<p>I just got off the phone with an extremely nice FA person at Bryn Mawr. I described our situation and she gave me some guidance on how they calculate need:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>For schedule C expenses, they look to see if the family is leasing expensive cars, using part of the home, deducting meals/travel/vacations and adding those back in. She said they do NOT add back in office rental, employee expenses, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>They add back in as income whatever deductible IRA stuff you’re doing. I didn’t get a clear sense of whether they add a Roth-- wouldn’t make sense, since it’s not deductible.</p></li>
<li><p>They don’t look at retirement unless income is reported as 0 and retirement accounts are like 2 million.</p></li>
<li><p>For a kid in community college, they will deduct his tuition but not the full split. A state school would merit the full split.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So not all good news, but not as bad as I feared. I was afraid they were going to add back in office rental, etc. which would make anything but the very cheapest schools possible. Thought I’d share for other hyperventilating parents.</p>
<p>Demeron–Thanks for the useful info. Those adjustments sound reasonable. I’m glad there’s some good news for you.</p>
<p>Very nice, Demeron. I do suggest that families with unusual financial situations or simply owning a business some schools and ask for a pre read. CMU does that routinely, I understand. Asking key quesitons is good too, but you never know if the question you miss asking isn’t one that is an issue. Doing this once the admissions season is over is a good idea. RIght now and til mid May, fin aid offices are bombarded and under tight deadlines. During their less busy periods, they are more likely to be helpful.</p>
<p>Hello and thank you for this very useful column. I am starting down this path and trying to figure out how my hubby’s self-employment status (he owns some equipment and has several schedules that are filed with taxes each year - done by a CPA of course) will be looked at if student decides to apply to a couple of Profile schools in Dec. 2013. Wondering which tax forms will be required to be uploaded … just the 1040 and Schedule A…or all of those other schedules also…? I’m sure I will be back with questions! Please feel free to point me to any helpful websites or other posts, etc. I’m new to this! Thank you.</p>
<p>Amy…the schools that want your tax returns want the whole thing…including ALL schedules filed.</p>
<p>OP returning here, updating the thread for the benefit of other parents breaking into a flop sweat. DD has been accepted by 2 FAFSA schools and 3 Profile schools so far-- I don’t have all the numbers back yet but the out of pocket for us has been at or under 20K per year for an AGI in the low 120’s-- bearing in mind our equity was vacuumed out by the housing downturn. This is only a little more than it would cost to send DD to the state university system (less than for the flagship) and not the $35K or higher that had me quivering in my boots. Bearing in mind our DD is a committed student who got some merit aid everywhere she was accepted, but we also got grant money. It was a rough start to her senior year but 2 early writes (early acceptances for those not yet fluent in college admissions speak) with $18-$25K merit awards made the rest of the process so much less stressful. It was also very helpful to read on CC (obsessively sometimes!) so that there not too many nasty surprises and even some nice ones. Our EFC was about $13K because of another kid in college, and the Profile schools seem to feel we can spend more than that, but overall it looks doable. Knock wood :)</p>