<p>We just got our parent financial statement results back from the SSS. </p>
<p>I am shocked at what they say we can afford! I would be lucky to swing half the amount they list and much of that amount would be loans taken out by us.</p>
<p>Is this the norm? Do the schools follow this number to the letter? Is there any hope of a more realistic award amount?</p>
<p>I can say right now that if we don't get more we might as well stop the process right now to save my son the agony of being accepted but not able to go.</p>
<p>If your EFC is between 15 and 20 percent of your AGI, you probably filled out the form correctly. If it is over that, you probably have assets (stocks, savings, home equity) that are above what many have or you filled out something incorrectly. Typical mistakes are including the current balance of your retirement accounts where they are only asking for the current year contributions and using the incorrect amount off of you pay stub (the correct figure is generally the FICA taxable income = Gross Pay minus 401k and med reimbursement (added in later) and benefit costs.) Basically the figure you plug into your tax return.</p>
<p>Now if you have done everything right and can't swing 15 - 20 percent, welcome to the club. This is my 3rd year of pain with one more to go (plus college).</p>
<p>The bad news - the EFC you see today is similar to what you will see when FAFSA/Profile gets done in a few years.</p>
<p>The really bad news - many schools (both prep and college) expect you to pay even more than the EFC.</p>
<p>A lot of people liken paying school tuition to driving a brand new car off the cliff every year. Some of us only drive a stripped down subcompact, while others drive a Lexus.</p>
<p>Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.</p>
<p>You can PM if you would like to discuss more offline.</p>
<p>I didn't get my results back yet, but I do have some questions --</p>
<p>I have multiple kids -- if they all go to private school is the average "15-20%" for each kid or in total?</p>
<p>Also since you refer to FAFSA I assume you have a child in college -- If yes, in your opinion is the $ put out for BS offset in the types of scholarships, etc offered for college?</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me if that is more appropriate</p>
<p>If there's no personal info, which can help ID you, is involved, please keep this discussion in the public forum. I am sure many people are interested in learning more.</p>
<p>Can't answer the question about multiple kids in boarding school. I would imagine that it would be less for multiples as it is with college tuition.</p>
<p>And yes, I had to fill out FAFSA this year as my oldest started college in the fall. The good news is that your PFS EFC will decrease significantly with college tuition becoming an issue. The bad news is that your FAFSA (and CSS Profile) EFC will not decrease with a kid in boarding school. And (while YMMV) you may not see an increase in FA grant from year to year from an existing child's situation when additional children enter a tuition paying school. Schools don't necessarily budget for increasing your FA because you choose to have another child attend.</p>
<p>I didn't mean to take the discussion offline generally watertester, but sometimes people with personal info would rather discuss offline, hence my invitation.</p>
<p>It looks like our amount that we can "afford" is about 23%. In looking over the forms I see where we may have made at least one mistake on unusual expenses. Correcting that may help a little.</p>
<p>We went through this process last year with S and the final amount was quite a bit less than this years. In looking over the 2 forms I don't see any big number differences. But I will definitely spend some time with a fine toothed comb and hopefully get this number to something that may be doable.</p>
<p>I love the analogy of driving the car off a cliff. Before I read your post I was thinking to myself that the amount was a new car. Am I planning to buy a new car? No. Can I afford a new car? No.</p>
<p>While I am willing to do what it takes to give S this amazing opportunity, I think it will be a harder sell for my H. He looks at the 2 younger boys and sees them heading the same way and he and I retiring to a van down by the river!</p>
<p>goaliedad, if it depends on the AGI (15-20% as you said), wouldn't the amout you put aside for 401k have a big impact? Effectively it would encourage you to put in more for retirement so you can pay less for your child's education. Is that how it works?</p>
<p>The way I understand it, any retirement money you put aside helps your financial aid, because it comes off "the top." We have three kids, so after they figure the amount they think you can afford (your EFC), they divide that by the number of kids you have. Altogether it amounts to a tremendous amount of money, but it's worth it for us.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there are questions about contributions to 401K and IRA (pre tax) accounts as I remember. I believe they are added back into your FICA taxable income before the calculation of how much you can pay. </p>
<p>And I want to correct my earlier post. I incorrectly stated that you should be putting your FICA taxable income in. Not correct. Put your federally taxable income (they pull FICA out of your 401k deposits, but not fed tax). </p>
<p>If you do make the error of putting down your gross income (before 401k and fringe benefit deductions), you will be SSS taxed on your 401k deduction and when you put the 401k contribution later on in the SSS form, you will get nailed on it again.</p>
