<p>Current status: My mom only works at about 25k net a year. We have a EFC of 0 and I have about 95% of my tuition (costs 57k/year) funded through financial aid. My sister's education is about 40% funded (costs about 43k/year) through financial aid.</p>
<p>New Situation: After being unemployed for nearly ten years, my dad has a chance of getting a job again at about 50k/year (before taxes).</p>
<p>So, the question is should my dad even take the job? I don't know how much of my financial aid would be effected. Is there anyway I can get a good estimate?</p>
<p>If your dad gets this job, then his income can go towards whatever FA you lose.</p>
<p>It’s better that your dad WORK.</p>
<p>Besides, if your dad starts working NOW, he will only earn about 5 months of his salary for 2012. It shouldn’t affect your aid much when you apply NEXT year especially if your sister is still in school. Besides, his income can help pay for the shortfall of your sister’s school.</p>
<p>My question is whether the extra salary outweighs the change in FA and other stuff. Basically - how much realistically can my sister and I expect to lose in financial aid?</p>
<p>Moreover, the extra salary means we’ll be losing a lot of government aid which we will now have to pay for.</p>
<p>Neither of our schools will meet 100% need. However, both of our financial aids are affected by need and merit (not sure how it is calculated - they take both into consideration somehow).</p>
<p>Anyhow - I have two years left and my sister is entering this year into a six-year program (so six years left).</p>
<p>Oh - my school is a CSS school while my sister’s school is not (if that matters).</p>
<p>You need to calculate your new EFC based on the joint income. With an income of 75K, I suspect that you and your sister will no longer qualify for the full Pell grant. I also expect that your need based aid will be reduced. </p>
<p>The reality is that taxes and reduced aid will take a large bit out of the 50K. However, once you finish school, your family will be far better of with a 75K income. In this case, the long term benifits should out weigh the short term lose of aid.</p>
<p>The change to your aid shouldn’t be much of a change for senior year. Dad’s salary will add about $20,000 for 2012. He should take the job. The amount of your sister’s shortfall has to be covered anyway. You may both lose the Pell grant of 5500 and SEOG if either of you has one. Subsidized loans will become unsubbed. </p>
<p>In this economy, and at your father’s age, he may not get another opportunity like this, especially being out of the workforce for so long already. Your parents will be better off long term if he takes the job. </p>
<p>Your parents will lose food stamps but they’ll be over the income limit with your sister turning 18 anyway. In fact, with no kids under 18, your mother’s salary alone puts your family income over the poverty level needed for some programs anyway. Housing allowance will go down, if they receive that. But an extra $3000 or so a month after taxes should help.</p>
<p>Your dad may never again have this opportunity. To get a job paying $50k after being unemployed for 10 years is like a miracle. In the end, your family will be BETTER off with your dad’s income.</p>
<p>After 5 years of working, your dad will have earned $250k…after 10 years, $500k…and so forth. It’s so much better for your family …and for our country!!!</p>
<p>You and your sis need to talk to your parents about how the new income will affect aid so that the family can set aside some of dad’s income to compensate.</p>
<p>your sister sounds like she’ll be in a Pharm program. her current aid wouldn’t be for 6 years anyway. At some point, likely after 3 years, she would be considered a grad student and would lose Pell and SEOG…and maybe other state aid. </p>
<p>If you have merit awards, you’d likely keep those. </p>
<p>At least for you, your aid for this year (junior year) won’t change. your aid for senior year won’t change much either since THAT will be based on 2012 earnings, and your dad won’t earn much THIS year.</p>
<p>It really is a GOOD thing for your family.</p>
<p>(my goodness, what have we done in this country for a family to consider NOT going from an income of $25k to $75k because of loss of gov’t aid.)</p>
<p>Thanks for the help everyone - a lot of helpful information here. I completely forgot that the extra salary wouldn’t affect FA this year. Anyhow, I was just making sure I wouldn’t have to pay something like 30k a year for school next year (when I currently pay 4k~) because that will just make us break even.</p>
<p>As for the EFCs (estimated using calculator)
FM = from $0 to $4k
IM = from $1.7k to $6k</p>
<p>Can anyone gather a better estimate of how much my family would have to set aside for college expenses?
-I expect my sister’s school’s aid shouldn’t drop (merit), her financial should drop
-My school’s aid may drop:
“Awarded to students who meet all eligibility criteria for need-based financial aid. Your academic performance is also a key factor.”
-My federal aid should drop as well</p>
<p>Are my numbers correct?
