income changes

Paying for College
1

<p>the tax returns that i will be submitting to all of my schools are going to show the highest earning year for my family. this was actually a very odd year in terms of income because my father has been very unlucky with unemployment for the majority of my life. this was one of the few years where he was employed throughout. however, he has recently been laid off again and obviously the schools are going to need to know this.</p>

<p>my question is, should i contact all of the aid offices before or after acceptance to the school? i've been trying to go about applications intelligently and have ended up applying to a lot of schools solely for the purpose of comparing financial options since my parents refuse to either cosign a private loan or take out more than $7k in plus loans (still have no idea how plus loans are considered a good deal!) so i would be contacting a lot of schools. but, if i wait until after acceptance to ask for a reevaluation, i'm not sure how much money the school will have left to give me.</p>

<p>i did end up posing this question to my top choice who gives 100% need to all students and they said that it makes no difference and that it's best to wait until after acceptance. i am assuming this changes between schools though. for instance, my financial and acceptance safety is a public school who clearly does not have a large endowment and probably wouldn't have the financial means to give more money than what is originally offered.</p>

2

<p>Since most of the schools would have no financial data at all yet, and won’t be looking at awarding FA until they do, I would wait a bit. By the time you file for FA, you’ll likely have at least some acceptances. I think what you’ll need to do is request professional judgement at that time since, if his layoff is recent, it is likely be too soon for them to take action and your dad may be employed again by the time they are ready to package you.</p>

3

<p>yes, thank you. a good point about employment. although, my dad’s been half-joking that it may be in our best interest if he were to just end up unemployed through retirement</p>

4

<p>A mixed blessing…may result in more aid for you but less food for the fam! Btw, you won’t actually submit any tax returns unless requested or required by the school. For FAFSA only schools they’re typically not needed unless you’re selected for verification.</p>