Just realized what people mean when the say there need to be changes on how our kids pay for a college. I’m a mother of 4 and first child went to college and applied for FAFSA. He got all kinds of help HOPE, Pell and got a presidential scholarship to attend a HBCU. The catch is he is not my husband biological son, so he used all my information with a pre-k asst income. Here is my problem why do our kids have to basically come from nothing or the parents have nothing to get help? Now why can’t my daughter get the same? She is my husband biological child so we added his income to FAFSA. Now both together we make less then 80,000. Do I have to be a single mom on a teacher salary with four kids barely making ends meat for my smart and athletic kids to go to college? Why can’t I give my kids a 2 parent home, we not make a 100,000, live in a good neighborhood, be happy and my kids want to go to college and get more help? My sister lives that barely making it life living in a assistant home and her daughter same age as mine getting a full ride to the same college my daughter is attended. Why?
Because parents are first in line to pay. And if a kid is getting a “full ride”, SOMEONE else is paying that bill. Someone else is paying full tuition or giving money to the university endowment. Most schools that meet for students require bio parents and any spouses if the bio parents are remarried to report income and assets. Why should someone else pay the bill (or get a government grant) if parents have some assets and income?
My guess is that the school your second kid is attending is not a school that meets need, so that is part of the problem. They have “gapped” you (not given enough aid for you to be able to pay your family portion). This is very common when you get outside the very top schools.
Would you really want the financial issues your sister has? I personally wouldn’t trade for the problems of a truly low income life to get more college aid for my kids.
Many, many kids live at home while attending college, and/or go to CC for two years and then transfer to a 4 year. Sometimes the kids take gap semesters or years to earn money for tuition. They take out their federal loans. That is how most families handle the financial burden of college.
Wouldn’t trade for nothing, my daughter is attending a CC a great one GGC in.GA. She got HOPE and we are paying a semester for her to live on campus for the true experience and some growth. I just think things should be a little easier for those of us making a good life working hard w/o government assistant with kids with dreams of going to college. My daughter works hard so she and us will see to it that she becomes a Veterinarian.
If you were married at the time that your son filed the FAFSA, your spouse’s income should have been reported on that FAFSA. Whether the spouse is a biological parent is immaterial. Not including the spouse’s income is financial aid fraud. Granted, you may have made this error innocently, but if discovered, your son could be required to pay back any aid that he wasn’t really eligible for.
@happymomof1 is absolutely correct.
We’re you married when your older kiddo filed that FAFSA? If so, your spouse’s income would have been required on that form.
It’s very possible that your son could end up having to repay some of that need based aid he received.
Could you clarify?
Is your niece getting need based aid or merit aid? I don’t think there are many colleges handing out full rides to low income students. Most seem to require high stats.
Need based aid isn’t intended to provide students with the “true experience” of living on campus. It’s to help pay for the degree so they can get a job. It’s great that you’re able to pay for a semester on campus for her. A lot of kids don’t get that much.
I agree about checking your son’s FAFSA. If you were married when he attended college, your husband’s income should have been included.
Is your first child still in college (what year?) or has he graduated?
Even if you weren’t married for year 1, you appear to be married now which certainly would affect his aid going forward. Just something to think about if the school if affordable now because you weren’t married at the time but may not be affordable next year.
My son has been out of school for years now. Living on his own, so it doesn’t affect him at all. This was about the difference of how kids get financial aid for college.
This has nothing to do with my son, he has been out of school for years.
My niece will be living on campus in the same dorm as my daughter. She is low income and got the HOPE and because her mother doesn’t make much the PELL covered room and board. I was pointing out the point when it was my son and I and I was not making much he got the same as my niece. Things are just different for hard working families to get grants like the PELL. Some families may work but it doesn’t mean they don’t need a little help. I have been on both sides and didn’t realize how much my son got just for me being considered low income. Not the same for a child with 2 working parents.
@tomuch1 the max Pell Grant is $6005. What college costs only $6000 for room and board for the year?
Per semester when you living in a dorm with 12 rooms.
