Older Parents = Higher EFC ?

Paying for College
1

<p>Sometimes weird thoughts pop into my head . . . and I'm usually not very good about communicating my convoluted thoughts, but I'm going to take a stab at it.</p>

<p>As we are in the middle of oldest son making a decision about college, it occurred to me . . . what if we had children in our early 20's instead of early 30's? My son would have been entering college 10 years ago . . . when our income was less than 1/2 of what it is now (100,000). I'm thinking about the difference in EFC.</p>

<p>If the age of parents starting their family has moved upward, how has this financially affected families financing of college? If you have a child when your younger, you pay less for your child's education as your income and assets are usually lower when your younger? The older you are, the more $ you pay for child's education . . . until you reach retirement . . . or maybe into retirement?</p>

<p>As I'm do not do well at this type of reasoning, I may be way off base. Anyone have thoughts?</p>

2

<p>Yes, I did that calculation, too. If we had S in our early mid 20's instead of in our 30's, we probably would have qualified for some need based financial aid. Our income increased alot about three years ago....great timing, I know...go figure.</p>

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<p>It can work the other way. You do get more asset protection as you get older. My husband is 65 so our FAFSA asset protection is $75,000. And he is retired so our income is pretty low. For us a kid in college 10 years ago would have meant less financial aid than we get now. </p>

<p>So if you are really really really old like us it works the other way ;)</p>

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<p>Well...colleges also cost less about 10 years ago. At both of my kids' schools the cost of attendance now is over $40,000 a year. Ten years ago it was LESS than $30,000 a year.</p>