@madison85 thank you. I’ll try to apply sometime this weekend. I have a bunch of tests these next two days.
@mom2collegekids I have another sibling in college (she’s a freshman) and they pay $25K per year for her. I’ll figure something out because I’m not going to make them pay that much for me when still have other things to pay back.
@cptofthehouse yes, I’m visiting next month for vision. When would be the best time to set up a meeting? During the financial aid presentation on the 2nd day?
@thumper1 I don’t even know if I calculated the AGI correctly. You just divide this years total income divided by the previous years total income multiplied by AGI of previous year right, so (total income 2014)/ (total income 2013) * (AGI 2013)? And what even factors into the AGI?
Would the EFC go down considering my mom is expected to make approximately 30K less this year (2015) as she’s no longer working at this medical clinic and only working at her hospital?
with 200k in income I really don’t think there is any point in filling out the fafsa or css UNLESS schools require it for merit aid. I don’t see you getting any need based aid.
Schools that use FAFSA would divide your EFC by 3 because of 3 members in college. So your 60k EPC would drop to 20k.
Schools that use CSS would adjust it accurately based on the cost of the universities. E.g. if your 2 siblings are going to 60k a year schools and you are going to a 60k a year school they would divide in third. But if one of your siblings is going to be a 20k a year school then your EFC would be higher.
So with 3 family members you might actually be able to receive some need-based aid. However I would point that most schools would expect you to take on 5.5k in Stafford Loans and another 5k or so in parent plus loans before they consider grant money.
What is your family GROSS income. In most cases, the FAFSA EFC is between 1/4 and 1/3 of that gross income.
If your AGI is on the $200,000 range, your gross income is likely higher.
How much aid do you think you will get?
Also, some schools do not just count heads when looking at siblings in college. They also look at the actual cost your parents are paying. So if you have a sister commuting to the local college, those costs would be low. Where is your other sibling going to college.
How are the bills being paid for your siblings to attend college? Are your parents paying the costs?
Also, keep in mind…when the siblings leave college, YOUR aid will go DOWN and your costs will increase. Can or will your parents pay increased costs when that happens.
At this point, all you can do is complete all of the financial aid forms and wait and see. Maybe the money will be forthcoming…and maybe not.
Has it ever dawned on you that even IF your parents can actually afford to pay more that paying for three kids in college at once is not easy…and they would like to see you get some merit aid (some of your schools don’t give it) to help soften the financial blow?
You have at least one affordable option.
You know…it won’t be the end of the world if you attend an undergraduate school that is not $60,000 a year.
@thumper1 my dad is paying their college bills. The other sister goes to IUB. When one of my sisters leaves college then another one is about to enter. I am aware that paying for college for 3 children is not cheap, which is why I have no problem going to any of the schools that gave me their highest instate merit scholarships PU and IU. At the end of the day, I’m going to pick whichever offer provides the least burden for my parents and if that’s instate then that is fine with me. I’ll end up being successful wherever I go to undergrad.
@Madison85 I don’t even think they ran a net price calculator for her. And no, she was only looking at instate schools.
If there are three children in college, the FAFSA parental EFC will be 1/3 of the total for each student. PROFILE schools will use 40%, as a general rule. However, the problem is that you have no idea what any given non FAFSA school will calculate as your expected contribution since a business is involved in all of this.
You are not the whole financial issue here, as you have two other siblings in college. What are their costs? If they are each going to schools costing $60K a year, how will your parents meet their costs? There is no guarantee that they will get more financial aid due to reduction in parental income and additional students in college.
However, to address just you, I would focus on getting the appts with admissions and fin aid when you visit RIce, as they may be able to come to some accommodations with you. Ask what documents you should bring.
Your parents AGI is the what is so defined on the tax form 1040 adjusted for any contribututions made to qualified plans that are deducted from taxes but included as income for fin aid purposes. You should get your parents to put together estimated tax forms for 2014 that you can bring with you, along with copies of 2013 forms.
The EFC uses income actually earned in a year. For the 2015 FAFSA and PROFILE (for school year beginning in fall of 2015-spring 2016), the actual 2014 income is used. Not what you project for 2015 that hasn’t happened, though exceptions are made in cases such as unemployment. When you talk to RIce, you can bring up the fact that your mother is not working at a job she had in 2014, which means loss of that income. How they take it is up to them, but unless the case is dire, the actual numbers are generally used.
