<p>Jolynne…depending on the situation with our son’s father you may want to consider FAFSA only schools. Schools which require the profile are going to want non custodial parent information.</p>
<p>Jolynne, the way the financial aid calculators work puts most of the onus on the income. So any additional income will increase the contribution your family is required to make. If your family is making a middle class income, it is doubtful that you are getting anything from the government anyways, other than a crack at the unsubsidized loans. FAFSA only schools do not tend to fully fund their students. In fact they usually leave a sizeable gap. That leaves the PROFILE type schools that tend to scrutinize every friggin’ cent you have and might have. However, those are the schools that have the most leeway in giving out money.</p>
<p>In my opinion, unless your income tips you into a whole new category, that is without it you are entitled to a bunch of aid, and that additonal bit is a cliff drop in aid, you are always better off having more money than less, in the college dance. It gives you more flexibility. It may lose you money in certain specific situations, but overall it gives you more options. </p>
<p>I did not expect much with this third son in terms of aid, and was pleasantly surprised. By picking schools that wanted a student like him, he was able to get some decent merit pickings, unlike his brothers who got at most token amounts of merit aid. It would not have made a bit of difference if we had more or less income in terms of what he got. The fact that we have some money saved for college just makes it easier for us to go with his choice. If I went to work, the same would go for the extra money. Since we miss the cut offs for financial aid, additional income is not an issue for getting money at that route. </p>
<p>For all the crying and belly aching about how people are penalized for making more money and having assets, the truth of the matter is that most of the time, you are better off, the more you have. You may not get the full bang for each marginal buck, but you will get something.</p>
<p>I just zipped through this thread. Some really great ideas. Wish I’d read them a little sooner as they could have helped out. Thanks to all of you who contributed.</p>
<p>Just to add my experience about all of this. The folks I know who get a lot of financial aid that seems be over the top considering how they are living (they have a nice, big house, great vacations, great cars, expensive stuff, designer clothes, luxury lifestyle, private schools, clubs and lessons) have relatives, usually parents who subsidize their lifestyles. Need a new car? Mother’s day gift. Let’s all celebrate with a cruise to Alaska. Kid wants to go to Europe. Of course he can. Need help buying that house that is out of price range, here is a loan that does not have to be repaid. The money does not show up on the family income statements but is all pervasive in the family lifestyles. So when it come time to fill out financial aid forms, such families often make out well, especially if their kids are high performers as well. I know of at least two families right now who have hit the college scholarship jackpot this year. Two in college, private colleges, private schools, multi million dollar homes, luxury cars and trappings, generous financial aid packages. Unfair? Of course it is. But we are not fairly born into our families.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse–wow, thanks for that detailed response, appreciate. I now know I’ve got to research the whole FAFSA/PROFILE issue in more detail (at fin aid seminar for parents at HS – got the impression it was: ‘fill out the FAFSA & see where the chips fall’ – seems there’s more…). Thanks for validating my initial thought-- the more $$ you have the better, even if there are penalties/reductions in aid here or there.</p>
<p>ebeee – um…no big income (whatsoever) from bio dad, but step-dad has upper mid class income. If I remember right, all parental figures are included for income purposes for students! lol</p>
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<p>This may not be a deterrent to applying to profile schools if the child’s primary residence is the parent with the least income. For instance, mom who may be pell grant eligible. Some schools base FA primarily on the custodial parents assets and take the non custodial parents financial information, even if remarried, as a small factor or not at all. It depends on the institution.</p>
<p>cpt you have described my neighbors. The mom is a Vassar grad pediatrician and Dad is a Columbia educated attorney. The mom has a VERY generous, never married uncle, who started the law firm her husband works for. They live in the uncles old (million $$$) house. He gave it to them when he moved into his golf-course condo. She works 2-3 days/ week spending most of her time at uncles winter ski-cabin or uncles lake place. Husband spends a lot of time golfing. They have no retirement saved because they will inherit everything from uncle. There combined annual income is < 75K/year, but they go to Europe or Australia every year. Both of their children attended small LACs and received very generous FA packages uncle paid the rest. Uncle buys a new auto every other year and gives them his old one.</p>
