Hi, I have a couple of questions pertaining to the FAFSA/CSS. My parents previously didn’t fill out the FAFSA for my siblings because they wouldn’t have received any aid; however, recently their income has went down and I would qualify for aid at some schools. So basically, I’m doing the whole financial aid process alone accept when I need information that isn’t found on any of their tax returns. Thanks in advance for answering.
Here are my questions.
- []Do you include a small business <10 employees as assets in FAFSA? (Specializes in out patient physical therapy as in they drive to the patients houses)
[]How much would listing the business on the CSS affect my EFC? (My dad made $90710 from his business last year, but some of his employees make more than him as they get paid a fixed amount per patient depending on which hospital they get patients from)
[] Should we even list him as self-employed as the business is ran in our home and I don’t think it has a high market value
[] Does owing money on a home decrease the EFC? [They owe $100,000+ on a home that was built in 2010 for approximately $600,000 with a current market value of 558000(according to Zillow)]. When I ran the NPC for schools like Rice the EFC was around $18,000 but for Brown it was around $33,000 and that one asked questions about debt on the home. (I have 2 siblings already in college)
Their estimated adjusted income for 2014 was approximately 205,000
Sorry for all the questions, this is a really confusing process. Thank you for taking the time to answer.
No, a small business is not included on the FAFSA as assets unless there are 100 or more full time equivalent employees.How CSS PROFILE schools will handle business assets will vary from school to school.
Primary home residence values are not reported on FAFSA. They are for PROFILE, again, it varies from school to school how home equity is counted. You do list the current market value less any loans outstanding. Do some research on what you should use and consider as the market value. Some school will cap the home value by income or some multiple thereof. Some don’t. That could explain the differential between Brown and RIce’s Net PRice Calculations. .
Though your FAFSA EFC will give you the very LEAST you can expect to pay before getting federal money, the schools themselves will give you their packages based on their own calculators Due to the business in the picture, the NPCs are not likely to be accurate for you.
Make sure you have some schools on your list that you know you and your family can afford and that will take you Those are the most important schools on any list.
@cptofthehouse thank you for responding. I really hope the home value doesn’t end up raising the net price of the other schools. I just don’t understand why the cost/market value of a home has such a huge affect on the net price when almost 30% of the cost of the house still needs to be paid off.
The way it works for the home value is that you take the expected net market value less the loans against it. That means your family has an asset that is worth about 70% of the cost. In your case, that is about $458,000 in assets that a family in the exact income bracket as yours would not have if they did not own such a house. However, some schools do cap the value of home equity to the AGI or a multiple thereof. So yes, for schools that use that value, it will affect your financial aid by as much as $25K or so (just rough estimate here).
By running some NPCs, you are already seeing some variations in estimated expected payment amounts. You also have the complication of a family business that may be valued in different ways. Hopefully, something will pan out that is affordable, but you should also make contingency plans in case you don’t get the aid/awards you need to go to college. Look for some affordable options.
@cptofthehouse Rice and Yale were actually the more affordable options compared to in-state including the merit scholarships I was awarded. Now, I’m scared that home value will cause those net prices to skyrocket as well, and there is no way my parents are paying that much as they already have to pay back loans on my two siblings and my mom’s doctorate degree. I don’t mean to sound like a whiny brat; it’s just frustrating because I originally thought I picked schools that would be the least burden on them (if I got accepted), but now it seems like I was wrong.
On a side note, is there a more accurate way to figure out the home value? I just checked Zillow and the value of the home increased once again (last month it was valued at 485K today it’s at 568K–the price I listed above was from last Monday).
I would google the subject of getting the market value for a home for financial aid purposes. There are experts out there giving such advice. Also call the fin aid offices and get some suggestiions. If the school caps the home equity, it won’t matter, since it’s capped by income reported, The asset hit is usually 5.6-8% by formula, so it’s still going to make an impact.
It is highly likely that there will be an effect on your aid awards due to your family business and home value, so do look for other options as well that are definitely affordable, not maybe with your situation. Schools like Fordham, Hofstra, UDenver, have some very nice merit awards that someone who is looking at Yale and Rice.
Did you say your parent estimated adjusted gross income for 2014 is $205,500?
If so, your estimated family contribution the way I estimate is between $50,000 and $60,000 a year.
How much need based aid were you hoping to get?
Your father is self employed. While his business is not listed on the FAFSA or Profile, he likely takes deductions on his taxes that schools will add back in as income. This happens at a number of schools.
The other very I ortant thing…the net price calculators are NOT accurate for families where a parent is self employed.
@cptofthehouse Thanks for all your help. I seriously appreciate it :).
@thumper1 Approximately that much. There is no way they can afford $50-$60K per year, that was the net price for those schools back when they were making more than $250K per year. They don’t just support us with that money that money also goes back to support their extremely large families in Nigeria (they are the first in both of their families to come to America). Well, I was hoping to get at least as much as what the net price calculator said for the schools aside from Brown. Now, I’m just really sad about the whole situation.
Don’t be sad. Take action. You have good stats if you are considering some of these very competitive schools. Did you apply anywhere where you would receive merit aid? Did you only apply to $50,000 a year colleges?
With $200,000 in income, your family contribution likely comes close to or exceeds the cost of attendance at most colleges it does. That is a very high income…four times the national family average.
