<p>My parents finally finished the CSS profile and we submitted it today. There's a printed copy right here, so I figured I would put the information into the Collegeboard EFC Calculator.</p>
<p>I am shocked to say that both methods calculate that my family will need to contribute in excess of 40k/year, which I would assume means I will get little or no aid from any schools to which I am applying.</p>
<p>I put in all the information just as we submitted it. My family makes around 80k/year. Stepdad is retired, mom works. House is paid off. Parents have about 50k in investments and very little in savings, as they JUST paid off the house with the money gained from selling an old property...</p>
<p>I am very worried right now. My parents have decided that they can afford about 10k/year in college expenses. Anything else will have to be taken out in loans.</p>
<p>Can someone either confirm or comfort my worries? Have people known the Collegeboard calculator to be blatantly incorrect in the past? I need a human response here.</p>
<p>Your EFC does not seem correct. It should be more like half that (less for FM, I would think). You may have entered some info incorrectly. The calculators are not incorrect, but the info entered can be.</p>
<p>Is the “paid off” house being considered as a big asset that could be “tapped”?</p>
<p>I’m thinking that part of this is because they don’t have to pay a mortgage or rent anymore - so more $$ should be available for education.</p>
<p>Well, just in case that EFC is right (or even half right), you better apply to some financial safeties that will be affordable with your parents only paying $10k per year.</p>
<p>What are your stats? Maybe some schools that give merit money can help your situation.</p>
<p>I’m making sure I filled it out right at the moment…</p>
<p>Dad just used all his savings to pay off the house. His income (military retirement pension and social security) is figured into the 80k/year.</p>
<p>What do you mean by the house being tapped? Do they expect the family to put a mortgage on the house? That, quite frankly, is really stupid.</p>
<p>I’m looking into safeties at the moment as well… Mom has agreed that if it comes down to it, she could scrounge up an additional 10k/year, so… I don’t know. This all seems ridiculous.</p>
<p>Stats? Haha. I’m a pretty average CC’er. Quick stats:
SAT: 750M/660CR/710W (super)
ACT: 35
Rank: 3/247
I’ve taken challenging classes and APs and all that jazz. I’m really hoping for Rice. My safeties are UT and Texas A&M (both of which I’ve already been accepted to).</p>
<p>Even if the house if paid off, it won’t be considered for FM. </p>
<p>Does Stepdad draw a pension? If so, the taxed portion will be included in the AGI, but only Mom’s income will be considered for income from work. $50k in investments … is some of that in accounts earmarked for retirement (401k, 403b, etc)? If so, those should not be reported as investment income. Even so, there is a pretty good asset protection allowance for someone who is retirement age. </p>
<p>The bottom line is, you will need to find schools you can afford. Look for schools where you might be able to get merit aid, as well as for lower cost state schools. Your stats definitely would make you a good candidate for merit money at many schools.</p>
<p>Yeah, stepdad has a pension. I just re-did the calculator and didn’t list his income at all other than in the net parent income because it’s taxed and I don’t see a place for taxed benefits… And this time I got 22k/28k. Is that how I’m supposed to list it? Because that sounds quite reasonable, compared to before…</p>
<p>The 50k is mostly my mom’s retirement savings, and a little of my stepdad’s stock market investments. Haha, he’s terrible at the stock market. xD I could go off on a rant about that one!</p>
<p>The parents paid off the house note because we thought it was better to have the house paid off than to have the money that could be used to pay off the house sitting in the bank.</p>
<p>Did you list your house as an asset for the federal methodology? The primary home is not a reportable asset for FAFSA purposes so should have no affect on your EFC at all. You do not even report it for FAFSA. Also the other assets should not have much, if any, affect on the FAFSA EFC. If your stepdad is old enough to retire the asset protection is probably high enough that most of those assets should be protected.</p>
<p>For FAFSA and the federal methodology the house should not be reported at all. The savings do have to be reported but the calculator should ask the # of parents and the age of the older parent and include an allowance for asset protection. For instance my Husband is 67 and our asset protection in the EFC formula is around $84,000 so any reportable parent assets up to $84,000 will have no affect on the EFC. That should be reflected by the EFC calculator though.</p>
