Single Parent, one child, Do we qualify for Financial Aid?

Paying for College
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<p>This is for one of you folks out there that KNOWS and can give me some advise on if I qualify for aid (not loans). Thanks.</p>

<p>Single parent whose kid will go to college next Fall. Son will attend a private university (yet to be determined) somewhere in continental usa. Our situation:</p>

<p>We (my son and I) live with my mother. I am the caretaker of my mom who is now 90 years old. I dont pay any rent but I pay all of the bills, etc for the home. I pay these things out of my savings as I do not have a job currently. I had one but lost it two years ago. I was offered one to start at the end of 1st Q 2008 which I may take assuming it does not conflict with taking care of mom.</p>

<p>i do own small house that I bought years ago as an investment property that we do not live in. I do not make any profit on the rental as the maintanance eats up most of the rental income but it has appreciated in value. I dont know how the schools determine what the value is but the very most equity I could possibly have in it is $200,000.00. We have a 529 with $130,000.00 in it. We have some additional financial investments totalling an addtional $235,000.00. I have a retirement account with $60,000.00 in it. I have not contibruted any money to these investments in over 3 years.</p>

<p>I would like to get aid but do not even know if I qualify. I filled out some of those test forms out on the web and it shows that I should contribute approx $15,000 per year towards my son's education. That seemed fair. but then I read all of the postings on this web site and almost everyone is complaining that no one gets a fair shake. That if the Fafsa does not screw you then the universities do. If undergrad is going to cost $200,000.00 and then Grad school will cost another $100,000.00 I do not want to have to use all of my retirement savings for that. I do not want my kid to have to take out loans. He wil be paying those back for years.</p>

<p>So.... if there an expert out there to offer some guidance? Thanks alot.</p>

<p>Best, HenBen</p>

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<p>so mom does not have any savings/medicaid etc to use for her expenses?
If $15,000 feels doable- I would hope that that would cover instate expense.
I would also expect son to take out loans ( so will have to apply for FAFSA to qualify for un or subsidized loans- ) approx$4,000 & work study- approx $2,000 to pay for personal expenses & also earn about $3,000 summers- so that will add enough to make costs of $24,000 doable expanding his options.</p>

<p>Other than that I can't help since without income except for rental but expecting to help with grad school- is too different from our situation to even predict</p>

<p>FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans
so why aren't you interested in taking out loans?
Im assuming at some point you will have to work to support yourself , although even if you choose not to, it is not unreasonable for students to work and take out loans for the costs of their own education.
I don't like to see student take out huge loans, but if loans are approx $5,000 ea year that is very reasonable to have at graduation</p>

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<p>Make sure you file FAFSA and any other forms on time! That's the only way to know for sure. Different colleges will give you different packages so it will really depend. If your son's grades are better than average for applicants some colleges offer merit aid. A lot of private colleges will also require info from your son's dad if he has one. But do get all the apps and FA forms in by the deadline!</p>

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<p>
[quote]
That if the Fafsa does not screw you then the universities do. If undergrad is going to cost $200,000.00 and then Grad school will cost another $100,000.00 I do not want to have to use all of my retirement savings for that. I do not want my kid to have to take out loans. He wil be paying those back for years.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Sorry you feel that way but schools that use the CSS profile to distribute their institutional funds expect both you and your son to have some skin in the game and they apply the methodology consistently family by family. While no one "likes it" as we would all "like" to pay less, you are looking at private schools that will look at your full financial picture. They will take into consideration the costs involved with you taking care of your elderly mother.</p>

<p>I think the colleges are going to look at the value of the investment property as an asset(since it is not your primary home), the rent collected on the investment property is going to be considered income.</p>

<p>Unless your child is going to a college that has a no loan policy, loans are considered financial aid and will be a part of your son's financial aid package.</p>

<p>As far as grad school is concerned, your son will be considered an independent student and will be able to borrow $20k a year on his own to attend grad school. </p>

<p>Unless you are going to pay all of this out your own pocket, he gets accepted to a fully funded PhD program or he works for an employer who will provide him with tuition remission fro grad school, most of his financial aid for grad school is going to be in the form of loans.</p>

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<p>Mom?? Who is that. Single parent means divorced and dont know/dont care where she is. That was a long long time ago. The fact that I am the Dad and have custody should indicate something (but that is for another web site chat room and not this one).</p>

<p>I am not against some loans and some work/study as well. I had both of those things. when I went to school there were some cake jobs on campus that were great like working in the business library that no one ever went to. But there are also other jobs that really stink, were tiring and take up too much time. I do not want too many loans because i am hearing alot of horror stories about kids having to pay these off for years and years. When I got out of school I was able to pay them off in three years. They were only 3% loans. Are they higher now.</p>

<p>If I have to pay more for my kid to go to a good school I will but guess I am trying to figure out if I can get around $30,000.00 per annum aid if school is going to cost $50,000.00</p>

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<p>am getting ready to do all the applications now. Son only had a 3.13 GPA which I was proud of but I guess that is average in today'world.</p>

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<p>Mom?? Who is that.
The woman referred to in this statement
*We (my son and I) live with my mother. *</p>

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<p>sorry I feel what way? I have no problem putting in some skin and I have said that. I just dont want to have to put in 10 pounds of flesh if I dont have to. </p>

<p>Other than that I appreciate your input as it is ver helpful.</p>

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<p>sorry. i though you were talking about my ex wife. Mom is my mother and my son's grandmother.</p>

