<p>I have a few questions. I hope someone experienced filling out the profile can help me with:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>is it more or less advantageous (or maybe it doesn't matter) how long a parent has held their current job? I (parent 1) worked for many years for one employer, left for 3 years (but freelanced there and was still paid on payroll), then returned 9 months ago to a full-time position. Should I say I've only worked there 9 months or the full length of time (over 15 years)?</p></li>
<li><p>Parent 2 just became unemployed. Where do we list unemployment benefits (we are receiving them without taxes being taken out) for 2010 and 2011?</p></li>
<li><p>How set in stone are these numbers at this point when I am filing early because D is applying EA at a couple of schools? For example, not sure what our income will be in 2011.</p></li>
<li><p>RE: Parents' expected 2011 income-- total amount parent expects to earn--that would be the amount after 401k contribution has been made--correct? Just questimating here.</p></li>
<li><p>RE: Parents' 2011 income-- then where it asks for "payments to tax-deferred pension plans expected"-- that would be the 401 k contribution. So if you add income and 401 k payments it should equal the gross salary (actually a little less because health insurance is taken out pre-tax) Is this correct?</p></li>
<li><p>Market value of home--how do FinAid officers find out those numbers? One could undervalue a little.</p></li>
<li><p>Monthly mortgage payments-- does that include real estate tax and homeowner's insurance? We do not us an escrow account and pay those other expenses separately.</p></li>
<li><p>I expect that D will get some work/study aid for college. Form asks to project how much she expects to earn during that school year but NOT to include work study. I do not expect her to have time to study and work AND have another job, so I would enter a "0" there, but will that look bad?</p></li>
<li><p>The economy is so bad and many students can't find summer jobs. How are we supposed to project how much $ D will make next summer?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I can’t answer most of your questions, but since you have employment issues, I hope that your D is applying to some schools that meet full need with no or small loans…AND…that she’s applying to some schools that will give her assured scholarships. </p>
<p>Are you prepared to pay your expected family contribution? If not, then financial safety schools may become very important to your family. (Financial safeties are schools that you know FOR SURE that you’ll have all costs covered thru ASSURED scholarships/grants and/or family funds.)</p>
<p>3. How set in stone are these numbers at this point when I am filing early because D is applying EA at a couple of schools? For example, not sure what our income will be in 2011.</p>
<p>At this point, the numbers can be off a bit, but understand that once you adjust those numbers to true numbers, your aid can be changed to reflect those new numbers. However, since it sounds like you’re doing EA and not ED, that shouldn’t be an issue. ED kids get their FA packages early, so any number changes after that can change aid.</p>
<p>*
9. The economy is so bad and many students can’t find summer jobs. How are we supposed to project how much $ D will make next summer?*</p>
<p>You probably need to project that she’ll earn something. You may not know this but most or all “full need” schools include a “summer earnings” expectation, so if your D doesn’t earn that amount, you’re on the hook for it.</p>
<p>Just looked at my Profile that I filed on Dec 8, 2009. </p>
<p>Parents Data (PD) Question 1 “Is this parent self-employed or unemployed?”
“If this parent is unemployed enter the date the unemployment began.” </p>
<p>You must answer above for both parents. </p>
<p>I never include taxes or insurance in the mortagage payment figure. </p>
<p>Colleges use some kind of Housing Index for value of house. (I think this is on the Finaid website, so you can plug in year you bought house & for what amount & supposedly it will give you a today’s value-LOL, so many people are “upside down”) I always ask our real estate agent who sold us the house 30 years ago, she gives me some comparitive numbers of recently sold houses. Do not overstate the value of your home! </p>
<p>Projected income for 2011? Kalman Chany of “Paying for College without Going Broke” says to use at least 20% lower income than year before. Don’t include your 401K deduction, colleges will add back in retirement contributions to your income. </p>
<p>Go buy “Paying For College Without Going Broke” Princeton Review 2011 Edition. </p>
<p>When you submit the Profile, make sure when you print it out, you get a really good copy for yourself. You will be making corrections on this copy after your taxes are done for 2010 & mailing the corrected copy to all the FA Offices of the Profile schools. </p>
<p>I hope I have answered some of your questions.</p>
<p>1- I would say 9 months but I don’t think it matters much. </p>
<p>6- You can use the federal housing index. Some people here have used some online sites or have mentioned having real estate agents estimate. Others have pointed out that the sale price is what you would expect to get today, not if you held out for an optimum price. Others have said they deduct real estate commission. </p>
<p>7- I think most people are including taxes and homeowner’s ins in their estimate. Personally, I’ve always included taxes but not insurance.</p>
<p>8 & 9 - Put in 0. If the school meets full need, they won’t expect her to work during the school year on top of a work-study either. If they don’t, it doesn’t matter. As far as the summer, most schools will expect her to work summers and they have a set amount that they estimate students earn per year. (Ex Freshman are expected to earn X, sophs Y).</p>
<p>D is applying to Northeastern, Simmons, Brandeis, Tufts, BU, Brown, Smith, Clark, maybe Hampshire and UPENN. Very wide spread group. Refuses to apply to a state school. She has good stats so we are hoping that with current change in employment that there will be good fin aid somewhere in that group.</p>
<p>Would like to hear from others regarding the issue of including tax and insurance in mortgage payment listing…</p>
<p>“PE-150 Parents monthly home mortgage/rental payment”. </p>
<p>“If you own your primary residence, include the monthly mortgage payments (first and second) on the house, condominium, or cooperative apartment, as well as the maintenance fees, and home equity loan payments. Otherwise list the monthly rent that you pay. Not that it will do you much good. These numbers are not factored into the formula.” Paying For College Without Going Broke 2011 Edition, page 182. </p>
<p>While he does not mention escrow or insurance payments, whatever you put down in that question, it will not matter because the number is not part of the IM or Institutional Methodology formula. I personally do not include them as I believe when you click on the “help” box while you are doing the CSS Profile, it tells you not to, but I could be wrong on this! I better re-educate myself as I will have to do one in February-LOL…</p>
<p>I included tax and insurance - the financial aid advisor told me that was correct. I figured that I have to pay that amount of money every month or the home will be foreclosed on by the bank!<br>
Zillow is not very accurate - it gives a range based on recent sales, so unless your house is typical, it will be way off. Tax assessments the same. The index is by state, I believe. I bought my house before the crash in MA in 1988, which was over 20 years ago, so that index is way off for my house.<br>
I did use Zillow to look at recent sales of similar houses in my town, and came up with my best estimate of what my house will sell for, then deducted the needed repairs (chimney work that would definitely show up in a home inspection).</p>
<p>An aside, but…this list makes me nervous for you as none of the safety schools meets need. Doesn’t matter much to them what the Profile says. If your DD is a 4.0/2200 I’m less worried, but still.</p>
<p>Thought I saw a thread this AM that said Brandeis was phasing out merit aid?