The colleges compute what they believe your family can PAY. If you can’t afford that amount…then the school is not affordable.
It is nice that your family is helping other family members in your former country, but that is viewed as a choice by the colleges. They will expect your parents to pay for college first.
@thumper1
I received the Presidential Scholarship from Alabama (the 25k per year one), but I have no plans of actually going there. I received a 10K scholarship from Purdue and an 8K scholarship from IU. I may have been “unofficially accepted” to Rice, which is currently my top joice, as I got invited to Vision.
The other schools I applied to were Rice, Brown, and Yale. The only I guess “match” school I applied to was UNC-Chapel Hill. I didn’t bother to apply to many other match schools because I didn’t really see the point if they weren’t going to be affordable. Aside from the safeties, I only applied to the schools that met 100% of need, fit me, and had a good net price on the calculators.
Colleges aren’t going to give your family more money just so that they can continue to send money abroad. If colleges did that, it would be as if THEY were supporting your relatives abroad…do you see how crazy that would be?
Are you a NMSF or a NA finalist?
You and your family need to make choices…either they pay for your college and tell the relatives that they can’t support them for a couple of years (until older sib graduates)…or they can continue to pay and you will have to go to a school that will give you huge merit for stats.
Your parents should have considered THIS issue when #1 child was picking schools. You’re the one who is left “holding the bag”.
I see that you have an acceptance from Alabama…were you awarded full tuition? Are you a NMSF or NAF?
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State: Indiana
School Type: Public (This year EA so far: 2 Stanford, 1 UChicago, 1 UPenn, 2 Notre Dame)
Ethnicity: African-American
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: > 200,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM
Intended Major: Chemistry. Minor in psychology
Professional Goals: Pre-medicine
[/QUOTE]
You have an ACT 33…if you get admitted to Stanford, then you might get some aid. Were you deferred??
You’re premed.
That Presidential Scholarship for $25,000 to Alabama is very generous. Too bad you aren’t considering that school more seriously.
Have your parents told you how much is the most they can promise to pay each year for four years?
UW-Madison has a full tuition scholarship program for under-represented minorities. Financial need is not necessary. But the deadlines are in less than 2 weeks and the scholarship is not guaranteed. Chancellor’s Scholarship. Then you only need to pay room, board, books - $10k/year.
@mom2collegekids I actually decided not to apply to Stanford. Palo Alto is a wee bit too expensive for me and there doesn’t seem to be much you can do outside on campus in that city on a budget.
And no I’m not a NMSF and I don’t even know what NA is. To be honest, I probably could have taken the PSAT more seriously last year, but I didn’t even know it was all that important to begin with.
They actually let my oldest sibling go where she wanted to go even though her grades weren’t that great because they felt bad because they didn’t push her hard enough in highschool because they too were new to the whole American school system. She ended up leaving that school mid-semester (they are still paying that back) and coming back to home and commuting to a nearby college.
At the end of the day, I’m going to pick whichever school places the least financial burden on them as I have to younger siblings that will be going to college soon as I finish.
@thumper1 Even though, bama has a pretty large African-American population (not that I really care how many African Americans attend a school) hefty racism is just something I don’t particularly want to deal with in college. Like I deal with it now, but I don’t want to deal with it for the next couple of years as well. The whole thing with the sororities was a turn off because I plan on rushing if I don’t go to a school with residential colleges. Like I deal with it now, but I don’t want to deal with it for the next couple of years as well.
@madison85 they said preferably not more than 20K per year. And is that a February 1st deadline?
@sen302015: First you have to apply to UW-Madison, then also complete the Chancellor’s Scholarship application:
http://www.admissions.wisc.edu/freshman/apply.php
http://www.admissions.wisc.edu/freshman/deadlines.php
Application is due February 2, and while not announced yet, you have some time beyond February 2nd for all other materials to be received (transcript, rec letters, AP scores).
Next you’d need to separately apply for the Chancellor’s Scholarship (deadline is February 3rd by midnight):
http://provost.wisc.edu/csp.htm
http://provost.wisc.edu/prospective-csp-applicants.htm
http://provost.wisc.edu/how-to-apply.htm
But please note that you need your ‘NetID’ from the application for admission in order to apply for the Chancellor’s scholarship - so if you are at all interested - apply to UW asap (tonight! or tomorrow!).
If I were a betting woman, I’d say those $50,000 plus a year schools are NOT going to give you $30,000 or more in need based aid with an AGI of $205,500…even $200,000. You will be lucky if you get $15,000 in need based aid.
Your family will be exoected to contribute their family contribution…which I personally think will be closer to $50,000 a year than to $20,000 a year.
Some of the schools you are discussing do not give any merit aid at all.
I hope you have a school where your net cost is $20,000.
[QUOTE=""]
Even though, bama has a pretty large African-American population (not that I really care how many African Americans attend a school) hefty racism is just something I don't particularly want to deal with in college.
[/QUOTE]
??
There isn’t hefty racism at Bama. I think you should visit.
sounds like your parents aren’t paying much for your sister now…so can they afford your school costs now?
Are you visiting Rice? If you are, set up personal appointments with the admissions office and with financial aid and lay out the issue on the table. Let admissions know this is your first choice school and what it will take for you to go there, and tell them it’s a tough thing for you to have to say this, and see if there is any way to work something out. It is possible–can’t count on it, but possible.