<p>The FAFSA calculated my EFC to be $46,000, which is a lot higher than I expected. My parents make $80K a year. They own their house, are debt free and have some savings, but aren't wealthy people. Frugal, yes, but not wealthy. </p>
<p>Does this mean that I won't receive any financial aid?? Do colleges base their decision off of the FAFSA's calculations alone, or do they take other things in to consideration (for example, every school I applied to had some additional financial aid form)?</p>
<p>My top choices are private liberal arts colleges that I wouldn't be able to go to unless I received financial aid. In the advertised materials of the schools I applied to, families with in my parents' income bracket paid under $20,000 in tuition and room and board per year.</p>
<p>Unless your parents have saved a TON of money, you probably entered something incorrectly. If they have saved enough to get that EFC with that income, you don’t need any financial aid.</p>
<p>That EFC seems high to me also…unless there are very significant assets (savings etc). Did they happen to enter the balances to their retirement accounts (401k, IRA, TSA) as assets? The balances to those types of accounts are not considered assets but the contributions last year are added in as income.</p>
<p>Something isn’t adding up here…unless there are more assets than you know.</p>
<p>My parents are teachers, not business owners. I think they have $350K in assets (is that a lot?). They haven’t told me how much they’re willing to contribute to my education each year, but I think it’d be around $25K… $30K would be stretching it. </p>
<p>I applied to Macalester, Grinnell, Oberlin, Beloit and two financial safeties.</p>
<p>Don’t just assume how much they’ll contribute. Ask them. They may think that $25-30k is more than they’re comfortable in spending. Are you an only child?</p>
<p>$350k is significant. If not in retirement accounts, it is available to be spent … and it will be considered as such by financial aid offices. Your parents are wise to have saved. If they choose not to spend their savings on an expensive college, though, that is their choice … and you may need to settle on a less expensive college.</p>
<p>That said, wait for the financial aid letters … that is the only way you will truly know what a school will offer you.</p>
<p>It usually is, depending on how these assets are saved. Colleges assume that at least some of your savings are earmarked for colleges, but they understand that some of it might be for retirement. When the FAFSA assessor calculates your EFC, they will take into account both your parents’ income (which is fairly high) and your savings (which are really high) and they’re not going to give you a lot of need-based aid if your parents simply aren’t willing to use these savings.</p>
<p>I talked to my parents about what they’re willing to spend, but they didn’t answer me; they said to wait until I receive my admission decisions and financial aid offers. </p>
<p>My safeties are my state school, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities. I would have applied to smaller publics, but I didn’t find any that offered upper-level Chinese and Japanese courses.</p>
<p>I thought that parental assets were assessed at 5.6% after the asset protection. For $350K…that 5.6% would be $19,600. Subtract that amount from the $46000 and you get $26,400 a year for an EFC which is actually about what I might expect with an income of $80,000 a year. </p>
<p>If they used $20,000 of that $350K per year to help you with college, that would still leave a large chunk of money in the savings account. </p>
<p>Is it possible that some of that $350,000 is in retirement accounts?</p>
<p>If the parents have to spend $20k per year of their savings, that will be $80k over 4 years. The parents may not be comfortable with that - especially if one is retired.</p>
<p>If the parents make $80k per year, and there is an assumption that $19,600 is available for education…</p>
<p>it seems to me that the $80k income alone would result in an EFC of about $20k plus the $19,600…so an EFC of about $40k…right?</p>
<p>Yes…the assumption from income alone would be in the $26K range…plus the amount from the assets…$19.6K.</p>
<p>Even with taking 80K out of the $350K…that would leave $270K and that does not include any interest earned (of course that would be dependent on the type of account this money is in). </p>
<p>It sounds like part of the 80K per year is retirement income from one of the parents. Income is income unless it’s SS disability (which i don’t think is reported as income on the FAFSA…Swimcatsmom…what is and isn’t reported on the SS venue).</p>
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<p>This is usually true only with TYPICAL assets. Most families do not have liquid assets in the $350,000 range.</p>
<p>*I talked to my parents about what they’re willing to spend, but they didn’t answer me; they said to wait until I receive my admission decisions and financial aid offers. </p>
<p>My safeties are my state school, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities. I would have applied to smaller publics, but I didn’t find any that offered upper-level Chinese and Japanese courses. *</p>
<p>Since your parents are “frugal” (your words) and they won’t tell you how much they will spend because they want to see the offers, that suggests the following to me…</p>
<p>They don’t want to say an amount, because if your state school is the cheapest alternative, they will want you to go there. UWisconsin is about $18k per year. They probably have no intention of spending more than that.</p>
<p>Wisconsin Resident Minnesota Resident
Tuition and Fees $8,313
Books and Supplies $1,040
Room and Board* $8,040 </p>
<p>However, since your EFC is so high, your packages aren’t likely going to be generous. They’ll expect your parents to pay their EFC (which is unlikely), and then the FA packages will likely put in loans and maybe a gap for the rest - unless they’re schools that meet need without loans.</p>
<p>I have to admit I would have probably given the OP the answer the parents did, “let’s wait and see all the financial aid packages.” You have a nice list of schools with some privates and some state schools. Perhaps your parents have a range in their minds and like all the schools on your list. Sometimes you just have to wait and make the decision when the facts are in hand. We’ve very similar to your family and have told our kids about what we would like to spend but have also told them to wait until everything is on the table before they start eliminating schools in their head trying to second guess how everything will turn out.</p>
<p>I don’t see it the same way as mom2collegekids at all. Your parents simply want to wait until all the information is available to them. THEN they will sit down with you to make a decision. It is very possible that your parents will look at your school options in a holistic way (considering lots of factors, not just finances). At this point, they don’t have all the “facts” from the colleges and that is that.</p>
<p>You do have some good options…all of them. Just be patient and see. I would urge you to look at the positive qualities of ALL the schools to which you have applied.</p>
<p>Obviously I agree with Thumper we were probably posting about the same time. Hang in there OP and don’t try to second guess. Yes it’s an eye opener for a student to understand how the finances will play either with a low EFC or with a high EFC, but you don’t know the outcome yet and neither do your parents I think.</p>
<p>I was just basing my opinion on what some others have posted on other threads. Some parents are afraid to state an amount - say $30k per year - because if a good school is $20k and an equal school is $30k, the child might say, “but you said you’d pay $30k per year!”</p>
<p>I may have been reading too much into the OP’s posts, but when she used the word, “frugal,” that often means unwilling to spend more money than is necessary. So, if the UWisconsin is good enough, then that may be what they’re willing to pay. They may have accepted the idea of applying elsewhere, because they thought that their EFC would be about the cost of UW. I also was influenced by the fact that both were teachers and one is now retired. That also suggested to me that they would want to hold onto as much savings as possible, since neither has the income to easily save a lot more money in the near future. </p>
<p>Lastly, I was coming from the perspective that they didn’t believe that their EFC was going to be that high. The OP states that usually people with their income only have to contribute $20k per year. That is in line with UWis costs. </p>
<p>But…I could be totally wrong. The parents may have every intention of spending $180k on their child’s education (their EFC)</p>
<p>Some parents (like us) are frugal BECAUSE we are willing to pay a higher cost for college for our kids. We were frugal and continue to be…because we are paying college bills.</p>
The parents may have every intention of spending $180k on their child’s education (their EFC)</p>