<p>I am not upset about their situation they are lucky. My only whine is that no one would assume their kiddos are on FA. Where as, most or many, will assume my AfAm kid is a FA student and we are paying full freight.</p>
<p>Thanks, madville! Your first sentence–not our situation. Good to know there is some variability in schools consideration of ‘all relevant adults’ re: student!</p>
<p>For all the neighbors, associates, etc. people are describing, who receive ‘lifestyle gifts,’ most FA forms I’ve had to fill out quite specifically ask about such things. That includes ongoing support, ongoing gifts (such as memberships, etc.), and outright material single-purchase items. Therefore, the families in question are being dishonest; that’s all I can conclude. For example, say you’re poor but want to attend a private school or take private music lessons & can afford neither. If a relative or other source pays such bills on your behalf, that’s reportable income, on most of the forms I’ve seen. And again, normally the forms also ask for make/model of car, year, etc., which should be a clue. (This is assuming the applicant family owns the car. If they own it – whoever paid for it – it should go in the asset column, & an FA office could reasonably wonder how a person of limited means could afford an expensive, fairly new car. Ditto if that family does not list <em>debt</em> regarding that car. That means they either are wealthy enough to pay with cash, or someone purchased it for them, is making payments for them.)</p>
<p>So I wonder how well some FA forms are being scrutinized. Zipcode should be some kind of a giveaway, too, as well as outstanding balance on a mortgage. If some of the middle-class posters here with zipcodes indicating an expected price range, are your <em>neighbors</em>, then again, the FA office is not using some common sense to verify info. </p>
<p>SS, late reply:
Peace. Wasn’t trying to stir up trouble. Actually, if you yourself were to read several threads recently active on PF about FA (one of them almost 40 pages), you would see how little I exaggerate, & I think you would be similarly surprised at the level of just amazing misinformation & assumptions. Knowing your posts, I doubt that you share in such assumptions, but you may be surprised to see how many people on CC really do think this way.
:)</p>
<p>Those questions must be on the CSS profile. They are not on the FAFSA form.</p>
<p>O.K. Fair enough, cartera. I’ve had to fill out 3 types of forms over the last 6 yrs. or so: FAFSA, CSS, and often separate institutional forms from particular colleges, which tend to ask additional detailed questions. The formula a college uses can vary from college to college.</p>
<p>epiphany -In the case of our neighbors - I have no idea what they disclosed on their kiddos FA forms. I believe uncle still owns the home they live in and the cars they drive. We live in a town of 28,000 and we all have the same zip code.</p>
<p>Profile also tailors its questions to the schools applied to. I filled out the Profile for 6 different schools, and not once did I have to tell them anything about our cars. It says right up front that colleges will only get the questions they ask for (if one college wants Question 52, and the other doesn’t, only the one that wants it will get it). That’s why the questions aren’t “numbered” in the logical way they are in FAFSA.</p>
<p>I remember back about 4 yrs ago being asked about cars. Think it was for Cornell.</p>
<p>Yes, Cornell asked about cars this year as well.</p>
<p>So did Vassar.</p>
<p>We were definately asked about cars</p>
<p>About the reference to people with over the top lifestyles getting aid, it does not always happen. We know a family who lives above what they can afford. Mother has usually had a part time job, and dad has a great job. Income is around 130k (the H told my H). They think nothing of spending $400-500 on a Saturday night, always paid a babysitter on top of that, have fancy cars, and waste a lot of money on expensive clothes (think very high end retail stores like Neiman Marcus). They wanted to send one of their kids to a private high school, and applied for FA. They had to put down the cars that they drive (think Mercedes, Lexus, etc.), income, and the address of their custom built new home. They did not get a dime in financial aid. They were convinced that they would get financial aid at the private high school, and we could not understand why they thought that they would be awarded aid.</p>
<p>^^^^Clueless perhaps, dishonest not necessarily.</p>
<p>Penn also asked about cars</p>
<p>northeastmom I know several families like the one you described, but they are different than what cpt mentions in her post #323 and my neighbors who have a wealthy relative that supports their upper middle class life style. These families are able to receive generous FA packages because their reported income and assets are much lower than their actually worth because of extended family support.</p>