<p>you should receive an email that gives you a link to the fafsa website. when you click on it, you're required to fill out some personal information. when all is done, you'll be directed to a page where your EFC is given.</p>
<p>Actually, Raven, my prior post is not exactly right. 35% of the first approx $8500 earned by the spouse is exempt from assessment under FAFSA. Similar provision in PROFILE. So you do get about $3000 more if you work at that level. Though it is not technically a penalty for a spouse not working, it is something to think about if you have your own business and want to distribute the earnings more favorably for financial aid purposes. If you make $60K total, for example, it would be wiser to pay the spouse $8500 for financial aid purposes to get that 35% sheltered, rather than paying less . Emeraldkity alerted me to this situation on another thread.</p>
<p>"My parents are also big contributers to the island of Haiti so alot of their income is devoted to that and also sponsering many of my cousins through college and secondary school. Also my sister is going to law school at the same time and we recently bought a house so we are under financial difficulties at the moment. I still dont know if their high income should stop me from getting financial aid but I know that we are certainly not living richly."</p>
<p>Sorry, this outrages me. Our family makes huge donations to charity, and we also bought a house, but we are not asking for financial aid! How about they sponor YOU instead of "many cousins" through college? </p>
<p>Financial aid is a handout of other people's money. I GLADLY give to my school as an alumni, because I believe that money is going to help people who could not otherwise go to college. If the money comes in the form of loans, then it is the taxpayer that subsidizes them.</p>
<p>I warrant that if we took a poll of people who make alumni contributions, pay taxes, or sacrifice to send their own kids to school, 99.99% would be equally outraged at the thought of people making $450,000 applying for aid and using house-buying and relative-helping as an excuse.</p>
<p>Almost half a million dollars is a TREMENDOUS amount of money and asking for financial aid is like putting a stocking over your head, putting a gun to other people's ribs, and demanding money. It's theft.</p>
<p>IF your father has a shred of integrity, he will tell the colleges the truth and then tell them what you told us - that he checked the figures but couldn't find any errors. Yeah, right.</p>
<p>.......ditto</p>
<p>My family combined income is ~$20,000 and I have an EFC of ~$800 (3 fam members: mom + sister + me)..... I've checked the numbers and I guess it is right, even thought calculators all came up that i would have 0 EFC.</p>
<p>I'd be more than ****ed [at the system] if stanmaster had a lower EFC than I did ;d</p>
<p>Yea, i'm still confused about that $750 at 450K.... I also come from $20,000 income for 3 (me, bro and mom) and we have $1005 EFC. Calc always came up EFC zero though....</p>
<p>Nedad, unless the poster with the high income parents is not telling the truth, or the parents are not reporting income and/or assets, there is no way that EFC is right. FAFSA wants your income before deductions so all of those charitable contributions are not going to make a bit of difference. Also paying for cousins' or for other children's tuition other than undergraduate siblings isn't going to do a thing to reduce the contribution to that level. When you see that the EFC for a $20K income for a family of 3 is about $1000, you know that something is wrong. And the only way that could be is if there is unreported income or hidden assets. That is usually the case for people who get around the financial aid rules. There is usually an unreported "fairy godmother" paying for something that just is not being reported, or a business where some of the income is under the table. Or the business is being totally segregated from the family and just not reported. And assets hidden in other countries or under other relatives' names is another "shelter". Sometimes these people are also cheating on their taxes, but sometimes not, if gifting laws are properly used. So there is more than what is being revealed in this situation. Anyone is welcome to make all the charitable contributions they want. But FAFSA does not take those into account--they do not reduce your income by that amount even if your income tax may be lowered. Also there are rules on circumstances when those contributions are deductible. Paying for Cousin May's family of 10, impoverished though they may, is not a charitable contribution. FOr anything over a few hundred dollarrs it need to be a registered charity under some section of the law. </p>
<p>Don't let these situations flame you. I always say, don't count other people's money. You never can tell when you know the full story.</p>
<p>The $450,000 a year story sounds made up.</p>
<p>A great post ^^ . As angered as I too initially was, I really doubt that we know the entire story with this one....</p>
<p>Ok you guys are really making a big deal out of nothing. My school encourages everyone to apply for financial aid so who cares if I apply or not. Also I'm sure colleges will see my high level of income and check the figures themselves to see what is wrong. Dont you dare sit there and disrespect my father becasue he went through it with me and my mom countless times to get it right so please dont comment on things you dont know. And no it is not a story. Who the hell would waste their the time writing about that? All I asked was for opinions on what to do, not if I am telling the truth or not. You guys happen to be some of the rudest people I have ever heard. You judge me and my family without even knowing us and than you tell me how horrrible i am for applying. Do me a favor and just shut up because you definently arent helping me at all and I definently can care less if you believe me or not.</p>
<p>Stanmaster, despite what you think or how it appears, no one is really judging you <em>personally,</em> since, as you say, we don't know you.</p>
<p>The way message boards tend to work is that people primarily respond to GENERAL SITUATIONS, because they can't truly respond to PERSONAL ones - again, because they can't see all the facts - and NEVER will.</p>
