How much is considered "typical assets"?

Paying for College
1

<p>What is the maximum limit or typical threshold that is considered "typical assets" when filing for financial aid? Is this amount different for every income bracket or universal for everyone?</p>

<p>I understand that the FAFSA asks you not to include the home you live in as an asset, so the equity you have from your house wouldn't count against you. But otherwise, things like investments, savings, other properties, etc. would.</p>

<p>The reason I ask is because my parents swear up and down that when we file the FAFSA, it will be an exercise in futility since I won't get any aid except for loans. Even though our income is middle class, our investments will supposedly put our assets through the roof. So when financial aid policies talk about "typical assets," are we talking about $10,000 in assets? $30,000? $100,000? What does "typical" mean?</p>

<p>(I'm a freshman applicant who applied exclusively to the University of California system.)</p>

<p>Thank you for your feedback.</p>

2

<p>5% of your parents assets are considered available to spend on your education.</p>

<p>So when you do a FAFSA, it will automatically bump your EFC by 5% of the assets. So you can figure out waht they mean by typical assets.</p>

<p>Essentially, 100,000 will result in 5000 in EFC but 500,000 will result in 25,000.</p>

3

<p>Your parents will also get an asset exclusion allowance based on the age of the oldest parent and the number of dependents, and that starts at $40K. So they are “assessed” 5.6% of assets over that allowance towards the EFC. Home equity and qualified pension and 401k assets are exempt.</p>

<p>However, getting ones need met even if the COA of college exceeds EFC is difficult. FAFSA just gives the EFC number and qualifies you for PELL (which you are highly unlikely to get as it is for those who hae the least resources) and allows you to take out Stafford loans and your parents can apply for parent loans. The rest is up to the school and the state.</p>

4

<p>Here are some examples.</p>

<p>[FAQ</a> : Stanford University](<a href=“Financial Aid : Stanford University”>Financial Aid : Stanford University)</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/650712-typical-assets-whah.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/650712-typical-assets-whah.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>[Frequently</a> Asked Questions | Columbia Financial Aid and Educational Financing](<a href=“Frequently Asked Questions | Columbia Financial Aid and Educational Financing”>Frequently Asked Questions | Columbia Financial Aid and Educational Financing)</p>

<p>Do the schools you applied to provide net price calculators?</p>

5

<h1>cptofthehouse: Sorry, I’m confused. Are you saying that the amount of the asset exclusion allowance is money that my parents WOULD NOT have to count toward the EFC?</h1>

<h1>texaspg: Thank you for the links. And yes, they do have calculators, but since I don’t know the exact details of how much we pay in taxes or how much we have in assets, the estimates are probably inflated (or deflated). Also, the calculator estimates say that I would get work-study, but both my parents and my cousins (all of them have attended college in the last 10 years) say that our socioeconomic status would disqualify me for that. So there’s really no way to gauge the accuracy of the calculators, at least not until after we file the FAFSA.</h1>

6

<p>The OP is applying exclusively to UC schools.</p>

<p>The asset ceiling for Cal Grant recipients is [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.csac.ca.gov/facts/2013-14_income_ceilings_new_apps_renewing_recips.pdf]$64,300[/b][/url”&gt;http://www.csac.ca.gov/facts/2013-14_income_ceilings_new_apps_renewing_recips.pdf]$64,300[/url</a>] (for the 2013-14 school year), regardless of income. Anything over that and you don’t qualify for Cal Grants. (Cal Grant uses FAFSA to determine aid eligibility, so retirement savings, home equity, and certain other assets are not counted as assets that apply to the Cal Grant ceilings.)</p>

<p>For more information on financial aid for California residents, see [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.csac.ca.gov/pubs/forms/grnt_frm/newi2_CAworkbook_interactive.pdf]here[/b][/url”&gt;http://www.csac.ca.gov/pubs/forms/grnt_frm/newi2_CAworkbook_interactive.pdf]here[/url</a>].</p>

7

<p>That sounds really low dodgersmom. It seems quite restrictive and OP’s parents seem to be right in being apprehensive.</p>

8

<p>Hey, I don’t make the rules! :)</p>

<p>But the Cal Grant program is intended to benefit low income state residents. Not qualifying for Cal Grant doesn’t mean you can’t get federal funding.</p>

9

<p>You can find out all of the CalGrant rules, etc on the web. I even found a manual that goes through how they calculate eligibility</p>

<p>One might meet the income and asset limits but not get grant because one has two parents , isn’t disadvantaged, etc</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>There are two types of Cal Grant awards: entitlement and competitive. Entering freshmen who meet the various eligibility requirements (grades, etc.) qualify for the entitlement awards . . . and the additional criteria you mention are simply NOT a factor.</p>

<p>For the competitive awards, I don’t know.</p>

11

<p>@dodgersmom: Thanks for the links; they’re quite informative. And I knew better than to count on getting a Cal Grant; I’ll probably be relying on mostly federal aid (however little or lot that turns out to be). My parents say that if worse comes to worse, they’ll probably take out a home equity loan since the interest rate is supposed to be crazy low (2-3%). I’d rather not have anybody taking loans, but we’ll have to see how the EFC turns out…</p>

12

<p>To be honest, I wouldn’t want to be a low income California resident who’s dependent on Cal Grants. With the state budget in its less than healthy condition, there’s no guarantee that those grants won’t be reduced. I think you’re lucky to have other resources.</p>