My financial aid got denied this year, please help!

Paying for College
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<p>This might be a tad lengthy but PLEASE bear with me. I really need this. </p>

<p>Last year was the first time I applied for financial aid, and I received a BOG C which was a perfect and modest amount for my full time education. It was pretty much full ride sans book fees and other miscellaneous student fees. This year, I reapplied and they denied me, with an excuse that my parents' adjusted gross income is too high and because I live with my parents. To round it up, it is about 90k combined (without taxes). I also made about 7k that year. </p>

<p>My parents do not pay for my education, and what's more is that even if they DID want to, they wouldn't be able to afford it. Those people just don't understand that after taxes, rent, food, and car payments (my parents work 80 hours a week, and we don't have any fancy cars, my mother and father are forced to drive old lemons because all money goes to feeding the family.) My parents have zero assets, and no savings!
On top of that, they are saying there might have been a mistake in the Adjusted Gross Income box for the application of the prior year I applied, and are trying to suck more money from out of our pockets by asking us to pay the money back if the financial aid I received was under misunderstood circumstances. </p>

<p>Can someone please try to explain this for me? Particularly, the A.G.I portion of the story. I am the one filling out the forms based on my parents' taxes and I still don't understand the idea. </p>

<p>This is utterly ridiculous, especially when I see greedy idiots driving Mercedes Benz and BMW's with Coach purses, while at the same time receiving even more financial aid than my family which I don't get to see because they work so much to feed us. </p>

<p>I am not saying I want more, but the $1000 aid was perfect for me. And I would really like it back.</p>

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<p>Also is there any way to override the dependency status? It doesn’t make sense to be seen as a dependent when my parents do not pay for my education whatsoever. Worse, is that whole family contribution nonsense. They expect a certain amount from my parents, but that is rather difficult because 1. They don’t have that kind of money and 2. I pay for EVERYTHING. I am the one paying for books, classes, fees, etc.</p>

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<p>That’s a tough situation to be in. If you are under a certain age and live at home, I’m not sure what anyone can do about overriding the dependent status. If you’re parents claim you on their taxes also, the schools are simply following the proper and legal procedures. I’m not saying it is always right or there are not exceptions and I wish I knew more to say or how to help. </p>

<p>Sent from my PC36100 using CC App</p>

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<p>First of all, tigergirl is wrong. Dependency for FAFSA and dependency for tax purposes are entirely different things. </p>

<p>If you are under 24, not married, not supporting dependents of your own, not a military veteran and have never been a ward of the state, then you are a dependent for financial aid purposes. It doesn’t matter if you are self supporting or paying for your own education or if your parents do or do not claim you on their taxes. None of that is considered.</p>

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<p>Thanks for clearing that up. Its amazing the information you get out there. I’m an independent student and haven’t been dependent for quite some time now, so its hard to remember. </p>

<p>Sent from my PC36100 using CC App</p>

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<p>As I have posted elsewhere, the fin aid world is nutzo. The college world would fall apart if every 18 to 22 year old could apply for aid based only on their income. The colleges HAVE TO have the parents on the hook to get things to work (work for the colleges that is). </p>

<p>Details matter. Get “Paying for College without going broke” (Princeton Review) and read through it carefully. Then also look carefully at both the FAFSA form and the IRS 1040 form. You have to conquer all the terminology to do your best on the FAFSA. </p>

<p>So, here’s a mini course: Lines 7 to 21 on the 1040 are all the ways your parents got money in the door (summed up on Line 22 = INCOME). Lines 23-35 are all the things that are sheltered from taxes (summed up on line 36 = ADJUSTMENTS). Now we take the INCOME and we subtract out the ADJUSTMENTS and we get ADJUSTED GROSS INCOME (also known as Line 37). </p>

<p>So, the fin aid office is saying there was a mistake somewhere. Either your parents had more income than you said or the adjustments were less than you reported. Either way, something funky happened and they (the college) thinks the ADJUSTED GROSS INCOME was incorrect last year. </p>

<p>The best way to resolve this is to take the 1040 form into the fin aid office and sit down with someone and go through each line until you see where they are concerned. Then you can go from there. </p>

<p>As for the folks driving Mercedes and toting Coach bags, please don’t compare yourself to them. It will just make you bitter. You don’t know what they have done to earn those goodies (sold drugs? shrewd shopping? worked 130 hours a week for years?). Even if they inherited great wealth, it is possible to have lots of goodies and not have parents who love them and are proud of them. (Read the Nanny Diaries to have a stunning look at how barren of love a wealthy kid’s life can be). </p>

<p>I have a Coach bag. I got on ebay for a song! Good luck on the rest.</p>

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<p>*I am not saying I want more, but the $1000 aid was perfect for me. *</p>

<p>You made 7K last year. Go out and make 8K this year to make up the 1K difference. Or take out a modest student loan.</p>

<p>90K is still middle class… why should taxpayers be giving you free money when clearly your parents make enough money, and even more importantly, <em>you</em> are capable of earning enough money to cover that 1K of expenses.</p>

