<p>Tell the truth. Whether that means waiting to file or taking the money out of the bank, you must accurately disclose how much is in the bank.</p>
<p>Taking the money out of the bank makes no difference. You are required to report cash in hand as well.</p>
<p>What kind of schools are you applying to? </p>
<p>What state are you in?</p>
<p>The reason I ask is because all of this crazyness is probably for naught because your mom’s income (which will get pulled from the IRS) is probably already too high for aid at 99% of schools…especially since it sounds like you’re not applying to CSS Profile schools. </p>
<p>For example…run the NPC on your schools’ websites w/o any assets…just put in your mom’s real income…and see what spits out. If you get no free money, then her assets won’t matter anyway.</p>
<p>As for the child support…since she’s not declaring it on taxes, I’m not sure if that will get caught. And, if “ordered child support” ends at 18, but dad continues to pay to go towards college, I’m not sure if that can’t be considered a “gift” to your mom at that point.</p>
<p>“And if you get chosen for verification you will have to send in bank acct statements as of the day you file. They have to exactly match what you put on the FAFSA form for account balances. And forget about leaving out an account. Any account left out will be caught by your mothers social security number.”</p>
<p>First, really, really rude to correct someone’s spelling in a forum such as this…</p>
<p>Do you know this information to be fact? There is no way that someone, especially with extensive accounts and investments can produce statements that will exactly verify an amount reported on a certain day. Statements are issued monthly, or quarterly even, and money goes in and out of accounts on a daily basis, stock values change minute to minute, etc. I think you are being a bit of an alarmist. Also, bank accounts aren’t even a part of the standard verification process, are they? Link? And SSN are being searched for accounts? Link?</p>
<p>planner03 -</p>
<p>If you have electronic access to your various accounts, it is a matter of minutes to check the exact balance on any given day.</p>
<p>Wait, who corrected spelling, planner03?</p>
<p>We were asked to provide bank statements by one college in their verification process. And oddly, our kid had not received a nickel of need based aid.</p>
<p>cmgrayson-This:" Your mother is not asking you to be deceitful (i before e except after c)" Totally unnecessary…</p>
<p>Thumper, yes, I know that the college can ask for whatever additional info they seem fit but I was saying that it is not part of the standard FAFSA verification guidelines, nor most colleges standard verification form. And searching for every person’s holdings by SSN? I don’t believe this to be a standard practice either, and would like a link representing that it occurs at all because it really surprises me if it is true. The OP is coming here, nervous and looking for advice and I don’t think that spelling corrections and scare tactics are helpful.<br>
happymom,
yes I am aware that I can obtain real time balances, but I am not going to be able to produce statements reflecting those EXACT figures when asked 6 months later, and to imply that they must be EXACT is incorrect; glaring discrepancies would require an explanation.</p>
<p>OP
Best to just wait until the money is officially out of her account and the actual tax return is filed and then you will know everything is accurate and you won’t have to worry.</p>
<p>planner03 -</p>
<p>How big a discrepancy would need to be to set off alarms at any given college/university financial aid office is something I can’t begin to know. However, I do know that you can get the precise numbers 6 months later. The financial institutions can look that up for you, or you can check the historical value of a stock/mutual fund online. But if you have a printer attached to your computer, it shouldn’t be hard to print out the balance information on the date you look it up, and then file that in a readily accessible location. I did that every single year that I filed the FAFSA.</p>
<p>Due to an unfortunate family situation my mom has decided to postpone the purchase of the house. Me asking her to reconsider is out of the question. I live in Illinois if that is any help. My stats are mediocre</p>
<p>I applied to Depauw, UIC, Knox, Rochester Institute of Techology, Denison, Wooster, Beloit, University of Maryland-Baltimore County, and New College of Florida. I know that this list mostly consists of reach schools. Some of these school’s offer decent FA so that’s why I applied. I want to major in Chemistry or Biology on a pre-med track. I’m in my high school’s Alpha honors program which is more advanced than honors but less advanced than IB. I had a really rough freshman year. It was partly due to the difficult grading scale coupled with rigor of my classes but mostly due to me dealing with stuff at home. </p>
<p>3.9 Weighted GPA, 2.99 Unweighted
Ranked 350 out of 1,000
Co-founder of student group in Chicago that fights against school closures in poor communities of color.
JV Womens Lacrosse player 2012-2013.
Varsity Womens Lacrosse 2013-2014
GEMS member 2011-2014.
Lane Tech’s Girls Engineering Math and Science (GEMS) is a program that assists girls entering the fields of math, science, and engineering.
Guitar Teacher 2013-2014 I give guitar lessons to my blind grandfather.
FIRST FTC and FRC Robotics Captain 2013-2014. Last year my robotics team were Rookie of the Year All Stars and World Champions.