If so, that might be something to check into, look before you leap, you know.</p>
<p>I included health/dental insurance in the question for pre-tax health savings account, since it looks like that should include all pre-tax amounts. Either there or in the last question about other untaxed earnings.</p>
<p>CSS profile has a “comments” section at the end (they don’t call it that but you get up to 27 lines to explain unusual circumstances, etc.) and I broke down my mortgage payment for them. To me, mortgage payment includes principal and interest, and 2nd mortgage payments, 1/12 of annual property taxes and 1/12 of annual homeowner’s insurance. Plus any private mortgage insurance or flood insurance. So whatever number you put, you can explain it in the comments section. Tax and insurance are part of your housing debt, so leaving them out would give them a falsely low impression of your obligations.</p>
<p>Zillow was $300K lower than the federal housing link. I would list something within those reference points and also using the value you’d get if you sold it today, net of RE commission.</p>
<p>I don’t get that. A mortgage payment is a mortgage payment…principal and interest. If they wanted total housing cost, I think CSS would ask for your monthly mortgage payment AND your monthly property tax obligation AND your monthly property insurance cost. We provide the number they ask for = mortgage payment.</p>
<p>^which is why I broke it down – so if they define mortgage payment the way you do, they can deduct the components for tax and insurance. Not everyone defines it the way you do.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s because I work in the mortgage industry, but in talking to borrowers, most of them think of their mortgage payment as the one they make that includes taxes and insurance…</p>
<p>I just called Northeastern U where D applied EA. They told me to include in monthly mortgage payment P & I and taxes and insurance if I paid it that way in one payment. But they also said put it that way even if I don’t pay it all together. Then they said I could explain it in the comments section. So I am going to include everything.</p>
<p>RE: house value- they use Zillow – which is unfortunate as Zillow was higher than Fed housing index.</p>
<p>One other question I forgot to ask–profile asks for amounts in coverdall IRA and 529 account, then asks later for amount parents can contribute for 2011-2012. Is that on top of IRA and 529? For us, the contribution is going to come from the IRA and 529 (1/4 of the total amount in these accounts). We don’t have any extra money.</p>
<p>D is applying to Northeastern, Simmons, Brandeis, Tufts, BU, Brown, Smith, Clark, maybe Hampshire and UPENN. Very wide spread group. Refuses to apply to a state school. She has good stats so we are hoping that with current change in employment that there will be good fin aid somewhere in that group.</p>
<p>2college2college quote: *this list makes me nervous for you as none of the safety schools meets need. Doesn’t matter much to them what the Profile says. If your DD is a 4.0/2200 I’m less worried, but still. *</p>
<p>*D has 3.9 average and 2160 sat 33 act.</p>
<p>As far as I know Smith meets needs, I think Brandeis does too. *</p>
<p>The point is that these colleges get to determine WHAT YOUR need is. YOU DON’T get to determine that figure. What will you do if these colleges say that you can pay a lot more than you can?</p>
<p>Have you estimated what your likely “family contribution” will be at full need schools? And what about the schools that don’t meet full need?</p>
<p>I think you need to employ the idea of having your D apply to a couple of “parent pick” schools which may be her financial safety schools. Your D’s refusal to apply to any state schools suggests to me, (and I may be wrong) that she figures that as long as there’s not a cheaper alternative amongst her acceptances, you’ll pony up the money some way (That’s why some students refuse to apply to financial safety schools).</p>
<p>^Very good point, Mom2collegekids – because upstatemom shouldn’t end up with lots of acceptances but with much less aid that she was counting on.</p>
<p>Maybe pitch it to D this way: if you get into schools where their aid still leaves a gap, you can defer for a year and get a minimum wage job to help make up the difference.</p>
<p>If you say that, I bet she’ll apply to any school you want. :)</p>
<p>D has said I could pick any state school I wanted for her to apply to, but that she does not want to go to a state school and will take out multiple loans if necessary to NOT go to a state school.</p>
<p>Of course, she doesn’t realize that there is a low limit to how much money a student can borrow.</p>
<p>Also, from what I have found, the state schools here are about the same price as a private school with average financial aid packages. Husband recently lost job. So our projected income is low for next year. It will be under $100,000 for this year. D has good stats too. If she gets into Northeastern, we will get an estimate aid package at the same time (mid- December). That will help us determine future fin aid/ financial safety school and what if any school D should add to her list.</p>