<p>The cutoff has to happen <em>somewhere</em>. Right now I think it is around 80K. </p>

<p>College needs to be paid out of a combination of resources. Your parents’ saved money. Your parent’s current income. Your parent’s future income (loans). YOUR saved money. Your current income. Your future income (loans). Sure, it will be harder if your parents are not willing to dip into saved, current and future monies on your behalf… but they are capable and have been capable of <em>some</em> contributions. They just choose not to. Maybe they (and you) would argue differently… but the system as it is set up now has determined that at 90K, your parents have the ability to be tapping into past, present and future earnings on their behalf. They are not legally obligated (nor in my opinion not even morally obligated) to give you any money.</p>

<p>So why do you think the taxpayers are responsible to cough up cash for you when your own parents, out of their 90K income, won’t? Frankly, there are families who survive on far far less… there are always ways to further economize and your parents have chosen not to doso. There are always Parent Plus loans (though again, I think it is wise that they stay within their means and avoid loans).</p>

<p>*This is utterly ridiculous, especially when I see greedy idiots driving Mercedes Benz and BMW’s with Coach purses, while at the same time receiving even more financial aid than my family which I don’t get to see because they work so much to feed us.
*</p>

<p>These families are NOT receiving BOGs and free monies from the taxpayers pockets if they have family incomes of 90K+. They simply don’t qualify. These students are taking out loans or have received merit scholarships from the colleges.</p>

<p>AGI in the end is just a formula…it allows for a few minor deductions and to arrive at an income number that FAFSA and colleges use to determine income level. If you miscalculated AGI last year and received grant monies you did not qualify for, the government and/or college is well within its rights and likely has a duty to retrieve those monies back. It is taxpayer money–not yours. </p>

<p>If you made a mistake on your income tax forms and got 1K extra back in your tax returns, you bet the IRS would ask for that money back. Same with federally sponsored grant monies. </p>

<p>I certainly agree it is a rough road for middle-class income students to figure out ways to finance a college degree… but if your parents won’t contribute, it doesn’t mean it is now the taxpayers’ responsibility to pay for it.</p>

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<p>Hey everyone, thank you for the useful info, and thank you for clearing some stuff up for me. Please keep them coming. I am new to this game :(</p>

<p>@annikasorensen:</p>

<p>This has always been a concern of mine, how people perceive that tax bracket. The one thing most people don’t understand is that even 100k a year is worth absolutely nothing these days especially when you’ve got a family. BASIC rent, food, car, other payments, and lest we forget, the insane taxes for that bracket. How do they expect to draw the line at 80k? And on top of that, they keep raising tuition every year. It is insanity what the government is doing to us.
In fact, I somehow believe that you are better off making half that because of the tax breaks you receive as a part of that bracket.<br>
The other thing is that they practically support their parents overseas, so savings is out of the question. My parents don’t even have any assets.</p>

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<p>An income of $90,000 puts your family in the upper 20 percent of all American households. That means 80 percent of families would love to trade places with you right now.</p>

<p>If “100k a year is worth absolutely nothing,” then I know a lot of people who could use that “nothing” to make better lives for their families.</p>

<p>My parents are in that $90-100,000 income bracket now. When I was in grade school, we lived off my mom’s $30,000 per year job as a produce buyer. Let me tell you something straight up, from someone who’s lived both ways: Your family would not be “better off” with less money. Not now, not ever, not even close.</p>

<p>I hope your family doesn’t run into financial catastrophe and end up having to live on much less money… but if it does, you might learn something about real life.</p>

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<p>^note that not all families send their kids to colleges, especially more so on the lower income brackets.</p>

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<p>This thread seriously needs context.</p>

<p>The OP is talking about a Board of Governors’ fee waiver for California community college fees, which are a stunning $26 per credit. So he/she is flipping out over having to pay a whopping $390 per 15-credit semester. Anyone else, anywhere else, pays that much for a single class. If a family making $90,000 can’t afford $390 per semester, I seriously question their budgeting.</p>

<p>The Board of Governors’ C fee waiver is based strictly on FAFSA EFC. Either his family made more money this year, or the colleges had to reduce the EFC eligibility level because of reduced state funding for financial aid.</p>

<p>Now, back when I was in community college in California, community college was $11 per unit. I think they should stay super-cheap. But the cost has gone up because California has a massive budget crisis. The state is spending too much on prisons and isn’t raising enough in taxes. </p>

<p>But the OP is whining about paying “insane” taxes… then whining about not getting tax-funded financial aid to attend already-heavily-tax-subsidized public colleges.</p>

<p>Hello, McFly, that does not compute. You can’t have it both ways. Those allegedly-“insane” taxes are what enables California to have ridiculously-cheap community colleges in the first place, much less give fee waivers to families making 80th-percentile incomes.</p>

<p>If you think community colleges should be cheaper, I’m with you. Join the demonstrations in Sacramento. Write your legislator and ask for higher taxes and less spending on prisons. Wait, you’re “Taxed Enough Already?” Well then, where do you expect the funding to come from for publicly-subsidized colleges? The money fairy?</p>

