I know this is hard to hear, but in cases where the non-custodial parent have been paying child support, it is difficult to get a non-custodial waiver. You can try as thumper and kelsmom said, but fundamentally schools expect parents to pay for college…and based on the difference between FAFSA and CSS profile EFC, it looks like your ex has money that could be used to pay for college (that’s how the colleges see it). If colleges let parents shirk this responsibility, everyone would try to get out of it. I am glad that your child has some affordable acceptances, not all kids in this situation do, sadly.
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Thank you for sharing all this knowledge! I have a question about appealing for more merit/talent scholarships (music student). Just getting ahead of myself here, because we don’t have complete offers yet, but I’m curious.
I’ve heard a lot about asking for more by showing School A a better offer from School B. What I don’t understand is how a better offer is defined. A scholarship of $25,000 at a 77K school is not really a better offer than a $20,000 scholarship at a 45K school. Is it more like, the COA you’re offering me is 30K. This other school offered me a COA of 25?
We’re looking seriously at one public university and two privates, and I can’t imagine how we’d make any comparison, even though at the public university a scholarship of just $1,000 brings us down to a relatively low COA.
When I was a financial aid director, I used net cost comparisons. If a $70,000 COA school offers a $30,000 scholarship, the net cost is $40,000. If a $35,000 COA school offers a $20,000 scholarship, the net cost is $15,000.
You couldn’t ask for a $40,000 scholarship at the $35,000 school. The $15,000 net cost of this school may very well be within your budget, and there may be no need to ask for an increase in merit. Sure, they offered less than the other school, but it ends up costing much less. It’s not the size of the scholarship that matters … it’s the net cost of the school after subtracting the aid from the cost of attendance.
On the other hand, to get the net cost of the $70,000 school to match the net cost of the $35,000 school, the $30,000 scholarship would have to be increased to $55,000. That’s a huge increase, and while you could ask for that, it’s probably not going to happen.
Your ask to the more expensive school would need to be more realistic. You’d need to decide what you are willing to pay for the $70,000 school. Once you determine that, you can approach the financial aid office to say that while you would really like to say yes, it’s just too expensive … especially when you have a school that has a net cost of $15,000. You can tell them that you understand that they may not be able to match that, you would be able to handle a net cost of (however much you actually would be willing to pay to attend that school). If they say yes, that’s awesome. If they say no, you have an affordable option.
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Thank you. This makes sense.
Merit/talent scholarships for music students is based on the audition the student presents relative to other students auditioning on the same instrument at the same college.
Really…if your music student gets a music scholarship to Juilliard playing trumpet, and gets a lesser scholarship at New England Conservatory….it won’t matter…because the scholarship at Juilliard was for Juilliard auditioned students, and the audition for NEC students was for NEC students.
It is highly unlikely that you will get an increase in music talent scholarships by presenting an offer from another college.
NOW having said all that, if a college is your musicians top choice, and you are prepared to commit to the school if you receive a little more money, it’s OK for your student to inquire whether there is any additional talent aid available for him. Some schools will offer an admitted student they want some additional funds. Some won’t.
But comparing offers for talent awards from school to school…in my experience…that just doesn’t happen.
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I see what you’re saying and agree, but I also know that some schools have increased by a few thousand, based on what I’ve learned on the music major threads. A couple of schools we’re looking at will combine merit and talent and make one offer.
@BeverlyWest as I said…some colleges will off additional aid to music majors…but in my opinion, this will not be based on a comparison of aid from another college music studio offer. It will be because some colleges desire to have you student attend, and up the offers as the admissions season goes on.
I don’t believe there are many times when comparing the offer other schools give will help…and especially as you noted…where the bottom line cost of attendance varies.
My kid received a number of offer increases before May 1. They were from less competitive studios for which he auditioned…and they were not solicited at all by us or him. In all cases, these were situations where he had an early acceptance. My guess is as the audition season progressed, he became a candidate they wanted to attract.
But asking surely can’t cause any harm.
