the chain of command in the finaid office as possible, so you don’t end up talking with a different person every time you call, or get inconsistent or inaccurate answers to your questions.</p>
<p>Do not think that the school will overlook factors that might reduce your aid if you just don’t mention it. That is, if you just inherited $25,000 from grandma… don’t wait until next year’s financial aid award is out to see what that does to your award. If you start a new job in November with a substantial increase in income, then you really need to call up and ask what impact it will have on the following years aid. </p>
<p>Try to cultivate an open and non-hostile relationship, assuming good faith on the part of the financial aid people – because it is possible that they can offer suggestions that will help or that information provided in the course of the conversation might be seen as a special circumstance that will allow them to look at changed circumstances in a different light. For example… if that big inheritance was used to pay the medical bills from your younger son’s knee surgery, which wasn’t covered by insurance for some reason or another – then the financial aid people might suggest that you submit a letter that contains documentation of the medical bills. </p>
<p>I honestly had to deal with this issue every single year because of fluctuating income situations. My daughter attended a college that did not provide financial aid information to continuing students until the end of June – with payment for the first semester due on August 1st. That didn’t leave a lot of room for planning in the event of a big surprise.</p>
<p>Suggestion to the OP:</p>
<p>First, talk to the financial aid people and ask them to go over the calculations with you. Even if they follow their own methodology, its still a set formula and they should be able to explain what lead to the increase.</p>
<p>If they are basing this on your husband’s income with his new job — would this be more manageable with a PLUS loan? If the problem is that you now have plenty of income but no savings, a loan is a way to meet current costs with future income. </p>
<p>But you might also really need to look at what costs are likely for the next 3 years, plot things out, and then look seriously at whether this is the best college for your daughter – and that might depend on individual circumstances. I mean, the remaining years may be much more costly than you or she ever anticipated when she enrolled as a freshman. It may be that your husband’s good fortune in securing employment also was your daughter’s bad fortune in terms of eligibility for need-based aid. If your daughter loves her college and is doing well academically there, then it may be worth it for your family to pull together, borrow, and stick things through. But if your daughter feelings are more ambivalent – if the reality of the college or its academics didn’t quite match up with expectations – then it may be that your d. would be better off transferring to a less-expensive public college; or alternatively you might decide to pay for the coming year but plan to transfer for her junior year.</p>
<p>OP…you say your aid decreased by $21,000. I have idea what Conn is expecting you to pay…but lets say for arguments sake that last year you paid nothing and this year you are paying $21K. A family contribution of $21K would usually yield an income in the $65000-$84,000 a year range. In other words, if you income is somewhere between $65K and $85K, a family contribution of $21K would be about the right guestimate.</p>
<p>If the numbers work the way Thumper has laid it out, it could very well be that the financial aid given last year was done without regard to 2008 income because the husband was unemployed as of the day the FAFSA/PROFILE were filed. So could be that first year award was the anomaly not this year. Because the husband is employed this year, the exact formula with no exceptions could have been used for 2010-11.</p>
<p>Out of curiousity…what was your FAFSA EFC based on 2009 income? What would your FAFSA EFC likely be using the projected 2010 income? I’m thinking that is the problem.</p>
<p>*If it is a CSS PROFILE school, they do take income information for not just that one year, **but project **backwards and forwards what a family’s income might be. </p>
<p>*</p>
<p>I think this is what caused the change. When the first year’s FA forms were filed, the dad was unemployed, so the school was super-generous (perhaps even beyond what the family’s income would normally get.) But, then once the dad was re-employed the school projected that income - rather than look at 2009 income (like a FAFSA only school would.)</p>