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<p>Do you seriously mean to tell us that in California, people who make $80K per year actually get full rides to community colleges, which are already virtually free? And then have the brass b***s to complain that their taxes are too high? </p>

<p>No wonder your state is broke.</p>

<p>And I thought we here in Illinois had problems caused by our own greed. </p>

<p>(Of course, we send our ex-govs to prison, while yours just go to divorce court. But that’s a different thread.) </p>

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<p>Yes, California has a population entirely divorced from financial reality. We wanted world-class schools and colleges, life prison terms for people who steal a carton of cigarettes and zillions of miles of freeway. But oh, God forbid you raise taxes to pay for all that stuff we want. Just use the magic money fairy.</p>

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<p>Our local CC just raised tuition to $83/hour. AFAIK, the only FA they offer is federal, for those who qualify. I have NEVER heard a complaint about the cost, and I know a lot of people from our depressed, rural community who have gone there. Most of the young kids who go there work PT to pay for it. </p>

<p>A little back-of-the-envelope math says that the OP would have to work about two hours per week at a minimum-wage job to pay the complete cost of tuition. Might also teach a much-needed lesson in humility. </p>

<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using CC App</p>

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<p>*I am not saying I want more, but the $1000 aid was perfect for me. </p>

<p>====================</p>

<p>You made 7K last year. Go out and make 8K this year to make up the 1K difference. Or take out a modest student loan.</p>

<p>*</p>

<p>any student who can earn $7k in one year should be EXPECTED to pay a couple thousand towards college costs…at LEAST.</p>

<p>California is going broke because of its crazy policies. any Calif family who earns less than $80k gets free tuition/fees to a UC…the tuition/fees are about $11k per year. No wonder the state is going broke with policies like this.</p>

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<p>I think people are being a little hard on EventHorizon and while polarscribe is a voice of reason in general, I also think you’re forgetting how expensive it is to live in California. 90K a year as a family income in California is peanuts - its nothing. I can absolutely see how EventHorizon’s family is probably barely making it. Housing is at least 3 times the cost of housing in the midwest. Gas is more (and you drive much further nearly everywhere). Food is more. Car insurance, house insurance, all more. Everything is more. 90K a year in Bloomington, IN, on the other hand, is a small fortune. And I don’t pull this out of thin air. I am from Indiana originally and lived in Bloomington for about 3 years. I’ve lived in California 10 years now. If polar lived in both places then he/she should know it too, but I think wanted to make a point. But let’s be fair, we are not comparing apples to apples when we talk about 90K in vastly different parts of the country. I think that’s part of the problem with some of the methods that FAFSA uses. It does not take into consideration what 90K gets you in any particular part of the country. Parents clearly do not have the same expendable income just because they make the same amount of money. And telling people living in CA or some other more expensive state that it is a choice or something equally ridiculous is not really a viable option. Uprooting families and telling them to move is not the answer. With that said, Event would maybe have more empathy if he/she was talking about a 4-year college. I agree that you should be able to come up with the money for the community college, even if you have to take out a small personal loan. Show that you have something invested in your own education.</p>

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<p>I live in CA, so I understand that 90K doesn’t go far. But CA is broke. The taxpayers can’t keep offering these rather (over) generous full tuition rides to as many families as it does currently. I maintain that the cut-off for these funds have to happen somewhere… we simply can not raise the cut-off line to be so high as those that are just over it (who are denied the free monies) won’t feel the sting.</p>

<p>The student has the option of taking a semester or year off to work fulltime as well. This is just the new financial realities in CA and everywhere.</p>

<p>The kid is about 1K short. That is less than $100 a month, which can be found with a variety of side jobs or really kicking it up an extra notch over the summer.</p>

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<p>I made ~4k this summer and saved about 1k for school, while paying for car, rent, food, etc. OP, where did that 7k go? You should have more than enough for a cc.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>California median family income, 2008, U.S. Census Bureau:</p>

<p>1-person family: $46,814
2-person family: $61,742
3-person family: $66,611
4-person family: $76,931</p>

<p>[USDOJ:</a> U.S. Trustee Program » Means Testing](<a href=“http://www.justice.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/20080317/bci_data/median_income_table.htm]USDOJ:”>USDOJ: U.S. Trustee Program » Means Testing)</p>

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<p>Here is the situation with colleges. Your parents are on the hook for the costs just as they are for high school. The difference is that there is an outside charge for even community college. If you and your family make too much money to qualify for the BOG money, you can borrow Stafford funds to go to school. </p>

<p>For those families that are truly low income by federal definitions, PELL monies would kick in, but you are over that thresh hold.</p>

<p>I am not judging whether the family NEEDS the aid or not. It doesn’t matter. The thresh holds are in place, and if the OP is over, than s/he is over and has to borrow. What anyone’s opinion is about where the line should be drawn does not matter for right now. It is drawn. If someone does not qualify because income/assets are over that line, s/he has to look for other resources.</p>