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Sorry just seeing this. And yes, of course!
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Hello I have a question about untaxed income. When my husband’s mother passed away, he received a distribution of principal from a life insurance annuity she had owned and named him as beneficiary. It was reported on box 5a of our return and is documented on form 1099R with code 4D. This is not a rollover (he just received the money, did not transfer it to a new annuity), but it doesn’t seem like it should be considered as income for Fafsa / CSS as it is a one-time inheritance (assets yes - that makes sense). According to the net price calculator for my son’s school, this consideration makes the difference between getting about $10K in need-based aid and zero for us. I called Fafsa and was told not to report it as income, but the only way to remove the 5a amount from consideration is to say it was a rollover. Do you know how a death benefit like this is typically considered and how I should report it? Thank you.
@BelknapPoint perhaps can answer.
I received an inherited IRA when my parent died. The withdrawals from that are most definitely included…and taxed (just did my taxes today…).
I can’t imagine that you can just poof this asset away.
IIRC…that 1099R indicates a retirement distribution. @BelknapPoint am I wrong?
You have to report it, but you can contact the school to find out how to do a special circumstances review. Schools can use professional judgment in a case like this, removing the income. Each school has its own policies, and there’s no guarantee a particular school will remove it. However, when I worked in financial aid, the schools where I worked would remove the amount from income (counting it in assets). That is assuming you’ll cash it in now, though. If it’s an annuity that will pay out each year for a number of years, it may very well be left in income. A lot depends on the specifics, and as I said, each school will look at it & decide how to handle it.
So @212325 if this money is still in your possession…it’s considered an asset.
I did edit to add a caveat. My initial response assumed it was going to be liquidated. If it’s not, though, the answer isn’t quite so straightforward. The school can look at the details & decide how they’ll handle it.
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Poster wrote this…which leads me to believe he is not taking annual distributions.
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Thank you so much - that gives me hope that they could look at the specifics and then count it as an asset instead of income. It sounds like I should report it and then ask for a review. Yes, it was distributed to him as a lump sum and is now part of our assets. I have no issue with that and am not trying to disappear it from our assets. But counting it as income does not seem right - if it had been a direct, non-annuity cash inheritance, i believe it would not have generated the 1099 we had to report in box 5a and would not register as income.
In this case, probably, because it sounds like it’s not a retirement payment per se, even though it’s reported on a 1099-R. If 212325’s husband received a distribution from an annuitized life insurance policy, that would likely be reported on a 1099-R. With each annuity payment, a portion would be non-taxable payment of the death benefit with that annual total reported on line 5a of the tax return, and a portion would be taxable interest earned, with that annual total reported on line 5b of the tax return.
kelsmom is the person to listen to on how the non-taxable death benefit payments are treated for FAFSA and institutional need-based aid.
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My husband was named the beneficiary of his mother’s life insurance-based annuity. This was a one-time payout of principal to him upon her death - similar to when a beneficiary is named on any type of bank account. There was a little bit of taxable interest income as part of the payout, but the bulk was a distribution of untaxed principal, which had initially been invested by his mother as an income generating investment for herself. It just seems like a very specific situation that eludes Fafsa definitions.
One more follow up for clarity: yes, the annuity principal was fully liquidated upon distribution to my husband. It is now in a regular savings account.
Yes, this will most likely be removed from income by the school. I can’t promise that it will, because professional judgment is just that … judgment … and policies can vary by school. But in my opinion as a former financial aid director, it makes sense to remove it from income & count in assets.
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Hi @kelsmom: I thought I would ask a question here regarding financial aid and loss of income in two-income family. The question is, is there an optimum time at which loss of income should be reported to T20 schools where RD decisions are still pending. Is it at all possible that the “need” component is ever a factor in admissions decision? Alternatively, once a portfolio of attractive candidates is available to AOs, do colleges suddenly become need-aware? Secondly, at what time is it too late to report the loss of income of one parent, before the school term begins and first semester fees for fall term is due?