<p>Are their legitimate ways to reduce our EFC before we file the FAFSA? I am primarily interested in ways legally reduce our assets, I am not able to reduce our income. </p>
<p>Assuming our financial situation stays the same, will the financial aid award for the first year be the same in future years?</p>
<p>Some people pay down mortgage or other debts (car payments, etc) - that’s legit.</p>
<p>Some put money into retirement accts…but I’ve heard that current year payments are sometimes added back in (like for 401ks…don’t know about other current year payments for other retirement accts). </p>
<p>And…some CSS Profile schools do look at retirement accts and things that FAFSA does not.</p>
<p>Remember…</p>
<p>Most schools do NOT meet need. </p>
<p>And…FAFSA-only schools typically give the worst aid, so you may not benefit at all by reducing assets. If your EFC is - say $20k - and the school costs $40k, the school may only give you a student loan, work-study and a $12k gap. </p>
<p>So…research carefully before you tie up your cash assets somewhere. You may find that you’ll need them to pay a big gap. Some parents find that after moving money around to reduce EFC that they still don’t get free aid because their child applied to schools that don’t have much/any institutional funds to give.</p>
<p>What schools is your child applying to?</p>
<p>As for your second question…it will depend on the school. Some schools are more generous to incoming freshmen as an incentive to enroll. Schools “dole out” money to incoming freshmen first. They do the FA packages for returning students in late spring/early summer. So, less aid may be available at that point.</p>
<p>Some schools do state that FA will stay the same as long as income/assets do not change much. So, check with each school.</p>
<p>And, since student loan amounts increase each year (5500, 6500, 7500, 7500), sometimes grants are reduced and become larger loans and larger work-study amounts.</p>
<p>Lastly…another way to reduce EFC is to apply to some schools that will give big scholarships for stats. If the scholarship is larger than “need,” then the difference “cuts into” EFC. So, those schools might be financial safety schools.</p>
<p>Also, your FAFSA EFC is going to be far more influenced by income. You will have a protected amount of assets (based on age), and beyond that assets are assessed at only 5.6%.</p>
<p>Before you put a lot of energy into this, run your numbers through the FAFSA online calculator. The amount of federal aid available isn’t that much, and the EFC required to be eligible for it is rather low. If you wouldn’t qualify for aid anyway, then no point in trying to engineer a lower EFC that also wouldn’t qualify you for any aid.</p>
<p>A college’s own institutional aid is different. Whatever aid you might qualify for that is “need-based” will depend on the FA policies of that particular college.</p>
<p>Also, even though EFC stands for “expected family contribution”, be aware that this very often does not mean it’s all you’ll be expected to pay. Think of it only as a minimum you’ll be expected to pay. As far as need-based aid goes, you’ll never have a situation where you’ll be asked to pay LESS than your EFC. However, it is broadly (but not universally) true that you’ll likely pay MORE.</p>
<p>'rentof2 makes an excellent point that income counts more.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, you also have 529s for your kids and those are also causing a rise in EFC…is that correct?</p>
<p>And…you have a child who wants to apply ED to a Div III school where he/she may be recruited? IF that’s a CSS school, they will have different criteria. Each CSS school has its own way of using the info from CSS forms.</p>
<p>I would be very concerned about applying ED to a school if I was worried that they will determine that I have an unaffordable “family contribution.” Keep in mind that ED FA is only an estimate and can change when the “real” award comes in the spring.</p>
<p>We have a very high EFC (because of rentals). It’s too high to even get aid with 2 in school. We’ve “reduced” our EFC since our kids have taken big merit scholarships. </p>
<p>if you’re concerned, then your child should also apply to some schools with big merit scholarships as financial safety schools.</p>
<p>I’ve also seen advice about buying things your student will need for college early on, like a laptop. That’s a quick way to burn $1k out of your savings before the date when you need to report your checking and savings balances on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>However, like people said above, if your income is high, even having no money in checking and saving isn’t going to make much of a difference. Try plugging just your income into the FAFSA forecaster, giving 0 for everything else. If your EFC is really high using just income, that tells you right there there’s nothing much to be done.</p>
<p>Yes, we have money (from an inheritance) in 529s. I don’t suppose there is much that can be done about that. The school where my son is being recruited for a DIII sport is willing to do an “early read” on financial aid. It is a CSS school and I understand that the early read is only that with no commitment, but is should give us a reasonable idea, no? </p>
<p>One question I have is: How can the FA folks give a early read if the scholarship money is determined by the admissions folks. How do they early read when they have nothing to do with scholarship awards. </p>
<p>And from the what I was told by one school’s Fin Ad officer, scholarship awards are not necessarily tied to certain academic requirements. They are used to help prospective students who have need. Is this accurate?</p>
<p>We have state schools as our financial safety schools.</p>