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Do I have to be a single mom on a teacher salary with four kids barely making ends meat for my smart and athletic kids to go to college?<<
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Well, federal financial aid is based on the same principles as other federal need programs - TNAF, SNAP (food stamps), free or reduced lunch, earned income credit. The qualifying maximum income guidelines are set up and there are instructions on how to fill out the application (for Pell grants, it’s FAFSA), what household income to include. The income level to qualify for a Pell grant is low because that’s how congress/dept of education wants to spend its federal money. No different than the guidelines set for food stamps, to qualify for an EIC, to qualify for the AOTC. Using the same FAFSA, different levels are set for the subsidized loans because someone in the government thought that families with just a little more income, who don’t qualify for Pell, should get a subsidized loan to help them though college. When the income gets too high, no more benefit. The AOTC is only available to those below a certain income cap, and it doesn’t matter if you have one in college or 10; if income is over the max, no tax credit.
People are happy when they get a Pell grant, but it’s really not that different than getting food stamps and you don’t see many people celebrating that they are happy to get food stamps. They are grateful, but celebrate?. It’s government aid because you are low income. Your son and niece were in low income households when they received assistance. Your daughter is lucky to be in a more middle class family.
HOPE is not need based so your daughter should get that if she qualifies. The aid that comes from the state or school? Some use the same formulas as FAFSA, but others use a different standard altogether. If you have a family income of $80k, if you lived in California or NY your daughter would get a lot of need based aid from the states. In some states the extra state help is not based on need or even gpa/scores, but just on the fact that you are a resident of the state.
Smart kids can get merit aid. Athletic kids can get athletic aid (although called a Grant in Need, it has nothing to do with need). Kids with financial need (determined by the federal govt and the school) get need based aid.
So…if it’s $6000 per semester…where is the other $6000 coming from?
There are many ways for kids to get a college education and not end up having their family totally broke.
Some kids attend a community college and live at home for a while, while getting general education courses completed.
Some kids work full time and attend college part time.
Some kids work part time and attend college part time.
Some kids live with their families the whole time they are in college, if possible, because room and board costs are just too high.
Some kids work at jobs that provide some tuition assistance for employees…colleges, UPS, for example.
Some kids get a two year degree or certificate of some sort, and then work at a job while attending college. Or they work and save money, and then attend college.
Some folks work full time during the day and take night classes, or weekend classes as they can afford them.
The reality is…NOT every student attends a four year residential college.
You apply for Pell every semester, and my daughter has HOPE and other scholarships. Thanks everyone for the imput was just looking for some thought on the difference in paying for a college education. Not about my son and his paid for education with scholarships, grants, and presidential scholarship.
Who told you that you apply for Pell Grant every semester? That simply isn’t true.
For example…if your kid is applying for aid for the 2019-2020 school year, that FAFSA becomes available to submit in October 2018. Your kid completes that form ONE time using 2016 tax year information. The kid gets a FAFSA EFC based on that ONE submission. If the EFC is $0, the kid is entitled to a $6000 or so Pell Grant for the YEAR. The Grant is given to the student each term…so if on semesters, $3000 each of two semesters for a total of $6000.
You don’t apply again for the second semester.
You apply for Pell with the FAFSA, just once per year.
@tomuch1 You ask a very good question. My family lives in Georgia as well and we probably get more help than the folks in most other states (Hope pays about 70% tuition and Zell Miller pays 100% tuition at in-state Georgia institutions). We have tried to set expectations of what we could/would pay for college far in advance (started having those talks early in middle school) and communicated to our kids that they would be going to in-state public institutions without them excelling at the level needed to draw merit scholarships. Your family’s household income is above the median in the US (but definitely hard to fund a college education). There are schools in the US who are full need institutions and the top ones would have probably made college more affordable (but hard to get into those schools for good reason). There is little reason for colleges and Universities to make college truly affordable when their are so many willing pay/borrow the money for students to attend. I believe a reckoning is coming when it comes to college costs but it hasn’t arrived yet. Where parental savings and need-based scholarships/grants end is where working, merit based scholarships and hustle based (small scholarships for winning essay contests etc,) must begin for students looking to have little to no college debt.
Maybe you are looking at the wrong colleges? Hubby and I are married, living together, all three kids are full siblings. We make under 100K together and we found many affordable options from public schools they could commute from to private schools across the country. Sure, we ruled out a lot of schools in the research stage that were totally unaffordable but there are options out there… you just don’t get to go “wherever you want.”