Do schools typically take in account a parent’s age when putting together financial packages? I have used the NPC at a couple of schools and the EFC either doesn’t change or a slight change when changing older parent’s age from 61 to 41.
My husband is age 62 and I’m 50. We have five children. Child one (16) has full academic scholarships-from his school and a local organization. We still have to fill out FAFSA for him.
Child two (19) has a financial package that wants him to take a $5500 loan and dh and I to pay $14K per year. Would that go up when child one graduates? That school offered to finance all four years-we can borrow the full amount now! Why would a school suggest a 62 year old take out a loan or use savings? Would this be a qualifying reason to appeal the financial aid package? Doing this would make it hard for us to pay the same for our younger children who are ages: 14, 13, and 3-yes we had a surprise!
Fortunately, child two has an affordable (no debt) option at our state university but wanted to see about his first choice.
We were so uninformed about college prices. DH’s salary out of college was about the same as his four years at a private school. I wish I had found this site sooner. We will be better prepared for our other children
I don’t think there is any consideration for age but I could be mistaken.
And yes, at most schools, your ESC would most likely go up once your C’16 graduates and you only have one in college.
IMO, you are totally smart to be thinking about your retirement and not taking out loans. Send your child to the school that you can afford, especially with three more children to put through school.
I don’t think your age is a consideration at all. My H retires in 3 years and I’ll still have 1 kid in college! Ugh.
My husband is 65 and we have two kids in college. Needless to say, he and I won’t be retiring any time soon. We are having to take out loans. 
There is a slightly higher asset protection allowance for older parent…very slightly
@anonomouse - welcome! this website is amazing; the forums are great. There are very very wise posters who will help with all kinds of questions as you figure it all out; and politics talk is not allowed. Read through the financial aid and scholarships forums, and search for all kinds of topics. You’ll learn so much.
So basically in a nutshell: financial aid is mostly income dependent. There are not many schools that give big grants if you have financial need. The schools that do give grant aid often do this based on their calculations of need; not the federal calculation (FAFSA), and they are hard to get into. Schools expect parents to pay for college out of savings, current income and loans. Merit aid isn’t income dependent; and it can really help lower costs. State schools are often very limited by grant aid they can give; as well as smaller non competitive LACs.
You can appeal your FA; but don’t expect much if your school doesn’t have much aid to give. If you have grants in your Child#2’s package, those could disappear when child #1 graduates.
we have 2 in college right now - both at a state school. The only benefit we see with having 2 in college is part of D16’s loans are subsidized. That’s not to say it will be like that for you . . .
anyway, these forums are so so so helpful; keep asking and looking around and planning for your late baby blessing.
@anononmouse There’s one great benefit for older parents that a lot of people don’t know about…once your husband turns 65, the remaining underage children will likely be eligible for monthly SS payments > http://money.com/money/3956341/kids-social-security-benefits/ (which is a very nice way to start a college account for each of them!)
The younger children only get the SS benefit if the 65 year old (or even 62 year old) retires. 65 isn’t even the retirement age for those born in 1956/1957, so he’d only get partial SS benefits.
Sorry, but on this board 62 is NOT old, and yes, the colleges will expect one of the parents to take out loans. They don’t really care if it is the 62 year old parent or the 41 year old parent.
Assume a 62 yr old has had 20 more years of savings over the 41 yr old. 20 more years of earnings. You don’t HAVE to take out loans, that is your choice. Make sure your kids work hard in school, target merit, use community colleges, target the cheapest options. Most importantly, make sure they understand your budgetary issues. Your 2019 kid’s school is going to cost you 14K plus 5.5K? What are the other options? What is your FAFSA EFC like?
I don’t think you can borrow all 4 years now. If it is the federal loan program, Parent Plus, you borrow by the semester. The school may have put the possibility of all 4 years out there for you, but you can only borrow the amount for each semester as your child enrolls.