<p>I used to get all bent out of shape, defensive, etc., exactly as you did, many years ago when I was first on message boards (late 80s - early days of the Net plus BBs), until I realized this very simple truth!</p>
<p>The fact is that there are MANY people gaming the system. Everything I said above remains true, whether or not it applies to you:</p>
<p>1) Alumni give money for the TRULY NEEDY - I donate a great deal to my school so that lower-class families will have a chance.</p>
<p>2) The taxpayers subsidize student loans by paying the banks a higher interest rate than the student pays.</p>
<p>3) Therefore, both alumni, taxpayers --- and other applicants as well, who may be cheated out of financial aid when the wealthy game the system --have EVERY RIGHT to be concerned about the integrity of the process. And yes, my comparing the wealthy who game the system to thieves is not hyperbole - it is a fact. </p>
<p>Jamimom and raven, I hope you understand my point. The only thing I could have left out of my post was "your father." However, the point would still remain: if ANY wealthy person in the top 1% of earners got an EFC of $700, he or she SHOULD enclose a note to the school that he or she was unable to find the error, but that there must be one!</p>
<p>So I stand by what I said.</p>
<p>Excellent post, nedad, and you are exactly right about responses covering general situations - since we can only know what the poster presents! I don't think the responses represented "rudeness" -- welcome to the rough and tumble world of the Net, where you cannot control how people react to what you present. </p>
<p>But you shouldn't be too hard on yourself. Stanmaster brought it on himself by saying that he doesn't know why his family's high income should exclude him from financial aid, and that the family's "excuse" for applying was that they had a daughter in law school and had just bought a new house!!</p>
<p>Be that as it may, I cannot imagine ANY circumstance or ANY "hidden fact" that would justify aid to someone in the top 1%.</p>
<p>Stanmaster....no one has personally attacked YOU. They are questioning the information you posted here as being accurate. AND if you are applying for (and expect to receive finaid) you should be checking those numbers also for accuracy. If you read any of the threads on this board, you will read about students who have families with less than $30,000 income per year trying to figure out how to meet an EFC of $4000. What kind of replies did you expect to see with an reported income of $450,000 and an EFC of under $1000? The experience most of us have here regarding finaid applications is that those numbers do not line up correctly. Finaid applications with inaccurate information are not worth the paper they are printed on, and can jeopardize your finaid prospects substantially (even merit aid awards...colleges value accuracy on these forms). Sorry you were offended....but most folks here were just giving you an FYI.</p>
<p>Stanmaster, I have repeatedly posted that all families, regardless of income level should consider filing FAFSA. FAFSA is a clearinghouse for eligibiity for government programs and some of the things are not income based. Unless you want to forego any possibility of being considered for those programs, and many families, myself included have done so, you should file. So I have no problems with your family filing.</p>
<p>But if you download and print out the FAFSA form and read it line by line, you can see that there is no reasonable way that income could translate into a small EFC. If your family has reported their Adjusted Gross Income on IRS Form 1040 as $450K, I don't see how you are going to get the EFC down that low. Charitable contributions are not taken into account, nor are deductions. You are not permitted to claim all of your cousins and family overseas as dependents--if that is being done to that degree on the 1040, there will be a problem if the IRS catches this. Tuition paid for anyone other than siblings does not count as other kids in college. There are not very many places to lower that income. And I am assuming zero assets, just considering that income. It just isn't possible unless something is incorrectly entered, or perhaps the $450K figure is not what was used for the AGI.</p>
<p>It occurs to me that the parents may be self-incorporated and while their corporate gross income may be $450K perhaps their take home pay is quite a bit less (though it still doesn't explain the low EFC.)</p>
<p>There are 1001 different ways the EFC could be lowered, but it comes down to either not reporting income/assets in some way or form. The $450K could be a foreign corp run in a way to escape US notice. I can come up with a number of possible scenarios. But I don't waste time counting other people's money.</p>
<p>jamimom. Me and my dad went over it with my counselor and he said he cant see any mistakes either. He told us just to send it in and see what happens.</p>
<p>Stanmaster, I believe the confusion is that you are referring to $450K in Haitian dollars. The value of a Haitian dollar at todays exchange rate is approximately .00000001 cent. Or you can take it to the National Bank of Haiti, where it will be redeemed for approximately 2.5 ounces of broken glass.</p>
<p>No one should be upset over Stanmaster's post from the standpoint of suspicion of cheating, because if the income is that high, the income and W-2s or 1099s must be reported on the tax return and the parents will have to send these reports with a copy of their return. If the return shows $100K of charitable contributions, for instance, that will be added back in the aid deliberation. </p>
<p>Now, could someone send in a false return? Of course - but since the FAFSA requires that you sign their agreement, which includes the right to verify with the IRS, they would risk jail or a $20,000 fine for lying. If the return sent to the IRS is not accurate, there's no way to know other than an audit, which would either be triggered by a discrepancy (e.g., IRS receives 1099 income report that is not reflected on the tax return) or ranges that are outside the norm for the income stream, such as charitible contributions. Anyone can lie or cheat, but it is risky and a gamble (sleeping at night, worrying that the Federal wolf may appear at the door).</p>
<p>mine is 99999...why?</p>