UNC-CH is a Profile school. I believe the rest are FAFSA.
However with your AP courses there is a good chance you could graduate in three years at a NC school and save a year of tuition. Most private schools such as Duke will cap the amount of AP credit that can be used. A lot depends on the major.
If you are looking at schools that require the CSS Profile then you will need to report your father’s income. If you have step parents their income is also reportable.
Be glad you have money to put toward your education instead of looking at ways to avoid doing so. Financial aid is for people who NEED help, not those who do not want to pay. Look at those high merit schools to reduce prices.
Don’t call and ask questions covered on their web site or other info. That’s different than asking about unusual circumstances. I can’t imagine it going over well if OP calls to ask how to protect his 50k.
Well, they MIGHT have to provide the NCP info. https://profileonline.collegeboard.org/prf/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet.srv
@tyler1127, something else you may want to consider in addition to the FAFSA’s ‘federal methodology’ 20% assessment of your savings and the CSS Profile’s ‘institutional methodolgy’ 25% assessment - there is also the ‘consensus methodology’ that a handful of schools use (google it).
Some sites say that CM method always assesses student savings at 5%, but I don’t think that’s true, some are 5% (like Harvard and Princeton) while some are higher but still respectable (MIT at 12%). In fact the 25% rate is not always what Profile schools use, some are up to 40%, so do your research.
If any of these schools are interesting (see http://568group.org/membership/index.html), I recommend running the school’s NPC to see how your situation unfolds. Davidson and Duke are on this list but you should research them specifically, and as others have recommended you could contact their FA Offices and specifically ask what percentage they use. Consensus schools also assess home ownership differently, so that may be a factor for you.
Nice article at http://collegeselectionstrategy.com/expected-family-contribution/
How do you distinguish between Savings and 529 accounts on FAFSA which category does the 529 go under. Pretty sure I have been doing this wrong.
Does the Roth IRA trick work with css as well as FAFSA. Can each parent put $5500 in an RA or 1 for a jointly filed tax return?
Thanks.
Isn’t there some old wisdom which says it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a greedy student to enter college on someone else’s dime?
Adults do a lot of financial planning. They take tax deductions, contribute to 401k’s, and open 529’s for their kids’ college funds. There’s nothing wrong with young people learning what vehicles are available for saving and investing their earnings.
If you must report parent information on FAFSA, a student-owned or parent-owned 529 is reported on line 91 in the parent section. Student savings is reported on line 41 in the student section. Parent savings is reported on line 90 in the parent section. Note: these line numbers are for the 2015-2016 FAFSA. The 2016-2017 edition, which will be available on January 1, 2016, may have different line numbers, so use caution.
I wouldn’t call it a “trick,” but yes, in most cases assets held in a qualified retirement plan (such as a Roth IRA) will not be considered as available assets for financial aid purposes.
It is possible for parents who file jointly to both contribute $5,500 to a retirement account. See the appropriate IRS publication for rules and limitations.
I had read somewhere on here that putting more into your 401/457 can have have negative FA consequences. So its really not just any retirement plan, it just the Roth that works. Right?
Would love more suggestions on how to make your income/assets look lower for FA purposes. Thanks.
Your regular 401k contributions for the prior tax year are added back into income on the FAFSA. If you contribute to a Roth, then it is already part of the income for the year you earned it, you are just removing it from the reportable asset list (for example, if it was in a savings account, you’d have had to report it)
Assets held in qualified retirement plans (401(k) plans, pensions, annuities, non-education IRAs, Keogh plans, etc.) by the student or parents are not counted at all for FAFSA purposes. For schools that use it, the CSS Profile form does ask for retirement account balances for both the student and parents, and schools that have their own forms may ask as well. However, in most cases it’s unlikely that qualified retirement assets reported on these non-FAFSA forms will negatively impact a financial aid award, unless the school considers the balance to be more than adequate for retirement purposes and therefore available for part of the expected family contribution. Each school may have its own threshold for what it considers “more than adequate,” but it’s probably a pretty big number.
There is somewhere where it’s explained that the question about qualified retirement assets is to get an idea of the overall financial picture. My understanding is that’s all, it is not tapped. Most qualified retirement is somewhat locked in, anyway. A Roth has rules and regs about how and when $ can be withdrawn, whether taxes and penalties apply.
The best line I found,when planning for my kids’ expenses, was that finaid folks have seen every conceivable way folks attempt to hide assets, legally or otherwise, and are not stupid.