<p>You're welcome. Once you get to that link, there are some other resources that may help you as well. Do a search for financial aid and enrollment management. As I said in the article, not all schools use professional judgement in the same way, but if you do not make a case for it, ALL schools will assume you don't need it. Good luck!</p>
<p>By the way, Zoosermom, you'll notice in the article I mentioned a comment made by the three financial aid officers about caregiving costs for a grandparent being a special circumstance they are particularly willing to consider -- and that is not something that shows up on the FAFSA OR the Profile. And, although I didn't specifically mention it in the article, both the Northwestern and Lake Forest FA directors said they would be willing to consider adjusting FA packages in some cases based on cost of living documentation.</p>
<p>The bottomline: Let colleges know as soon as possible if your family has special financial circumstances that will affect your ability to pay your EFC. This includes if your circumstances change between now and the time you get your award package. Be prepared with documentation. Be polite, but be persistant. Each school will have their own way of viewing special circumstances, and at some, they may not make much of a difference. But, as I said, if you don't tell them you have special circumstances, they'll assume your EFC is exactly what you can afford.</p>
<p>All schools can change your financial aid package in special circumstances. They will need to see the bills and paperwork. We arrived for a meeting with the financial aid officer with every medical bill we had for the prior year, printouts from the pharmacy, and each insurance statement to show what we paid out of pocket. We also had records of bills from other years. They cannot legally consider that, but they can consider payments being made now for earlier unusual expenses.
If there is a sudden midyear change in income call immediately! Again, there may not be funds there, or there may be help available. You can't know til you ask.
Remember they have rules and regs set by the federal government, and regulators come to the school and check out things to be sure no one is being dishonest. The FA folks have to stay within the guidelines, but within them I have found them dedicated to helping as best they can.</p>
<p>This is all very good to know. I'm going to get in touch with the colleges to which she has already been accepted. I really do appreciate it.</p>
<p>Quick FAFSA question for you all. Currently I have a college senior and a high school senior. I hope to get the numbers asap to send in the FAFSA and profile. Next year I will have, if all goes well, a grad student and a college freshman.
Do I put down 2 in college or 1 for next year? Do I drop down to 3 people in the family or leave it at 4?<br>
When this came up 4 years ago it was slighly easier in that I did not put down my son, the first year law student, however the undergrad school said they did count that -it was optional?-and the college official went online herself and changed the FAFSA. my son was living here and we were paying for all his living expenses.
Older DD will not be living at home unless Heck Froze Over, and even then she'd dust off the old ice skates first.</p>
<p>Adding to OldinJersey's excellent post: Don't wait until the last minute. The sooner you contact each school, the more likely it is that there will be FA monies left to apply in special circumstance appeals. And, private colleges will typically be more open to, and able to, use professional judgement to adjust awards. Finally, just remember that the use of PJ will vary from school to school - some will take things into consideration that others won't. So, as OldinJersey suggests, provide all the documentation you can as you won't know for sure what may spark an adjustment. Good luck!</p>
<p>Carolyn, Thanks. I did not think that helping parents would count, as I would have thought that would be considered a "choice". I have read countless times on cc, posters saying that sending money to relatives is a "choice".</p>
<p>Hmm, oldinjersey, good point, we parents of future grad school students should likely ask the UG finaid dept how they see it.</p>
<p>Also, if a child is a dependent on my taxes, therefore is he part of the number in the family? Even if he is has an UG degree? But only part of the number of college students if the UG schools wants him to be?</p>
<p>I am and have always been a single mother of one, with no ex to help. They just told me my EFC is $40,000!</p>
<p>That's really sad, if paying for medical care or food or housing for your parents is seen as optional.</p>
<p>With the FAFSA, colleges go after Every F'ing Cent. After the profile, they want the house too.</p>
<p>Apparently, some schools will consider it. I did not know that. I always thought of it as sad that it would be taken into consideration. Many grandparents help pay for college, but many parents want to help their parents. It is, however, a choice. There isn't a "law" (other than a moral one) that says you must help your parents financially. There is also always someone waiting to "game" the system. What would stop someone from writing their father/mother a check for several thousand, only to get it back in cash? Just like who would know if a rich uncle is helping to pay for college while the family is filing for financial aid?</p>
<p>Edad, that is the bottom line.</p>
<p>Just finished up the Fafsa and now the profile this weekend. USC and its Jan19th deadline.... sigh</p>
<p>After looking at EFC it was not a shock but it sure made me happy the boys picked out a couple of schools they really liked and that are also likely to offer some significant merit pay. These schools are in states with well founded universities that don't try to balance the books on out of state students (whew).</p>
<p>I am happy to say that neither sees any point in going into deep debt for a college name in undergrad engineering.</p>
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After looking at EFC it was not a shock but it sure made me happy the boys picked out a couple of schools they really liked and that are also likely to offer some significant merit pay.
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</p>
<p>Typically, colleges reduce need-based aid in (roughly) the amount of merit aid awarded, so your out-of-pocket cost doesn't change much. Have you pinpointed unis that provide need-based aid PLUS merit aid?</p>
<p>actually cello these are state universities and the merit scholarships bring the cost inside my EFC with no student loans for the boys. It is gravy compared to paying full EFC and loans in the aid package that many of the need based schools also throw in.</p>
<p>I do not know if they are need based plus merit since the cost was inside the EFC I did not see the point of checking.</p>
<p>2 people and EFC of 40,000 means that is around or over 160k or you made a mistake in the info. Only things considered with fafsa (basically) are INCOME, FAMILY MEMBERS, HOW MANY KIDS -NOT PARENTS - ARE IN COLLEGE.
Just put in two people at the top, with 1 of them in college, salary max of 200,000 at the bottom and it will show you BASICALLY the EFC calculation for you. You can always but in bigger family numbers/kids in college to see the differences. This chart does not include student income and assets, which will increase the EFC by approximately 50% of student income and 35% of student assets.
<a href="http://www.finaid.org/calculators/quickefcchart.phtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.finaid.org/calculators/quickefcchart.phtml</a></p>
<p>remember that for each child in college the EFC is divided per college. ie if your efc is 20,000 with one kid the college expects 20k, with 2 kids each college expects 10,000 and with 4 kids each college expects you to be able to pay 5k. This is where spreading my kids out kills us.</p>
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I did not see the point of checking.
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<p>Right. Gotcha. So you've already got the FA offers in hand? I don't have experience with state unis, but the bottom line on the merit-award-school FA offer we actually saw (not where D attends) was virtually identical to the non-merit schools; they offered $15,000 merit, but subtracted that from their institutional grant. Later on, the college she chose substituted her private scholarships ($5300) for federal loans, so the package was great for us -- no student loans.</p>
<p>drizzit, I'm sorry, I know you've mentioned it before, but could you mention the schools your boys are considering. I love to find OOS public schools which offer merit aid. I have a D who is also considering engineering and she also doesn't see going into a lot of debt to be an engineer.</p>
<p>deb922 - have you read up on WISE - women in science and engineering? they are on many college campuses and add lots of good things to the education of the girls involved.</p>
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which will increase the EFC by approximately 50% of student income and 35% of student assets.
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<p>To put a small balm on your FAFSA wounds, the formula has changed. Students' assets are no longer assessed at 35% but at a smaller percentage (20%)</p>
<p>Also, for students, the income allowance will rise to $3,000 next year from $2,550 for the current school year.</p>