<p>IFAP</a> - EFC Formula Guide</p>
<p>Can any of the finaid experts on CC review on comment on any signficant changes?</p>
<p>I don’t see any significant differences off hand. At a brief glance the main differences I see are:
- Cut off for automatic 0 EFC has increased $1,000 to income $31,000 or less. Simplified needs cut off has not changed from $49,999.
- Student income protection has increased to $5250 (dependent) and $8550 (independent single)</p>
<p>I don’t have time to look real close right now but will look more later in the afternoon.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting the link.</p>
<p>Does not look like the major changes they were talking about are happening.</p>
<p>I don’t suppose they count doggie medical expenses :(</p>
<p>Asset protection allowances for parents have decreased and there have been changes to the state income tax allowance for parents in select states.</p>
<p>For us, the asset protection allowance is $4600 less than what it would have been under last year’s formula (it should go up each year as the older parent gets older, but instead it’s going down). So our EFE will be $255-260 higher than it would have been.</p>
<p>Why should the asset protection allowance go <em>down</em>, when the economy is so crappy??</p>
<p>The changes that I see are the increase to $31,000 for auto 0, the decrease in asset protection allowance (tell me how that makes sense - way to send a message that no one should save - oh, yeah - that’s right - spend so you can stimulate the economy), and a decrease in state income and other tax allowance (parents only/student stays same). Some states had a big decrease in the allowance - NJ in particular. My state’s went down but income tax did not decrease, nor did sales tax. Maybe they decreased it because our property values s**k so much that our tax bills are theoretically decreasing?</p>
<p>I thought the asset protection seemed lower than last years, but thought I must have been remembering wrong. But you are right. Ours (my husband is over 65) has dropped from $80,300 to $74,000. What is even worse is than a one parent family’s asset protection has dropped from $30,100 to $24,500 so a one parent family has only 33% of the asset protection that a 2 parent family has. Even worse than the 37% of last year. In all the years I have been doing FAFSA this is the first time I have seen the asset protection go down.</p>
<p>So the changes I can see so far:
- Cut off for automatic 0 EFC has increased $1,000 to income $31,000 or less. Simplified needs cut off has not changed from $49,999.
- Student income protection has increased to $5250 (dependent) and $8550 (independent single)
- Asset protection has gone down (parent income protection is unchanged).
- Some state allowances changed. (mine did not).</p>
<p>Other than that I see very little change. I wonder what happened to all the plans to “simplify” the process.</p>
<p>yeah, swimcatsmom, what happened to all the hoo-hah about drastically simplifying the process?? I didn’t look at it real, real closely, but I see no simplification whatsoever.</p>
<p>The simplification is on the horizon … and it’s moving in the direction of “One grant, one loan, one campus based program.” Meaning: Pell grant, unsubsidized loan, work study. The discussion is to simplify the FAFSA to collecting just bare bones info … you won’t need more than that, because only the lowest income will get a Pell … and sub Stafford would be gone (Perkins is rumored to become unsub if it still exists in the future). The talk is to have people okay a direct dump of tax info to the FAFSA (they would have to access the IRS site & do the dump themselves), and to check off a box that says “Assets less than X amount.” Simple for some … a bit disheartening for others.</p>
<p>(And I envision a lot of schools with endowments will either move to requesting Profile or having their own additional form to complete)</p>
<p>Personally I’m relieved they did not change it yet (I assume this means that 2011-2012 is not going to be “simplified” Kelsmom?</p>
<p>I’d as soon they don’t “simplify” it until I am done with it. They don’t ever seem to get input from anyone who has a clue, such as actual financial aid officers (I volunteer you Kelsmom :D) - just think of the AGC and the SMART and how messed up and ever changing their rules were. I understand the current system so if they can just keep it that way for 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 I will be quite happy!!</p>
<p>Kelsmom, are they really talking about getting rid of the subsidized loans? That really will be a shame. having that interest free while in college has really been a great thing for the students in our family. I’ve got one thinking about grad school and not having sub loans will make a huge difference financially.</p>
<p>I can see that our asset protection allowance dropped by 2k plus. But for us, it doesn’t matter, we have no assets to protect, so deducting the figure of $65,800 still gives us negative assets. Pathetic isn’t it? But yes, I always thought the idea was that as you got older, more of your assets would be sheltered! Guess not! </p>
<p>I skimmed through a book at Barnes & Noble the other day “No Sucker Left Behind”. It was quite good actually! Made me feel like we keep getting scammed! But getting scammed for a good cause! LOL…</p>
<p>Does anyone know what changes have been made to the CSS Profile formula for 2011-2012?</p>
<p>Yes, swimcatsmom, that has been a topic of discussion - I heard about it last summer at a conference & the talk is still going strong. Who knows, though …</p>
<p>Oh goodness…4 years of FAFSAs done, 6 more years to go and it just gets uglier. Sends chills down my spine.</p>
<p>I am SO GLAD that I am DONE with FAFSA. the shriking asset protection allowance especially for single parents is an INSULT. It should not be less than half of a 2 parent household. Last time I checked my expenses weren’t 34% of a 2 parent household.</p>
<p>I agree. I don’t understand the logic at all.</p>
<p>logic does not apply to ANYTHING the government does when it comes to numbers and money. Since I work in the comptroller’s office for the Dept of Defense, you can take my word on that!</p>
<p>My son graduates in May and the only thing I have left to pay for is books for his final semester and 3 months of rent, a little over $3K total (he is subletting my brother’s rent stabalized apt in NYC around the corner from NYU campus. He’s been going there since before he started kindergarten and now he’s staying there by himself for his final year of school. Talk about coming full circle).</p>
<p>I have a question on the css profile for home value calculation. Per collegeboard I used [Federal</a> Housing Finance Agency - Home](<a href=“http://www.fhfa.gov%5DFederal”>http://www.fhfa.gov) website. I want to reduce the figure to account for declining housing market(4%) and for the cost of selling my house(sales commission 4%) to arrive a more realistic home value. I would appreciate any thoughts…</p>
<p>smileygirl, see this page from “Paying for College Without Going Broke”, by Kalman Chany:</p>
<p>[Paying</a> for College Without Going Broke - Google Books](<a href=“Paying for College Without Going Broke - Kalman A. Chany, Geoff Martz - Google Books”>Paying for College Without Going Broke - Kalman A. Chany, Geoff Martz - Google Books)</p>
<p>Look at available comparables for your neighborhood – we’re lucky-- for our county, this is all easily available for free online. Take into account that most homeowners have to put a lot of money into repairs and upgrades before putting the house on the market.
Use what you could get if you had to sell your house RIGHT AWAY, and subtract out realtor commissions, etc.
If you would have to put on a new roof, replace carpet, do thousands of dollars in painting (inside or out), repair that leaky shower, touch-up the yucky-looking cabinets, etc. in order to get a “normal” price for the house, take that into account.</p>
<p>And aren’t sales commisions way more than 4% these days?</p>