<p>I guess it’s possible they are cheating somehow. No idea. I don’t know how much home equity they have but I imagine they might not have that much… home equity loans/etc. Remember they are leveraged. </p>
<p>Okay…I knew a woman who said her son had a " full ride" and come to find out, they had loans…you are teaching your kids wonderful lessons…what does it teach it child when you over consume? </p>
<p>
I don’t understand the twins vs. kids four years apart argument. I see it as one side has double the college expenses spread over four years and the other side has double the college expenses spread over 8 years. Can someone explain this to me? @mathyone?</p>
<p>intparent, I’m not complaining that I don’t have enough money, just that what I have is treated in a different way by FAFSA. The OP asked if anyone felt penalized for doing what we are supposed to do, save for college. I do, but I know how the money will be treated if I spend it or save it, and I choose to save it.</p>
<p>One daughter will pay for everything beyond tuition, R&B, and transportation. She works now and will continue in college. The second will not, cannot, because she’s playing a sport in college. I’m happy with that deal because the scholarship is more than she could earn working minimum wage. Doesn’t mean they won’t ask for more. When I was in college, every once in a while my grandfather would send me $20 and it was such a treat - I could go skiing or to an away football game or just out to dinner, or I could choose to not work for 10 hours which is sometimes what I needed most, extra time.</p>
<p>Niquii–when a family has two or more kids in college at the same time, FA will usually adjust for that and increase the aid because of the bigger payments. if the family’s students do not overlap in college, then the FA will not take into account the family had to pay for more than one. So overlapping students from a family will often mean more aid than non-overlapping.</p>
<p>The financial aid formulas have a lot of unfairnesses in them and,yes, being in certain niches can mean greater injuries and you can make out in others. That college costs are considered to be paid with past, present and future expenses, means that that there is less per kid during that crucial “present” period with two in college. Those of us who don’t have that situation, can slough some of that “present” into the future or past. That’s why there is that break. Whether it makes sense, whether you can parry it with arguments is irrelevant, that is the way it is. The 5.6% amount was eminently fair when one could easily get 5% on a savings account at any bank, but the government moves ever so slowly to any kind of change. It’s now unfair, IMO, but supposedly in the long run it works out. But the posterity’s short run is a long run, the only run for many of us as individuals. </p>
<p>Where I feel punished, self inflicted, I fully admit, is that I’m going to be out all of this money I spent on education on my kids. Walking the walk on the trail I set for myself and family has been tough, and I ain’t feeling the euphoria I’d hoped for.</p>
<p>Thing is, the grasshopper method only pays off if the grasshopper’s kid is admitted to one of the relatively few schools that guarantee to meet full need. At last count, that’s 61 schools total. </p>
<p>By saving for your kids’ education you are teaching them a valuable lesson. Work hard for whatever merit aid you can get but be self reliant for everything else. Too many parents teach their kids to have a sense of entitlement and expect financial aid handouts to put their kids through college. While it might seem unfair to you, your approach is much better for your kids and, frankly, much better for the country. Financial aid, much like welfare, food stamps and other handouts, should be reserved for the truly needy and not be viewed as a way to avoid working hard by trying to game the system. </p>
<p>“Envy is the art of counting the other fellow’s blessings instead of your own.”</p>
<p>By the way, as the parent of twins, I can assure you that I will not be getting breaks in cost for their education, even if the EFC is lowered, because their older brother will be in college as they enter themselves. The only sort of “break” would be that the $5500 federal loan each could sign up for would be allocated as partially subsidized and partially unsubsidized. Big deal - it is still a loan, not free money (which, of course, we know is never free, just paid by one person on behalf of another.)</p>
<p>I could create a long list of sour grapes: the high federal income tax I pay, because we earn far above 4 times the poverty rate, and have worked hard to earn that income, only to have more taken away, despite our best efforts to reduce our taxable income; the high contributions I pay to Social Security and Medicare, which became glaringly apparent the year my husband received a raise and Clinton increased the SS contribution levels, and we saw absolutely none of that raise, not one dime; the fact that I have not received a tax refund in over 25 years while others receive EIC “refunds” for taxes they never paid; the fact that the only people who get excited about April 15 are those who get those “refunds”, and go out on April 16 to buy new furniture, new cars, and take their kids to Disney World; the fact that I have not purchased new furniture or new cars in over 10 years, and, though just 45 minutes away from Disney World, my kids have never been; the fact that I have used high-deductible CDHP plans along with Flex Spending and health savings accounts for years now, as soon as my employer started forcing higher income employees to pay more for the same PPO that lower income employees could purchase at a far lower cost (even employers are on the socialist, progressive bandwagon), so I have long become accustomed to paying for my own health care; how I shopped carefully for a house here in Florida back in 2006, and bought the cheapest home in the best neighborhood I could afford, buying a house for far less than the mortgage lender said I could qualify, and, on top of that, put down more than 20% in cash (what a fool I was!), and then the market crashed, and my neighbors who bought homes with no money down just walked away, and by now, are likely buying new homes using federally backed loans, as I continue to pay a mortgage for a house worth 50% of what I paid.</p>
<p>Oh, and my kids have never gone to summer camp.</p>
<p>I guess life would have been better if my husband and I divorced (or were never married in the first place. or even better for financial aid purposes, if my kids did not know whom their father was at all.) Or if neither my husband nor I had ever pursued higher education, instead working two minimum wage jobs between us, and qualifying for all the goodies, like food stamps, Obamacare subsidies, EIC refunds, and free money for college. Or if my kids did not have to work so hard to get those 4.0s and take all honors and AP and spend Saturdays preparing for the SAT and ACT tests so they have a chance to get the merit aid scholarships that will make or break their chances to attend four year universities.</p>
<p>Yep, my husband and I should have thought this through a little better and been far more strategic in our attempt to get need-based aid for college. This whole striving for a better life is so over-rated, especially if one comes to the end without a single Pell Grant in hand. Talk about failure. And no summer camp to boot.</p>
<p>Chesterton, you and I, and others can join as well, for a great sessions of sour grapes,which I understand can make excellent wine.</p>
<p>Well, I have never imbibed, but if we could figure out a way to bottle that wine and sell it to pay for tuition, then count me in at one of those sessions :)</p>
<p>^^ Count me in too. I need any help possible :-)</p>
<p>I would not say that the financial aid system necessarily punishes fiscal responsibility and success of the families in question. But at the very least, it seems very hard, if not impossible, to effectively argue that it rewards financial responsibility and success, and I am increasingly starting to believe it really should.</p>
<p>It rewards academic achievement and doesn’t ( or tries not to ) penalize those families who make the mean income.
We make double the average income with youngest. ( which is actually double average for our city, which is 15% higher than national mean(
We paid FAFSA EFC for her school which was essentially COA.
We also paid FAFSA EFC for her sister when we made a little less than average income, at a school that met need.</p>
<p>If you can’t afford a FAFSA EFC, and you aren’t self employed or sending money to your sister in Tirenveli, then you might want to consult a financial advisor to get a grip on spending/ income.</p>