<p>It does sound like you may have some sort of input error to have such a high EFC with $80k income (I am assuming that is the pretax income). I would expect the FAFSA EFC it to be more like 15-20,000.</p>
<p>The CSS does take into account the primary home though. How much would depend on each school. Some schools cap the home value at a multiple of income. Some do not.</p>
<p>Is your real dad alive? If so, what about his income?</p>
<p>Since the OP is doing CSS, home value (with high equity since no mortgage) will likely come into play. </p>
<p>OP … you need to realize that CSS is going to consider more things than that EFC calculator done with federal methodology. Your parents “paid off home” is one big asset. </p>
<p>And, yes, some schools will think the home’s equity should be tapped to pay for education. That may seem odd, but otherwise, people would put all their education money into their homes and then ask for aid.</p>
<p>You need to apply to some financial safeties. With your great stats, you’ll get merit money at schools that offer merit. You could get free tuition and maybe more at some merit awarding universities. You’re not average at all Your ACT puts you in the upper 99th percentile. :)</p>
<p>So, what financial safeties are you going to apply to with those awesome stats? :)</p>
<p>The CSS Profile does not generate an EFC. FAFSA does. I’m wondering what calculator you’re using. Not saying it’s calculating incorrectly, but you may be mixing up what gets reported to the Profile, what gets reported to FAFSA, and what those applications do with that information.</p>
<p>The CSS Profile merely gives the information you submit to the colleges you list. It doesn’t prescribe what they do with it. (For example, some consider home equity, some don’t, some cap the value of home equity relative to income… it’s all determined by the colleges according to their own policy.)</p>
<p>There are some calculators online that will give you an estimated FAFSA EFC and/or a estimated CSS Profile expected contribution, but the later especially is so generalized it may or may not be useful as a tool.</p>
<p>Which CSS schools do you think consider home equity? I would guess it’s the ones who attempt to meet need or give as much need as possible. </p>
<p>After all, if they have 2 students with similar incomes, and one has a paid off home worth $300k, while the other lives in a rental or a mortgaged home with no equity, why would they both get the same aid? I think the CSS school is going to assume that some of that equity from the first student’s home could be tapped.</p>
<p>Like I said in an earlier post, otherwise parents would use education savings to pay off their mortgages and then expect FA.</p>
<p>Another consideration is that a family with a “paid off” home can afford to spend a lot more on their child’s education than a family who has to pay $1500 a month for rent or mortgage.</p>
<p>I think most Profile schools consider home equity – although not all do. Some of the most generous schools that meet full need will cap how much home equity they factor into a student’s need determination as a percentage of family income.</p>
<p>My son’s school for example caps it at something like 2.4% (?) of income. (Not sure of the exact percentage, but it’s in that area.) So in our case it’s an amount that is lower than our actual equity in the home. This protects people who bought a house when it was cheap and actually did fit their income level, but has since ballooned in value.</p>
<p>There is also a question on the Profile asking how much in rent or mortgage are you obliged to pay each month. I think if the answer was 0 that may have more effect on their calcuations just because it affects available cash than how much equity you have in your home.</p>
<p>But again, I’m just speaking of a specific group of Profile schools that I am familiar with. I don’t know how others may use home equity in their calculations.</p>
<p>Exactly. That’s going to be a problem. A family with no house payment/rent can afford to pay more for college - that’s how that will be understood.</p>
<p>The OP mentions a step dad, but no dad, if he’s alive, then his income/assets will also be considered.</p>
<p>There’s no way to say for sure how one question will be interpreted unless a specific college has made clear how they use the information from the Profile. The question is there, is all I’m saying. There are also questions about home equity, but the answers are treated differently by different schools.</p>
<p>And schools have different supplemental questions too. Some ask about cars, some don’t. Some ask about credit card debt. Some ask about this, some ask about that.</p>
<p>And even though they ask, it still doesn’t tell you anything about how they will use the answers they get in their determination of need.</p>
Your ACT puts you in the upper 99th percentile. :)</p>