Amnesty International member 2010-2014
President of Amnesty International 2012-2014
Acted as a caretaker for an ailing elderly 97 year old woman over the summer.
Member of the Alpha Program 2010-2014
Science Fair mentor and judge 2010-2014
In total I have taken 6 AP classes and have gotten at least a three’s on all of them.
My letter of reccommendations are great. I got them from my AP English teacher who was a member of the organization I co-founded, my robotics teacher/coach who loves me, and my Speech teacher who I am really close with. </p>
<p>I am a self taught guitarist of three years. I wrote my common app essay about teaching my blind grandfather how to play the guitar. When SLU notified me of my acceptance and scholarship they seemed rather impressed by it. Besides the schools I’ve listed I’m also waiting to hear back from Howard, University of North Carolina-Asheville, SIUC (unfortunately), and Ramapo College of New Jersey.</p>
<p>So far I’ve been accepted to:
SLU with a 16,000 scholarship I can possibly get a 3,000 MLK scholarship
Mizzou with a 14,000 diversity scholarship
Minot State University Honors
NIU
North Park</p>
<p>I’m obviously going to the school that gives me the most money. While the 16,000 Dean’s scholarship from SLU is generous it is still, sadly out of our price range. If I can get into New College of Florida I will most likely go there because of the wonderful academics and affordable COA. UIC is my last resort. If I attend UIC I can commute from home.</p>
<p>Does anyone know of any other schools that give a lot of FA?</p>
<p>Did you try one of the estimator links I posted? It doesn’t look like the money is going to make any difference in your EFC based on the numbers I ran.</p>
<p>Wooster and Depauw were generous to my S (basically would have cost R&B and the basic Stafford loans) and his stats were similar to yours (you didn’t post SAT/ACT scores tho). He actually got better offers from Adrian in MI and Capital in Cols. I hear Denison is great too if they want you (S was waitlisted there). None required the CSS Profile, which is nice, but DP and Woo do have their own (brief) forms in addition to FAFSA, or did in 2012.</p>
<p>Your list looks well balanced and you have academic and financial safeties. Fill out the FAFSA truthfully and best of luck to you!</p>
<p>I read this post the other day and it has stayed with me. Shame on both your parents! I am also divorced and sending two kids to school next year. I also had to payout huge sums of money to my ex who makes a lot less than me. I know he won’t pay a dime for college and have decided to let it go. Healthier for me and the kids. I refuse to spend more money on lawyers. I will just bite the bullet and live on a shoe string budget. I grew up poor so going without for myself is something I am familiar with. I just don’t understand the men of my generation. So many of them are deadbeats. I am not saying all of them but quite a few as compared to my parents generation. Your story is all so familiar. I am seeing it with my kids friends too. In the end…DON’T lie. You will sleep better at night. It is my pleasure to help my kids soar to their highest. It is why I had kids. I don’t need the material things. It is their time!</p>
<p>You should file the FAFSA based on your current income and assets. If you mother’s assets change significantly you can go back and update your FAFSA.</p>
<p>
No. The assets are supposed to be a snapshot at the time of the initial date of filing. You are not supposed to change the assets even if they change later (in either direction). </p>
<p>Income must be changed if the initial figures are estimates. Assets must not be changed unless there was an error in the amount reported. Changing assets will almost certainly trigger verification and you would have to prove the assets were different on the date FAFSA was filed.</p>
<p>I have a 26 ACT. I did the EFC calculation and it came out to 4900 which will mostly be covered by my dad’s child support. At the beginning of the application process my mom told me she would support me, “in anyway possible.” I knew that wasn’t going to be a lot so I did my due diligence and made sure I applied to cost appropiate schools. Now that we are approaching the end of the process she is considering backing out of this arrangement. This obviously really worries me. I did a net price calculation for Knox and it came out to 15,000 even after I take out things like stafford loans. I still can’t afford that. I will look into Capital and Adrian. Thanks for the suggestion.</p>
<p>Zinc…that EFC will only be your cost if you are applying to colleges that meet full need for ALL students. If the colleges don’t meet full need, that EFC is the MINIMUM you will be paying. With your ACT score, getting accepted to one of those highly competitive and generous schools will be a challenge.</p>
<p>Mepbell, you are wrong. The assets are as of the initial FAFSA filing. The assets are NOT updated if they change.</p>
<p>I would not worry about money in savings that will likely be spent within the year. You would simply redo the FAFSA when the money is gone to say it is gone and have the financial aid office redo the financial aid. That would be silly! And a waste of time.</p>
<p>Hey also look through here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16451378-post300.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16451378-post300.html</a> - the 26ACT and weighted GPA do qualify you for a couple of automatic full tuition/ride scholarships and it may not be too late to apply if any look better to you than your current safety in IL.</p>