<p>Hi, all, you guys seem pretty knowledgeable about the ins and outs of financial aid.</p>
<p>Here's the picture: We had the "brilliant" idea (can't overemphasize the irony here) of selling our house during the peak of the housing market, but the market in our town did not fall as much as we believed it would. So we ended up buying a very nice house several years later in an outlying rural area as a safety. We rent in the original town so our daughter can continue to go to school in the district she grew up in, and rent out the safety house. Needless to say, this impacts our FAFSA something fierce.</p>
<p>So here's the question: Son got into a very good school that offered a financial aid pkg that we can afford. Do you think we have to alter our living conditions when daughter applies to college. We can afford the same for her, and I figure our EFC for both will go down at least slightly. Note: she has better stats than his, but she's a girl :). What would you guys do?</p>
<p>she has better stats than his, but she’s a girl</p>
<p>??? What does that mean?</p>
<p>It’s been well-documented in articles that the well-rounded, high-stats white girl is at a disadvantage in the current college admissions atmosphere. So colleges may not be willing to give as much merit aid to my daughter as they would to my son. (Although the difference in their stats might just be a leveling factor.) I’m only guessing, who knows what each individual college may do? I am of the female persuasion myself, and merely trying to assess things realistically.</p>
<p>Well if you’re talking about merit aid, then your FAFSA is irrelevant.</p>
<p>LACs and other girl heavy schools may give boys better merit, but I’ve never heard of other schools doing so.</p>
<p>The NPCs don’t usually ask gender when providing need based aid info.</p>
<p>Congratulations on getting a great financial aid package for your son! WHen your DD applies for college and if you are going to have 2 in college your FAFSA EFC will be about half. The difference will be whatever income and assets each of the kids have that are individually calculated. The parental EFC will be halved for them. However, unless your kids are BOTH going to schools that meet 100% of need and if their methods of calculating need is favorable to you, there is no assurance of what your DD will get and whether your DS will get more in in aid. </p>
<p>The house could figure largely in your need figure if you have some net income from the rent coming from it, since income is hit up very hard in the financial aid calculations. If the house has no mortgage or has some nice equity in it, yes, it will be a factor in what aid you will get. </p>
<p>As you noted, there are schools that are looking for males and will “pay” more for them than females. But there are also LACs out there that are far more favorable for females, such as Smith, Holyoke, Bryn Mawr. So it’s all about what schools you choose.</p>
<p>* Son got into a very good school that offered a financial aid pkg that we can afford. Do you think we have to alter our living conditions when daughter applies to college. We can afford the same for her, and I figure our EFC for both will go down at least slightly. *</p>
<p>Did your son get merit scholarships or need-based aid or a mix of both?
Does his school use CSS Profile?<br>
Does his school promise to meet need?
Does he go to an elite school like HYPS that gives super aid?</p>
<p>Will your D be applying to schools that meet need?
Will your D’s schools use CSS Profile?
Your FAFSA EFC may not matter if the schools use CSS Profile. </p>
<p>If you’re looking for merit scholarships, then that’s a different situation. </p>
<p>Are you considering moving back into the house? If so, won’t you have to do that during senior year so that you’re living there when you file FAFSA (and CSS if needed)???</p>
<p>“Are you considering moving back into the house? If so, won’t you have to do that during senior year so that you’re living there when you file FAFSA (and CSS if needed)???”</p>
<p>Yes, I guess I’m trying to determine whether this move will be desirable/necessary. Daughter seems willing to drive herself to school, both school districts say it’s OK for her to attend her old school, but I have a sneaking fear that it will destroy her senior year.</p>
<p>Putting this down into words helps to clarify it. Since we managed all right with the first kid I’m not going to hurt the second one by forcing her to commute her entire senior year.</p>
<p>As you are often pointing out in other threads, cpt and mom2, the key will be some solid financial safeties that she wouldn’t mind attending. I’ll go look for those and start pushing them…</p>
<p>I don’t think you’d have to live in the house her entire senior year. Just at the point of filing FAFSA (I think that would be the case.) So, if you moved on Feb 1st and filed for aid right after, then she would only have to drive a few months. </p>
<p>And, if she has a friend who’d let her spend Sunday thru Thursday nights in the school area, that would relieve the drive as well. </p>
<p>Yes…look for safeties as back ups. If she has high stats, that would be easy to do.</p>
<p>“I don’t think you’d have to live in the house her entire senior year. Just at the point of filing FAFSA (I think that would be the case.) So, if you moved on Feb 1st and filed for aid right after, then she would only have to drive a few months.”</p>
<p>i didn’t think of that, mom2. i kept thinking that we’d have to live there in 2013 for consideration for FA for fall 2014 (since we would be submitting taxes for 2013 as evidence). but moving in feb may make it more doable. but won’t it look weird to have a tax form listing one home address and a fafsa listing another?</p>
<p>No. People move all of the time. Even if it looks weird, so what? It’s perfectly legal.</p>
<p>You can look more carefully at the aid/merit possibilities of the schools your DD likes by that time and decide if it’s even worth doing the move. THere is a cost associated to moving as well, so it isn’t something to do unless there is substantial value in doing so.</p>
<p>However, if you are getting rental income from that house, as I mentioned before, unless you can write it off, it will be hit very hard toward financial assessment. Income is always hit harder than assets for the parents. And that is something that has to be reported for the year before.</p>