Thanks for the reply - our efc was under 9k so it still leaves us with 30k in tuition - that’s what doesn’t make sense. How they leave you with 30k to pay when your efc is 8900. And only offer 7k in aid over the scholarship…not closing the gap any. Hoping its just Providence College any other colleges will offer us a better package of aid & merit.
Unfortunately, many colleges do gap. The EFC is only a scale of what you can get in federal aid (Pell grants, loans), not really what you are expected to pay. They are now changing the term EFC because many people were confused.
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Providence College uses the information on the CSS Profile to determine need based aid based on their proprietary formula. About 100 or so colleges meet full need using CSS Profile. Few (maybe no?) colleges meet full need based on FAFSA EFC. Most colleges gap students. It’s good you have been checking NPCs…but important to also know how colleges treat merit and/or outside scholarships. Some colleges do stack financial awards, you have to go to each website to find out their policies.
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Providence College does not guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students.
Did you think you were going to get $37,000 in need based aid and $30,000 in merit aid? It sounds like that merit award reduced your need…and Providence gave you the total aid but now mostly in merit aid…$30,000 or so in merit aid and $7000 in need based. Right?
Figured the aid would be reduced - but not by the full amount. It’s really a kick in the gut for a kid who worked their butt off for 4 years - they are getting little benefit from their accomplishments when they would of gotten the money in need-based aid anyway. First time through, so still learning all this stuff.
This is something I think many people don’t understand. Schools have a limited amount of money to go around. They have to have policies for awarding aid that allow them to benefit the most students in a way that they believe will maximize their yield. Providence explains its policies here: https://financial-aid.providence.edu/policies-and-procedures/awarding-of-aid/. I assume their internal policies were followed, and your child received a package that contained a combination of aid totaling the financial aid that the NPC estimated they would receive.
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There is a big learning curve. I assume Providence is not affordable based on current numbers. Does you D have an affordable safety? I encourage you to start a new thread if you need assistance sorting thru things, and potentially identifying schools she could still apply to.
Yes - we applied to 9 schools with a range of state to ivy’s. If she’s lucky enough to get into them- 3 of her schools are no-loan schools that guarantee to meet full demonstrated need. Thanks for taking the time to reply to me.
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For schools that are need-aware:
If you apply for need-based aid and the school concludes that you don’t qualify for any need-based aid at all, are you just as “desirable” to the school as someone who didn’t apply for aid at all?
Some colleges at least will replace student loans, student work expectations or work study, and unmet need* first when merit scholarships are given, before reducing other financial aid grants. But not all colleges do that. Policy can vary by college, and is often not stated on the college’s web site.
*Of course, “need” as determined by the college.
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My current college student has a full tuition + fees merit scholarship. My employer offers a tuition benefit and includes that in my W-2. My employer sends check directly to kid’s college. In prior years in Turbotax, I entered all the info from the school’s 1098-T, and answered “yes” to the question “is this amount included in a W-2”. We did pay taxes on that amount. On Turbotax in these prior years no mention of child also filing (child has no other income either).
This year as I am completing Turbotax, it says that child will need to file an independent 1040 and include the taxable part (room/board) of the “scholarship/benefit/grant”. Okay. So when we start entering 1098-T info on child’s return it again asks “is this amount included in a W-2”. It is included in my W-2 but not my child’s (and child has no other income). Turbotax also asks if student received any “employer-provided assistance”. The answer is yes and no. Yes from parent’s employer but no for student’s employer. So I’m not really sure what to do here.
Also this year child will have a 529 payout for qualified expenses. I was the “recipient”. Not sure now if this goes on child’s 1040 or mine (though there should be no tax penalty).
Can anyone advise here? Thanks.
I am not qualified to provide tax advice. The only thing I can say for sure is that your D would not answer yes to the benefit being from an employer, since it wasn’t her employer. Beyond that, I will leave it to those who know tax rules better than I to answer your questions, if they can.
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Hello! What would happen if my gift aid exceeds the cost of the tuition? For instance, if the tuition is $10,000 and the gift aid is $15,000, would you get disbursement of the money? In my situation, the school provides full-tuition but the grants give me the additional 5,000. Any help would be great! Thank you!
It depends on the schools and the terms of the awards. Some awards are for tuition only, or r&b only, and if those amounts are paid through another source, then you don’t get a payment to you. If the awards are for ‘anything’ then you probably would get paid the excess.
At daughter’s school, the school did not pay out their own money to anyone. Most of the awards could be used to pay anything on the bill (except health insurance because that was actual money paid to an outside vendor) but none of the school’s money was paid out. For the last two years there was money ‘wasted’ as her awards were more than tuition. At least one grant that came from ‘outside’ was limited to tuition only so they used that one first.
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If the entire $15,000 is from the school, you may end up receiving a refund. My D received refunds from her institutional aid, which she used for rent and food. Be sure to keep some aside to cover taxes, which you might owe on the amount that exceeds tuition & allowable fees/costs.
Sometimes, though, institutional funds are decreased to the amount of tuition. For example, I worked at a school with full tuition awards. A student might qualify for a Pell grant, but that was not stacked on top of the full tuition award. Instead, the institutional portion of the award was reduced so that total aid was limited to tuition. This is not the case at all schools, though. Want to know for sure? Ask the school. You’ll be glad to know for sure.
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What if you have someone (My husband) who is the one who’s been working in the US, (we live in a Canadian border town) which is our sole income other than the non-taxable child benefits the government gives, do you just fill out what is on husbands W2? 59K income USD.
EFC on most NPCs are 0-5K dollars. (Do not own a home, have 401K (15K), no business or dividends. Son has a paper route of about $400/year.
Does your H complete a U.S. federal tax return? If so, use that information … and include the child benefits as untaxed income in the parent section.
Yes, every year he has to do taxes for both countries, I also am listed on his tax returns as I also have a green card and SSN via Jay Treaty. Thank you for the advice. We are taking a good look at Bowdoin, Denison and Middlebury, and I just saw that some benefits they get at these colleges are taxable? Is this correct? How does that work?
Does he list the same income on both the US and CDN returns? If so, you should use the information from the US return ( see page AVG-18, https://fsapartners.ed.gov/sites/default/files/attachments/2021-02/2122FSAHbkAVGCh2.pdf). I am assuming no additional CDN income (other than the child benefits).
You might want to reach out to one of the schools your S is applying to. They will probably be more helpful than I can be, because they will ask questions based on your personal information (something we don’t want to dig into too much on this forum). I have personal experience with Denison’s aid office, and they were very helpful. I am sure either of the other two schools would also be very helpful.
For US taxes, only the amount of grants/scholarships received in excess of tuition and qualified fees is taxable. Scholarships for room & board are taxable.
The taxable scholarship amount is to the student, not the parents. If your son receives scholarship amounts in excess of the tuition and other qualified fees and books, HE will declare them and pay the taxes on them, not you. If his only income is the room and board and $400 from a paper route, he may not owe anything on the scholarship but it will depend on his total income, earned and unearned.
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