<p>Yes, they do think you can give up your retirement contributions for your kids' education. It is entirely consistent with FAFSA and CSS Profile for college as well. So those without a pension plan at work are at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>And actually you will find me sleeping in my van at a rest stop someplace along I81 in PA Thursday night (for a few hours), as I am leaving from work to go watch goaliegirl play at a hockey tournament Friday afternoon and Saturday before coming back Saturday afternoon. Can't say the rest stop is by the river though...</p>
<p>doesn't F-I-F live in a van down by the river? With all this talk of relocating, I'm not too sure how he'd fare in a densely populated riverbank. Be careful out there :)</p>
<p>Some schools--especially those who have healthier financial aid budgets than others--do NOT follow this number to the letter. Directors of financial aid live in the real world, and often will take into consideration a number of factors that SSS doesn't, like the cost of living in your particular area, travel costs to and from campus, etc. Remember you get ZERO financial aid if you don't apply. If the school wants your child and you qualify for aid, they will do their best to make it happen. Just take a deep breath and hope for the best!</p>
<p>"Is this the norm? Do the schools follow this number to the letter? Is there any hope of a more realistic award amount?"</p>
<p>Thanks all -- this has been a very helpful thread.</p>
<p>Took the day off from work to finalize aid forms (fine tooth comb) and wrap Christmas gifts.</p>
<p>BTW -- What river will our Shantytown be? My 10 year old, 135,000 mile Caravan will join you as long as I can survive the winter :)</p>
<p>So great to know there are others trading lifestyle for kids education -- everyone we know in our area thinks we are mental cases. They don't think our kids will ever make enough money to justify all the cash we dumped into them -- they just don't get it -- my kids are not a retirement plan! The investment is giving them opportunities, choices and intellectual stimulation. I am NOT expecting a millionaire outcome after college.</p>
<p>Sounds like you and I live in the same area! People think we just want to get rid of him or he must have done something wrong! The truth is we would rather he stayed at home, we love him and actually like being with him.</p>
<p>But how can you not let your child have this amazing opportunity if you can swing it? The school environment they provide is so different from our public high school. I will do whatever I can to help my child achieve this goal. Even if it means ramen soup for the next 4 years.</p>
<p>Be sure you use that fine tooth comb on the financial aid forms. I have found a few little things that may help lower or EFC. Keeping my fingers crossed!</p>
<p>Actually Scotland, we used to live in Wisconsin (until about 5-6 years ago). Definitely a different mindset about sending your kids away to school there (and here in the south for that matter). And actually where we were in Wisconsin, there was both good public education and girls hockey, so the thought of boarding school (while we were aware of it at the time we lived there) probably would have been there. Have neither (good public schools or girls hockey), so boarding school suddenly became a much more worthy option.</p>
<p>Our EFC would not even pay for the good private school here and the cost of hockey for my D, so in some ways I consider it (our outlandish EFC) a bargain. Now how about that for contorted thinking. There must be a leak in my exhaust system. LOL</p>
<p>My father in law paid for portion of the kids tuition for 2008/2009 year at a private day school. I was going to list this under "Cash Support" , but is it really since it was money paid on behalf of our kids & not us? I'd rather be conervative, list it & explain it in the comments. He has advised us he WILL NOT be able to provide any help this year.</p>
<p>I think the first step is filling out the PFS right? If you do it on paper how long until you get your EFC back? Is it better to do it online? I assume it is quicker- and if you do it online does it tell you your EFC immediately? Is there a way to find out your EFC without paying the fee to send the results to schools? My idea being if I don't qualify for aid anyway why pay to send it to 5 schools?</p>
<p>Filing PFS online is supposed to be faster. The schools can access your application within 48 hours, the EFC will be sent to the schools (if you ask SSS to send them) or you (if you order a personal report) in 7 days. I was playing around with the system and trying to find out if I could only order a personal copy without sending it to any school. It seemed that was not an option. My understand is that you have to send to at least one school so you yourself can see the result.</p>
<p>We just received our PFS and I'm still trying to process what this means to my D's chances of actually going to boarding school, even is she is accepted. We cannot afford the amount that they say we can contribute. Can we send a letter to the schools explaining in more detail our situation? We have some unusual expenses that we did not include on the form we completed because there was no category for it. Has anyone ever done this, and does it help? Hurt? Are the schools going to care about recent loses that one may have incurred as a result of the recent stock market plunge? What if all our educational savings are gone? Will they care?
I am feeling so depressed, I hope all these applications have not been in vain.</p>
<p>By the way we completed our form on line and received the report about a week latter.</p>