<p>I don’t know which school your talking about, and many call all grant aid “scholarships” (my son’s does), but it might be helpful when you talk to them to distringuish between need-based aid and scholarships based on stats, talents (including athletics, although D3 isn’t supposed to do that), or some other "merit-based’ criteria.</p>
<p>If the school only awards need-based financial aid (even if they call is a “scholarship”), then the early read should be pretty accurate based on the financial information you provide them. That won’t change regardless of decisions made by Admissions. If you’re talking about scholarships the school awards based on stats or other talents, then that’s a good question to ask. How can you get an early read that includes those potential funds?</p>
<p>*One question I have is: How can the FA folks give a early read if the scholarship money is determined by the admissions folks. How do they early read when they have nothing to do with scholarship awards. *</p>
<p>The college is Union College…</p>
<p>This is from their scholarship page…</p>
<p>*Union College Scholarships</p>
<p>Including all of the College’s endowed and annual scholarships, this is by far the largest single source of assistance available to our students. Most of the scholarship money offered is based on need as determined by the FAFSA and PROFILE forms. Union **does offer some merit awards ranging from $5000 to $10,000 per year. **It is not necessary to complete a separate application to qualify for a merit scholarship.*</p>
<p>I don’t know how your son’s school does it, but some schools FA office and scholarship office is either the same or can work together for the total award package.</p>
<p>But…there’s another issue…your son is applying ED…some schools hold back scholarships for the RD round to provide incentives. A student applying ED doesn’t need the “incentive.”</p>
<p>Also…you don’t get Financial Aid PLUS Scholarships to reduce EFC. So…if the school meets “need” by giving him a $15k in aid, but then they give him a scholarship for $10k, they will reduce his aid by $10k.</p>
<p>So…since they’re not going to reduce your Family Contribution through scholarships (they don’t give big scholarships), your biggest concern will probably be what they will consider your family contribution to be.</p>
<p>Judging from those I know who have sent kids to Union, they’re usually very good with need based aid. I’m guessing the OP knows this and so wants to reduce his EFC as much as possible to maximize that. I would recommend the book “Paying for College Without Going Broke” as a good source for strategies. But, as others have said, it’s difficult if income is the main contributor.</p>
<p>Union College:</p>
<p>Full-time freshman enrollment: 520
Number who applied for need-based aid: 342
Number who were judged to have need: 279
Number who were offered aid: 277
Number who had full need met: 273
Average percent of need met: 99%
Average financial aid package: $35,815
Average need-based loan: $2,670
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $32,597
Average non-need based aid: $10,016
Average indebtedness at graduation: $24,739</p>
<p>as others have said, it’s difficult if income is the main contributor.</p>
<p>And in his case, he also has two 529 accounts that also will affect family contribution. </p>
<p>In another thread he said that FAFSA4caster puts his EFC at $39k which he thinks he can’t afford.</p>
<p>Depending on the school, many with that high of an EFC find that they get little to no “free” money because most of need is met with a student loan and work-study.</p>
<p>bTW…does anyone know how FA offices handle work-study and athletes? Is there an assumption that an athlete won’t have time to do work-study or not?</p>
<p>I have 2 recruited athletes…they get work study and have access to select jobs that will work with their athletic/academic schedule. They are free to accept/decline the awards just like all students are - older boy doesn’t need it as he has both athletic and academic scholarships (DII). Our experience is that the DIII schools go out of their way to do whatever they legally can to help/accomodate their athletes. (Disclaimer - this is for football, which is obviously a “money” sport…idk about others!)</p>
<p>The savings may be contributing to the EFC but may not be a major factor. A 2-parent family would have almost $47K in asset protection allowance (not including protected assets like retirement accounts). After that the excess savings would only contribute 5.6% to the EFC. OP, it might be useful to actually work the FAFSA EFC formula out by hand and see exactly what is contributing so that you’ll understand how reducing various factors might or might not help. Just use the worksheets/tables marked A:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/062810EFCFormulaGuideUpdate1011.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/062810EFCFormulaGuideUpdate1011.pdf</a></p>
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<p>This is in relation to retirement contributions. Mom2…you heard correctly but it’s not SOMETIMES…it’s ALWAYS.</p>
<p>The contributions made TO your retirement accounts for the tax year reflected on your financial aid applications ARE added back in as income for that year. The balance IN the retirement accounts (real ones…not just savings that the family wants to use for retirement) do not count as assets.</p>
<p>Is this a 2 parent family or a 1 parent family?</p>
<p>The athletes on FA at my son’s (D3) school get the same mix of grants and workstudy as everyone else on FA.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. Very helpful. I will get that book although there may not be much else to try. Yes, two parent household.</p>