No, 2014 AGI has nothing to do with 2013. You add up all sources of income in 2014 which is gross income and subtract any adjustments permitted by the IRS and that’s AGI.
You can see all the sources of income and the allowed adjustments on the form 1040. Lines 7-21 are possible sources of income and lines 23-35 are possible adjustments. There may not even be any adjustments. Line 37 is AGI.
@thumper1 On the 2013 tax return, the gross income was 202000 and it was adjusted in 201000. I don’t think there gross income is much higher than the adjusted one.
@cptofthehouse Oldest sibling: 10K per year. Other sibling: 24K per year.
@annoyingdad I recalculated the AGI based on what you said and it was pretty close to the number I originally had. I just received an email from FAFSA and the EFC was 16700. A lot of the spaces are blank and just have the number listed in line 37.
A lot of the spaces are normally 0 but you did include assets and amounts contributed to pre-tax retirement accounts right? At least a few other lines should have numbers in them too. 16700 still seems a little low for that AGI even with 3 in college but we don’t know the other info. Just remember that as your siblings graduate, EFC for you will increase significantly both for fafsa and profile unless you have have younger siblings who will be entering college while you’re in school.
@mom2collegekids Actually, I doubt that last part. You get patient by the number of patients you see. This is how the business works they get patients from various hospitals and get pay somewhere between 67.5-70 per patient (I do the invoices) to visit the patient at their homes; therefore, there is no need to have a building for the business since they wouldn’t work there. So basically since its doesn’t really have a market value because there is no land, equipment (they buy what they need themselves), or properties if he was to sell it today. And the business made significantly less last year (it made more than 2x as less as it did in 2013) and ended up operating at a loss.
Actually, your business DOES have a value…even if you have no buildings, etc.
You have business contacts which net you patients. If your parents decided NOT to continue working, they would likely hope to sell this “value” to someone else.
Didn’t you say your parent AGI was $200,000? What sort of business has employees that have $200,000 in income but had a “operating loss”?
@thumper1 my mom doesn’t work for him she works in a hospital. The gross receipts for the business was like 200K this year (422 K last year) but the total expenses were like 206K
Sen, when you have a book of business that generates $X a year,it is worth something. You can argue the point, but that is how a business is assessed, and it will come down to how a given school’s financial aid office will view it. They see hundreds of such cases each year, because there are a lot of small businesses out there.
There is a standard way the businesses are treated. Often businesses take deductions,depreciations amortiized expenses, and have other things that make the red ink black when it comes down to the bottom line. If your business were a net loss, your family would not likely be hanging on to it. IT brought in a living income, a pretty danged good one to your family, regardless of how the final figures on the returns read. If your home is being used for the business, there are likely deductions, depreciation being taken for that. That gets added back in when assessed.
I am no expert in these things but the fin aid officers are, as they have to deal with this all of the time. I see nothing unique about your family business just from what you have said. I’m sure there are unique features but so there are with any situation. You should bring the tax returns and paper work so that the fin aid officers can assess your situation, but truly, your parents have a business that 's worth something. If there are no depreciations, amortizations, deductions taken at all for the business on your returns, that’s a whole other story. But again, the case sits in the hands of the fin aid officers when they make that decision, not I, not you, and they may differ in how they treat the case from school to school.
Also bear in mind that a lot of this is not “fair”. I know several cases where it clearly was not by nearly any standard of measure, but “them’s the rules”. It’s their money. But I do advise you plead your case with Rice as you are going there, they seem to want you, they have leeway in making merit/aid determinations, they are a private school.
Again, it will be up to the fin aid offices to evaluate the income and value of the business in accordance to their set rules. Not our determination but theirs.
But think about it for a moment. Any business that can generate income is worth something. To argue that it is not, makes no sense. Are your parents claiming part of the home for business use and getting deductions and depreciation for that? Are they getting amortizations of some expenses? Does the business have equipment, inventory? Believe me, all of these things and more come into the picture of assessing a business. Think in terms of going to a lender to get money to put into the business and the case to make that it’s worth while to do so. That’s how the assessment will go.