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<p>Additionally if there is another living parent PROFILE will ask for information regarding income and wherabouts- although the schools will accept a pastor or other community member who submits a statement indicating that the other parent has no contact and doesn't provide support.</p>

<p>The website I linked to has a calculator which I have found to be fairly accurate- note however that if private schools that use PROFILE are of interest they have extra forms to identify not only extra expenses but additional assets.</p>

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<p>Have you filed income taxes in the last two years? What was your income...any income including investments and such? That could make a difference re: finaid. </p>

<p>Re: whether you will qualify...it seems that via FAFSA you would qualify for something but it would include loans (and I agree with others...we required our kids to take the Stafford loans each year). Also most schools DO assume a student contribution as well. Since we have no idea where your son applied to college, it is hard to say what institutional aid prospects you have.</p>

<p>I would think that FAFSA only schools would be a safer bet than ones requiring the Profile. Your home value won't be considered by FAFSA only schools. I'm not sure how the 529 is treated. Your $235,000 investment will be considered an asset if it's not in a retirement type account...and there is an expectation that you will use that.</p>

<p>With the above assets, I would guess that even though you were not employed and generated no income, that you generated enough dividend/interest income that you need to do a regular 1040 for your taxes.</p>

<p>Are you planning to use some of the 529 to pay for college expenses? If so, 1/4 of that per year will go a long way at most schools.</p>

<p>Could someone here post the info for simplified needs test?? I'm not clear on that one either.</p>

<p>P.S. You SHOULD be proud of your son's GPA!! It's a fine one. I hope he had good standardized test scores too...which will help him with merit aid at some places.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
The fact that I am the Dad and have custody should indicate something

[/quote]
</p>

<p>True, howver if the school in question requires the CSS profile in order for you to recieive financial aid, the non-custodial parent will have to file the non-custodial profile or you will have to get a non-custodial waiver (the college decides if you are eligible).</p>

<p>Simplified needs test:</p>

<p>IFAP</a> - Counselor's Handbooks</p>

<p>
[quote]
</p>

<p>Basically, a dependent student does not have to fill out the asset information in Section F** if the parents' AGI was less than $50,000 and the student and his or her parents were not required to use the IRS Form 1040 to file taxes.** An independent student qualifies for the Simplified Needs Test and does not have to complete Section F when a student's (or a married couple's) AGI is less than $50,000 and the student (or married couple) is not required to file an IRS Form 1040.</p>

<p>

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<p>more on the simplified needs test:</p>

<p>FinAid</a> | FinAid for Educators and FAAs | Simplified Needs Test Chart</p>

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<p>Ill warn you that if you have equity in your home- & you own property, the colleges may expect you to access those assets to pay for college.
Even though we were already paying 1/2 of after tax income for housing costs( I bet smaller than your small house ;) ) for our residence- the private college expected us to either tap into equity or otherwise utilize a loan to pay for the family contribution.</p>

<p>One year we got a bit more aid when we filed the short form for
tax, but generally it was worth it to file long.</p>

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<p>Sorry I got your gender wrong! Your sn started with "hen" which is a female chicken, so that and stereotyping single parent as female made me assume you were a girl!</p>

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<p>Hi. I have to check with the bank next week what i have my money invested in. quite honestly (believe it or not) i just put money into whatever funds the folks at wachovia reccommended to me. i have to check what are really considered retirement accounts. </p>

<p>Question: if they are legitimate retirement accounts i do not have to list them as assets to fafsa nor to the private colleges?? </p>

<p>I put the 529 there to make sure that i had money for my kid's education and i would not blow it. I started with $95.000.00 and it has grown to $135,000.00 so far. I was hoping it would have grown to more than that but it grew to what it grew to. I know that all of this will get spent to send my kid to school but I am hoping that I dont have to go any deeper into my pocket than that. And I was very proud of my son's GPA. it was better than I did.</p>

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<p>how do they determine equity? do they actually force you to go pay for an appraisal or can you make up an estimated value?</p>

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<p>Thanks. I will go to the link and see what i can learn.</p>

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<p>They ask for info about retirement account principal for purposes of seeing if your retirement is underfunded. But the amount itself shouldn't count against you. </p>

<p>You need to make an informed estimate on home equity and keep the documentation. What other houses in neighborhood sold for, zillow.com, realtor.com. If you know a realtor who will give you a written estimate of what that realtor would list it for (without paying for a measuring-tape appraisal) that's also good. You can put down a number at the lower end of your good-faith estimate.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Question: if they are legitimate retirement accounts i do not have to list them as assets to fafsa nor to the private colleges??

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Some schools will ask for the amount of money that is in your retirement account (if the funds are not in a qualified IRA, 401k, 403B, etc, the school may not consider the money to be in a retirement account even if it is your intention to use the money for retirement). While the monies in qualified retirement account probably won't be considered an asset, the monies contributed to the retirement account will be backed out for the year and added back as income (this will not be the case for Ben who has stated he has not contributed to the account for the past 3 years).</p>

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<p>Sybbie covered this well. I'll just add my two cents worth. This is true for schools using a supplemental question about this for the Profile, and for schools that have this question on their own finaid application. I do not believe there is any place on the FAFSA for the VALUE of your retirement accounts (these must be retirement accounts as Sybbie pointed out). The amount you contribute TO your retirement account is added in as income for the year of the FAFSA (in other words, monies contributed to your account for 2007 will be added in), but the value (balance) in your retirement account is not included on the FAFSA.</p>