Sister paying around 4k more
I will be paying 4k more + whatever financial aid drop from school</p>
<p>mom2collegekids - it is unfortunate. The middle class gets completely screwed in our system. The poor gets government aid while the rich can afford it.</p>
<p>It really depends on the way the schools calculate aid. SInce they do not guarantee to meet need, the schools can do what they please. You can use the FAFSA and the NPC for the schools. Your sister is likely not to have the same aid for all 6 years of a program as she will enter graduate school area at a certain point and may have to go all loans then.</p>
<p>Even at $75K a year, with two kids in college, your EFC will probably be PELL eligible. For 2012, definitely. But even if your parents have to put pit of the money your Dad makes for college, you are still better off with the job. You’re catching your own fish instead of hoping that others will give you some.</p>
<p>It should never turn out that you’re worse off with the job. He may end up working “for nothing” while you are in school, as taxes, and increases in your and your sisters’ need-based aid may eat up almost all of his income. But… as others have said in the long run, he’s going to be much better off having the job! </p>
<p>How is/was your sister planning on paying for 60% of 43K for 6 years?</p>
<p>As for setting aside money for any loss of aid, your family should just continue trying to live as sparsely as it can using dad’s income for mostly loss of various gov’t aid. </p>
<p>If I were your dad, I would try to put half my take home salary into savings/401k retirement, and use the other half to make up for any loss of gov’t aid (food stamps, Pell grants, etc). Your parents likely have a lot of catching up to do if they’ve been living at this level for 10 years. </p>
<p>as already mentioned, even if your dad hadn’t gotten the job, your parents’ aid may have dropped since your younger sister is/will soon be 18.</p>
<p>And, maybe once you’re out of school, your parents can help your sister more so she won’t have to borrow so much.</p>
<p>Are you kidding? Your dad won’t take a job (even though he has been unemployed for 10 years) because you will lose govt aid and FA? Doesn’t your family feel guilty taking govt aid? Doesn’t your Dad want to work? Even if your family just breaks even, he should go to work. it is good for him to work, and it is good for your family if he is working.</p>
<p>Since your school does not guarantee to meet full need, there’s no way we can tell you what they will do if your dad’s income increases. You might contact your school’s financial aid office and ask. I would avoid making it sound like your dad is considering not taking the job to get more financial aid – you could just say that it looks like your dad <em>may</em> have an opportunity to start a new job earning 50K per year, and could they tell you what your financial aid package would look like for senior year if he did indeed have 2012 income of ~21k. (If I’m counting the years right, his 2013 income won’t affect your aid at all.)</p>
<p>It sounds like your sister is not getting much need-based aid anyhow, but she might indeed lose whatever need-based aid she is getting. She’s getting about 17K total in aid, and some of that is merit, so she can’t possibly lose enough need-based aid to suck up all of your dad’s net income from a 50K job. And with less than a half-year of his income impacting your aid at all, I can’t imagine that you’d lose enough aid to suck up the rest of his income. But EVEN if you did, for one year, hopefully your dad will be able to keep this job for many years, so this one year of working just to cover lost aid will be an investment in your family’s future financial well-being. </p>
<p>Well, since your family has a lot of debt, then your dad certainly MUST take this job since it’s highly unlikely that he’d get another one at a time when school aid wouldn’t be affected.</p>
<p>You have to see things long term.</p>
<p>Since you’re a junior, your current aid is set. Next spring, when you file for aid again, your parents’ income will be less than $50k…and your EFC will split because there will be 2 in school. Your need based aid shouldn’t change much at all for your senior (final year).</p>
<p>Again, since your sister gets LOUSY aid, hopefully your parents will be able to help her out.</p>
<p>I know that this isn’t the topic of the thread, but your sister may be making a huge mistake borrowing so much for a 6 year program (is this the St. John’s pharmacy program or something similar)??? </p>
<p>She’s borrowing 60% of $43k? (and she’ll likely lose some aid as a junior after your dad has his full year’s salary). </p>
<p>It sounds like she’s borrowing about $25k per year for a 6 year program. She’d lose Pell and any state aid after her 3rd year (grad school status). She’s going to have WAAAAAYYYY tooooo much debt. </p>
<p>Can she commute? Can she go somewhere cheaper???</p>
<p>I appreciate why you are asking these questions and agree with previous posters that the negative effects for you will be far outweighed by the positives of your dad having the job. Your sister’s situation seems far more precarious to me - her aid may drop but any ability your parents have to borrow for her or help her pay are greatly increased by your dad taking this job.</p>
<p>I think the key to helping yourselves without hurting yourselves, so to speak, is extreme frugality with this new influx on income. Congratulations to your dad on finding a good job!</p>
<p>My family was in the same situation last year, our EFC was 0 because our income was 37,000 because my dad was unemployed and then he got a job last year and our total family income went up to 95,000 for the year. I lost the pell grant and our EFC for this year was 19,000. I do attend a school that meets full need and we called the financial aid office and explained to them that we were way behind because of my dad being unemployed for two years and they came in with a little more grant money so my EFC is now 17,000. So maybe you will be able to negotiate with financial aid.</p>