<p>I work part-time and make about 20K/yr. When my kids go off to school in the fall I plan to look for full time employment. Hopefully my salary will double. I'm not really sure how that will affect efc - 3 kids in school - income jump from 95 to 115 approx. I know we should be good for the first two years. Should I just automatically strip all grants from the financial aid offers to figure out what the last two years would cost? </p>
<p>I need to figure out if we could lose money if I go to work FT.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Do you have triplets starting college?</p>
<p>Are you saying that you now earn $20k…and your spouse earns $75k (95 total) and then when you work full time you may earn $40k (115k total)</p>
<p>What schools will your kids be attending? Full need schools? Full need schools that give “mega aid” (like HYPS)? </p>
<p>With 3 in college and a family income of $115, I doubt all grants would disappear if they’re attending full need schools. </p>
<p>What are their aid pkgs looking like so far from the full need schools?</p>
<p>Not triplets, but 3 starting school in the fall. Yes, spouse works, total income would increase about 20%, mine would double. EFC is currently around 8K/kid. No full need schools yet (d is waiting on 2 - but if she gets in to either, they will most likely be her first choice). The schools that have come back so far (only a few) leave us w/ about 20K/kid (not including the loans), every one has merit aid (which won’t go away, right?) and grants averaging 5-6K. We are talking state and privates, they only applied to schools where they were in the top 25% of applicants.</p>
<p>At schools that don’t meet need, it’s anyone’s guess. </p>
<p>Are any of the schools OOS publics? If so, I doubt they’ll give much need based aid…maybe some merit for high stats. </p>
<p>What is each child’s EFC?</p>
<p>I can’t imagine paying $60k per year (for 3) on a $95k or $115k salary…yikes.
I hope you have college funds for them…or maybe you do plan on having them contribute with student loans to reduce how much you’ll have to pay.</p>
<p>Merit won’t go away as long as grades are good.</p>
<p>why not play around with the NPCs on the schools’ websites with the different incomes. The NPCs may not include any merit awards, so you’ll have to figure those in as well.</p>
<p>Have any of your kids applied to schools that will give them LOTS of merit?</p>
<p>Only one child has applied to 2 schools that are 100% needs met. She will not hear back from either for a few more weeks. Those are actually the ones I am most concerned about, as they are so much more expensive, there would be a lot more that we could lose. Are you telling me it will most likely be the other way around? That we could lose all the aid from a state school for that kind of increase, but not from a needs met school?</p>
<p>It’s hard to know either way.</p>
<p>The schools that don’t meet need may have some odd policy that they only meet up to a certain point…like maybe up to tuition. Who knows. And, some schools will take out work-study for students with a certain EFC because they need to reserve W-S for those with lower EFCs.</p>
<p>Are some OOS publics? I recall that one kid applied to George Mason OOS??? If so, I doubt that you’d get much from GMU besides a loan and some merit. What is that child’s EFC there? And what is the COA for OOS?</p>
<p>I’m concerned that you’re expecting “free aid” (grants) from OOS publics. Your kids may get merit, but unless the schools are UVA or UNC, I doubt they’re getting grants unless they qualify for Pell. </p>
<p>What is each child’s EFC?</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the full need school probably doesn’t split family contribution by 3 (33%). CSS schools tend to divide 60/60 for two…(about a 40% discount). don’t know what it is for 3 kids (maybe 50%?..but not a 66% discount)</p>
<p>are from our in-state U. But they are enough to make a big difference for us (if they went away). Actually not expecting anything from GMU (we heard they were hurting for money). We were also told not to expect anything from OOS schools (but did get merit, making some of them cheaper than instate). We have no illusions about a free ride, I just need to figure out if my getting a FT job will leave us more poor than we will already be.</p>
<p>Every college has a Net Price Calculator on the website. For a GUESTIMATE, run your numbers through you kids’ schools’ net price calculators using both your current income AND your hopeful projected income. That will give you at least a ballpark of what the change in your aid might or might not be.</p>
<p>BUT remember too…these are estimates…and the final numbers you use in future years (from the appropriate tax year) will be what your aid is actually based on.</p>
<p>For schools that do not meet full need…all bets are off as these schools are under no obligation to continue your need based aid from year to year, or to increase it if your wages go down. In addition, the grant your child received might not actually be the max allowed by their university and might not be affected at all by your change in income.</p>
<p>I have the same situation and have been using the Net Price calculator. With good estimates my kids Fin Aid packages have been very close to the NPC. So I am adjusting the income for year two and seeing how it changes. My kids are at Profile schools with 97-100% of need met. Still leaving us $22K to $26K gap but that is equal to our instate publics.</p>
<p>You could also review the actual EFC calculation and see the % By type. Asset income etc.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.thecollegesolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/EFC-Formula-Guide.pdf[/url]”>http://www.thecollegesolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/EFC-Formula-Guide.pdf</a></p>