<p>Just wondering if anyone knows how much $ one can earn and have in stocks, savings, etc before they are above the limit to be eligible for FA. My husband makes a good living - around $100K annually and we have quite a bit in savings. He is not my daughter's father, however I hear that since she lives with us, his earnings are what count, not her father's. This is sad b/c her father is not willing to pay much toward college. I don't want to hurt my daughter's chances of getting into her school of choice by checking "needs Aid" if it is already obvious we are out of the max income range. Hope this question makes sense and thanks for any advice!</p>
<p>It depends on the school. Harvard offers FA up to $160K income. But the schools that offer FA at high levels are also the hardest to get into. High assets are included in the calculations and will bring up the expected family contribution. I believe most of those schools will also add in the non-custodial parent’s income. Most schools don’t consider need during the admission process. They will just gap the student (leave a large part of the cost unfunded to be paid by the family).</p>
<p>You want to look at finaid.org, for background, and run an EFC/family contribution calculator. Finaid.org and collegeboard have them. All schools should have one on their web sites by the end of this month. It should give you an idea- though your actual info submitted with the Fafsa and CSS Profile may change it, depending.</p>
<p>Income is balanced against certain allowances, number in family, no. in college, etc. Not all schools require the CSS; not all look at non-custodial parent income. Parent assets are only hit at a certain % and legit retirement accounts are not reviewed. </p>
<p>“Need blind” schools don’t consider whether you need aid, when reviewing the app for admisison. “Meet full need” schools will find some way to close the gap between Family Contrib and total cost. You can google a list of need blind schools (but recheck individually, to confirm.) You also need to carefully read the schools’ finaid policies because, as Erin’s Dad notes, some meet your need with loans, some do not gurantee to meet all your need, etc. When you have some schools in mind and have done the basic research, CC posters can offer thoughts.</p>
<p>Usually, we advise people not to assume they will get great gobs of aid. In your case, don’t assume you would not qualify for aid.</p>
<p>And remember that often merit awards are not based on financial need but are automatic upon acceptance into the school. So she can look for schools with generous merit awards. May not be her first choice of school, but there are schools with good merit awards that she could enjoy.</p>
<p>Merit aid is worth looking into if your daughter is a very good student. </p>
<p>Often, though, it is NOT automatic; my D was a very good student. A few schools she applied to had ‘automatic’ awards based on test scores. Most were not automatic, but rather competitive. They required extra essays and application for consideration, and then were competitive against the other students. Some schools offer NO merit at all–mostly because they are top schools and all students who are accepted are usually top students.</p>
<p>How much can you afford to pay? I would not count on much or any aid beyond loans at your income level.</p>
<p>^ At your income level, you certainly can get good need-based aid. It depends on the school and their policies. -And, just how strong your assets are. That’s one reason you do have to run the calculators and carefully read the schools’ web pages. None of us can guess in a way that’s productive to you. School X may offer you a loan only and school B could offer grants or whatever is their custom. Some could offer merit.</p>
<p>Yes, unfortunately loans do count as filling need (for some unknown reason).</p>
<p>Yes, run the numbers–but also be prepared that if you have significant savings/assets beyond retirement accounts, that can impact things quite a bit. </p>
<p>And no matter what FAFSA etc says, doesn’t mean that is indicative of grant awards–ie, EFC of 25k, college cost 45k often ends up as, you will get offered a student loan and then parent loans for the rest. That’s what happened to us, anyway.</p>
<p>Everyone’s situation is different, for sure. And there are so many variables, it does work out well sometimes. I guess I’m a fan of planning for the worst-case scenario–finding schools you can swing w/out any/much financial aid and that your daughter is likely to be admitted to (and would like to attend) offers such peace of mind, esp if you ex will not contribute.</p>
<p>^ depends on the colleges. If you go back to last year’s ED and RD threads, plenty of parents made assumptions based on the Fafsa EFC. </p>
<p>The CSS Profile asks for more detail and each college has its own (secret) formula for analyzing that. That’s why the Net Price Calculators, due this month for each college, will be more accurate. </p>
<p>Even at a Fafsa-only school, what you get depends on the school’s policies.</p>