That may be a separate issue. An older qualifying relative may be considered a dependent for tax purposes but not necessarily for FAFSA ? The OP has not indicated any issues with the son…
Yes. OP mentioned he’s living on his own and doing well with a good career.
You can’t claim children over 19 who are not full-time students (and then they need to be under 24). For FA, being in grad school qualifies students as independent and to qualify for better FA. (And they can still be on your health insurance until 26.)
Depencency for disabled adults is complicated. We have a disabled adult son who is over 26 and is still on our health insurance but we don’t claim him as a dependent on our taxes. We opted not to claim him bc he receives better services through the state as an independent.
The eldest child is a son who graduated from college five years ago, IIRC, and got a job with the NFL Network…unless I’m mixing this kid up with another poster.
This is a family of four, not five. With only one in college.
Forgot about the NFL job. Thanks.
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This sibling is no longer a dependent, or family member for financial aid purposes. This is a family of four…not five.
Yep, that dilemma is definitely on the horizon. My guess is that she will be accepted to nearly all colleges, and each will have widely varying merit aid awards. She will probably be in the running (I hope) for a few interview opportunities for other significant scholarships too.
I bet we will be able to eliminate a good number (33%?) of schools right off the bat, then we’ll have to research research research to see which schools to visit. This is where my wife’s flight attendant free standby flights will come in handy - as long as we avoid holiday times we should be good to visit a half dozen schools, hopefully knocking off more than one per trip (good thing I’ve got 5 weeks of vacation banked!). And at that point I’ll HAVE to make her care about more than the school just having classrooms and dorms, but my guess is by then she will be looking at the nuances of each school on her own.
But it seems like all of those decisions will come after all applications are submitted, like January - March timeframe. It’ll be tough for her to miss Saturday hockey games then since she’s the starting goalie and I would bet the team once again is highly ranked and has a great chance to be a top seed in the playoffs. I believe the deadline for accepting offers is sometime in April for most schools? Spring break is March 9-22, so maybe we try to visit most schools then, although that’s cutting it pretty close…
Our son (2010) was accepted to one out of the 3 schools he applied to, so it was a no-brainer for him. I think this will be a great problem to have to solve for our daughter!
Yep, I just read about that a few months ago. Let’s just say I thought that was very unfortunate (I’ll refrain from using the other words I uttered when I first read about it)
I predict you’ll do all this applying and visiting and then sometime in March (maybe February) she’ll get a hockey offer. It won’t be from a top program like Wisconsin or Harvard, but somewhere will give her a good opportunity.
Then she’ll have to decide whether to take that and major in something other than chemE.
Son got a great job at NFL network right out of school, and has been living on his own since. We were really worried about him for a bit, especially with his choice of major, but he is a textbook example of attitude and work ethic being the driving force of success rather than college major.
So yeah, 4 household members. Well, another tidbit I was withholding so as to not complicate matters, but it may (?) come into play for a pure need-based school, my wife and I are separated distance wise (not marriage wise), as she is based out of Cincinnati airport so spends 90% of her time away from home and shares an apartment with a few other flight attendants there.
Your wife being in another city will not help for FA. If you are married, you complete the FA forms together. It may HURT you if she owns a second home in Cincinnati, even if it is a necessity. If she just rents an apt, that won’t factor in (but you don’t get to claim you have 2 households)
My sister and BIL lived in two households for career purposes. No need based FA even though they had double expenses.
So the recent comments bring up a good point. Here’s a hypothetical case that would be very very difficult to decide - let’s say something like the following average out of pocket expenses per year (after merit and/or need based aid) :
Elite top 10 (such as Princeton) : $25K
Top 50 (such as Northeastern or RPI) : $17K
Top 100 (such as Kentucky) : $10K
Not even in the top 150 : $3K
Although I might disagree with taking large loans to have her go to the best school possible, if the best school possible is just out of our price range but might be within reach with some medium-sized loans (split between us and our daughter), well then that would be a tough decision.
I guess it would be like when you have to buy a new car, and you decide that, say $25K is your max not to exceed out the door price. You find a good car for $22K, but then start the game of “But for just $2K more I could get this better one”, and before you know it you’re talked yourself into a $35K one…
Oh well, too many things to worry about now, so we’ll procrastinate worrying about something like this…
Is this the cost that the NPC for Princeton shows?
I would think the net price for Princeton would be lower than the one for Northeastern…
Did the NPC for Princeton again and it comes in at $27K. If the real number comes in just a little lower and/or we could get it dropped a little with an appeal, then it’s within the realm of possibility. That’s why we plan on at least applying there, if not a couple other elite schools…
Appeal or reconsideration based on…what? You could ask for a special circumstances consideration if you have significant expenses related to your older daughter. BUT if you are planning to compare to other colleges…which do you have in mind?
And remember…schools will reconsider based on offers from peer schools only…and for need based aid. A place like Princeton isn’t going to give two hoots about any merit awards your daughter receives…because Princeton doesn’t give merit awards.
I still say…something isn’t right. Princeton has much more generous need based aid than Northeastern or RPI. Are you sure you did those two correctly? NEU and RPI do give merit awards…maybe that’s the difference.
What would an appeal be based on? Do you have high expenses related to your other child?
Unless your daughter is dead certain that she wants to be an engineer, no chance of changing focus, then this would be a no-brainer. Take on an additional $8K/year in loans and go to Princeton over RPI.
(I understand that these were just ballpark figures for purposes of considering a hypothetical, and that some potential merit is built into the RPI and Northeastern numbers. If and when you get the chance to ask for any reconsideration of your financial aid from a place like Princeton, your wife’s need to maintain a second “home base” rental apartment could be considered. The essence of professional judgment is the subjective judgment made by a finaid officer on the basis of a special situation, and you won’t know for sure until you present the need for your wife to incur these expenses and whatever related expenses accrue to your CA household due to her extended absences. http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/principles.phtml )
Kevin are you coming up with this cost for Princeton based on one in college…or two? Are you anticipating merit at Northeastern and RPI?
@KevinFromOC
Princeton offers a lot of need-based help so 27K/year seems reasonable based on what you wrote. MIT might also get within your financial reach. If your daughter gets accepted there I agree that you will have to make a tough decision.
However don’t expect to get into Northeastern for 17K/year as you are not very likely to get 30K in merit there.
See http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22119797/#Comment_22119797
And Kentucky, factoring the fees, is going to end up closer to $15-20K/year than $10K/year (averaged over four years).
I am not sure where you expect to get a almost full ride since you seemed to have decided not to apply to schools below Kentucky in the rankings.
UC Irvine will require your daugther to commute to stay under 20K/year.
ASU, at 20K/year including the fees, is probably the best option for all middle or upper middle class families with a NHRP but no NMS child wanting to study engineering. (It’s also a good option for NMS students but there are other great options such as Florida schools.)