<p>i saw the title of this thread and had to throw in my two cents. Nothing ****es me off more than this: my parents have worked multiple jobs seven days a week to put me into a private school. I get some financial aid but the yearly tuition is nearly $20,000...ok so my parents make $65,000 a year, but that all gets put into tuition for the school. Now my brother is going there which means my parents will barely be able to contribute to me for college. This is ignored by FAFSA and many other scholarship oppurtunities...they simply look at money coming in, not the fact that my parents work so that i can afford a better schooling.</p>
<p>In addition it ****es me of that the more i work and SAVE, the less aid money i get. This is soo stupid to me. Why should one kid, who spends all his money get more money than me?, because i was responsible and saved? </p>
<p>These two facts combined, the fact that my parents make 65k and i saved money are single handedly screewing me over...i only hope that the college i choose to attend is willing to look a little deeper than just money in, and realizes that i indeed am certaninly not able to contribute $17,000 per year as my EFC stated.</p>
<p>The PROFILE used for many private schools does take into account tuition for siblings.
While I understand your frustration with FAFSA not taking bills into account, that is the same for other families who may have high costs for medical bills, education for a parent, and unlike medical bills, choosing private school is a choice. THe same money could also go toward moving to a better district. If you are paying $17,000+ a year for private school as you indicate above, it doesn't seem unreasonable for FAFSA to assume that you could continue to pay that amount for college tuition.</p>
<p>Maybe there should be a spin-off thread from this one called "Too much income for rich families". Somehow I just thought that was funny.</p>
<p>I would agree with you emarald kitty, if that was whatn i paid, however we get some financial aid from my school, to the tune of 7,000.....so we only pay between 9 or 10k....why then should the EFC say 17k. the only thing i can point to is all the money which i have made working over the past 5 or 6 years, and i think that that is wrong that theyb would penalize me for the forsight to try to save money for college.</p>
<p>Shawn, I know that is frustrating as hell and my family faces the same thing as we save for my son's college and are paying private school tuition.</p>
<p>I guess the one thing to keep in mind is that a good education is its own reward. The fact that you and your family value education so much, and have made choices that mean you have to devote a lot of family resources to education, suggests you're going to get a lot out of your studies. It is, of course, personally galling to know that families with a more cavalier attitude are getting sweeter aid packages. But I suspect your education will be worth every penny.</p>