The FAFSA does take the age into consideration and a 61 year old gets a bigger asset protection allowance than a 41 year old. It also takes into account the size of the family and the number in college. Those factors are part of the formula, but it may not make a great deal of difference in the EFC which is mostly driven by the income and assets of the parents and student. Yes, when the older one graduates the EFC for the younger one will increase but it may not matter for FA. It really depends on what that EFC was and whether the younger son was getting need based (not merit) financial aid.
Sounds like you would be more comfortable taking the full tuition scholarship at the state university. It is not unusual for any school to expect the student to take the $5500 direct student loan and the parents to pay $14000 per year either from savings or by taking a Parent Plus loan.
It depends upon the school. I think FAFSA might have an age consideration in the EFC calculation, but that isn’t going to make much difference in the awards that schools make in most cases. The asset protection is about all you get.
You should, as everyone should, understand exactly what the financial aid award is, what it means for later years when circumstances might change, especially since you know that you will be losing the multiple kids in college factor in the calculations. Ask the fin aid officer how that is going to change the aid award
Yes, absolutely ask if there is anything more than can be done to make the aid package more palatable. Ask if they can look over your info, make sure there isn’t something that can bring up the award. It is possible there is mistake, that something was overlooked, something came up. Do manage your expectations, as most of the time, if there is much of anything, it’s more loans and you are already there.
Your loans will be accruing interest from the moment the funds are dispensed, so not a good idea to be borrowing all four years upfront, even if you could, which I don’t think you can. I agree with @twoinanddone that this ins not an unusual package that you have.
Thanks for all replies. We actually would not take out loans(other than $5500) but I’m not comfortable spending so much with acceptable and affordable options and of course other children.
EFC for child 1 is about $25K as he works and also pays taxes on his scholarship $. EFC for child 2 is about $20K. The private school uses CSS though. Yes, we are concerned that next year our EFC for child 2 would double. So, it’s probably wise to accept merit money which is renewable than hope for need based from a private school.
Now I know understand the appeal of community colleges!
The taxable scholarships that child 1 reports on his tax return don’t get included in income for FAFSA EFC.
There is a question that is asked in FAFSA that will then subtract that amount from income.
I don’t know how this works for CSS profile.
We had that issue. Several schools I ran net price calculators at would give good aid while two where in college, to where the cost was close to the instate public. But with only one in college the cost was much higher.
If a student attends community college first they won’t be eligible for grants at many 4-year colleges. Freshmen get the best aid. Transfers generally get very little.
@SouthernHope and @twoinanddone - my friend retired in her mid-fifties (her spouse in 10 years younger). She applied for social security 62 and lo and behold, in addition to her SS check, she got $1,000 a month for each of her 2 kids. She had no idea! One was already 17, but the other was only 14, so they will receive nearly $50K by the time the 14 year old turns 18.
Seems odd that she chose to have kids later in life (48ish), could afford and chose to retire in her mid/late 50s, and (at age 62), receives $1000/kid until they are 18. But I guess some people don’t chose to retire (need to for health etc) or don’t chose to have kids that late in life (“surprise” or raising grandchild, etc).
Yes, if you RETIRE your kids get the dependent’s check, but if you keep working at 62, they do not. You used to be able to ‘retire and suspend’ and the children would continue to receive the check but you can’t do that anymore. Now, if you take early retirement but continue to work, there is a penalty of retirement amounts and you can end up paying 50% on it back in taxes (if you earn more than a certain amount, which is like $19k per year).
My brother is 62 with twin 13 year olds. I thought he could claim the money for them, but only if he retires and then he would be penalized very heavily on his retirement funds up until the age of his retirement (which I think for him is 66.5 years), plus retiring early cuts his retirement payment to 75%. He needs to keep working, so retiring early isn’t an option for him.
I’d bet it is also not an option for OP with 2 kids in college and 3 more at home. It also isn’t always $1000 per kid but based on the amount paid in to SS, and split among all kids In this case, if there were 4 kids still in secondary school, they’d split the pot (say it is $2000) so each would get $500. As each ages out, the other split the pot (so 3 would each get $666) until there is one who doesn’t get the whole pot but a portion of it. A spouse also gets a payment if caring for a child under 12 years old.