<p>I went thru both year’s FAFSA and CSS profile. FAFSA EFC decreased for us this year by about 7K combined for both kids. Our AGI dropped by 40K. Deductions were similar. The business showed a larger loss this year as the revenue was nearly nonexistent but of course the costs were still there. We have less in savings. The only thing that went up were our 401k retirement savings due to stock market gains, but I did not think those were considered. Our home equity is the same too.</p>
<p>I called too late today to get someone, so it’s first on my list tomorrow. I think they may have added our business losses back into our income. But even if they did, that would still put our income as less than last year so I really don’t understand…</p>
<p>Dedicated retirement accts aren’t counted, but money that goes* into *your retirement acct in 2012- before tax will be added back to your income as available for tuition for the 2013-2014 school year.</p>
<p>They did not call me today, so I will have to wait till Monday. To answer some questions from above, neither of my kids had any scholarship money and neither earned over 6K. No internships yet either. Both did their work study and have summer jobs. </p>
<p>Thanks again for all of the inputs. I am very curious to see what happens. Have a great weekend.</p>
<p>This is not true. to be 100% needs met, schools cannot meet the need with more loans. Any school can offer 100% loans; the true “meets full need” schools do not, by definition. They offer the standard Stafford and sometimes Perkins, and that’s it. There are not many, though Ivies are some of them.</p>
<p>Edit: they can also offer PLUS loans to help meet EFC, but that is separate from the aid package–it’s not to help meet need.</p>
<p>If grants went down by that much, then it’s because EFC was raised. hopefully the OP will get an answer soon which will explain the reason for that, and maybe discover there was an error.</p>
<p>When my D was accepted to Tufts, they met need … but they had sub, unsub, and some special Tufts (or maybe MA?) loan. We were a bit surprised! The loan component was too high, so she nixed Tufts right off the bat.</p>
<p>Go back an look at your original financial aid letter when S was accepted. I say this because my D will be a freshman in the Fall and her aid letter states that the aid amount is guaranteed for all 4 years unless my financial profile changes. I consider that to be legally binding - although not sure if it is…</p>
<p>Strictly speaking, Garland, you are correct. Unsubsidized Direct loans are not financial aid in that need is not necessary in order to take them The same with PLUS. But many colleges do package both as financial aid. And they also can throw in their own loans. Cornell has their own loans that they can add to the mix, just as Kelsmom has said that Tufts does. </p>
<p>It’s a tough go for kids whose families are struggling to meet what the college says they have to pay, when the Direct loans, both subsidized and not, and work study as well are in the need package. That takes away those resources that could be used towards that family/student contribution. The student loan option is gone, and work hours committed towards the financial aid. And then you’ve got a kid with no need who can still borrow from Direct Loans for some extra money, and take a job for the same reason. Not fair, but, yes, that is the way it can and sometimes does work out.</p>
<p>We are appealing. As you all correctly surmised, they added the business loss back into our income. Apparently a lot of “losses” are just depreciation. Ours is an actual loss that can be shown with expense and revenue statements so that they can see none of it is from depreciation. We also had a capital gain in some stocks that we hold outside of a 401K. That “profit” was reinvested but they apparently counted it as income and again as an asset. It should only be counted once as an asset as it was reinvested. So we are appealing and we will see what happens in a couple of weeks. I am also sending the info on my job loss, with the new job offer which shows my projected income for 2013. I never got a severence becuase I was never really unemployed since I found a new job right away when my job was eliminated.</p>
<p>Capital gain vs asset. The point is they are counting it twice. They can count it either place, I don’t care. But they cannot count it BOTH places. We did pay taxes on it so I am not sure which column they will put it in.</p>
<p>Capital gains appear on your 1040 as income; the cash you receive from realizing that gain is an asset. It’s double-counted on FAFSA the year that the gain is realized. Presumably you’ve already reported both by automatically linking your taxes to FAFSA which would include the capital gain as part of your income, and by reporting the value of your assets as of the date you filed, which would show the appreciated stock and/or proceeds of the sale.</p>
<p>TKSmom, if I earn any kind of income in a year…AND it is still sitting in my accounts when I file the FAFSA, it is counted as BOTH income…AND as an asset. You had income via your capital gain. You also then kept that as an asset.</p>
<p>It’s the way it is with ALL income that you put in any account. It’s both income…and an asset.</p>
<p>Something else has become clear to me as I try to resolve a similar situation. It’s obvious now that my D’s college either never looked at or reviewed and then completely disregarded updated documents and special circumstances correspondence. </p>
<p>In the first case, the FAO on the phone this week admitted that they hadn’t reviewed my letter and extensive documention showing an income change for 2013. She said it was uploaded too early for them to have seen (mid December, and it’s sitting right there in the document inventory for my child’s 2013-14 aid application).</p>
<p>Additionally, after going line by line comparing this year’s and last year’s FAFSA, CSS Profiles, and tax returns over the past three days, I am certain that they never even looked at the hand corrected CSS Profile that I sent them in March, which contained a major update (although it is sitting there in the document inventory as well). Or if they did look at it, they did not take the changes into consideration.</p>
<p>The lesson that I’ve now learned at what may be massive cost, is to send all documents in at the February deadline and not 10 weeks before thinking the early bird gets the worm, and to lowball the CSS Profile, as revising numbers downward later is likely to be ignored.</p>
<p>If a capital gain is counted twice, should one just not sell anything while students are in college? If we had not sold anything, it would jus be still sitting there only as an asset instead of both income and an asset. I’m still confused about this</p>
<p>My employer offered to deposit my semi-annual bonus into my 401K as a Discretionary Employer Match rather than paying it out in cash. This is a great help.</p>