Been following this thread. Awww, this is so great! 4sugarplums, I’m so happy for you and your D! Tears of happiness here too!
Didn’t read the whole thread but it sounded like your kid is getting a free ride, you have money in a 529 plan and will owe 3k+ a year in health insurance fees.
Since health insurance is not an eligible expense under the 529 plan rules you think they cannot be used for medical insurance but I disagree. You can withdraw the money you need. The KEY is you only pay the federal/state taxes and 10% penalty on any gains. The principle (you contributed) is never subject to taxes and penalties.
For example, today your balance in your 529 is $7,000. You contributed 5k over the years, have earned interest/gains of $2,000. Your taxes and penalties are approximately $1,200 (will pay combined taxes of 50% of the gain,$1000 and 10% penalty of $200).
You have $5,800 cash today ($7,000 - $1,200) to pay for the next two years of health insurance bills.
You can liquidate your 529 Plan even if those expenses are not eligible and even with paying taxes and penalties you are still well ahead.
Hope that makes sense?
@socaldad2002 Read posts #149 and #150
@socaldad2002 - none of that applies 
. No free ride (just partial scholarship) and absolutely no 529 plan. But you got the $3000/yr health insurance part right! But missed the part where a benefactor paid it
@4sugarplums - In my focus to supply the gift rules, I forgot to offer congrats on your good fortune - and also a thank you to the wonderful human being whose generosity toward a total stranger is heart warming (melting!).
Awesome outcome for the OP and her daughter!
Agree. If the gift is to a parent, there is no FAFSA reporting as untaxed income. Also, it’s not taxable income for anyone under IRS statutes/regulations. FAFSA asset rules apply as previously discussed.
Happy story.
Wow! So glad I came back to this thread tonight. What a great way to end the weekend. So happy for you and your daughter. Hoping she has a wonderful college experience at AS and in Atlanta!
Since you have a younger daughter and the question may come up again, I’d like to add that you do not have to hide from anyone in Germany that you are homeschooling your children, dual nationality notwithstanding.
It is not that homeschooling as such is considered illegal in Germany - you can teach your children at home as much or as little as you like, as long as you send your kid that is RESIDENT in Germany to brick and mortar school in Germany in the mornings. (Elementary school children may be home by 11 am, secondary school students by 1 pm, not great for working moms, but you bet there’s lots of afterschooling happening by SAHMoms, particularly to manage the all important transition to college prep track for 5th or 7th grade).
(Of course there is history there, if anyone is interested).
No German official will give two hoots whether a kid resident in Mississippi, USA, is or isn’t going to school in Mississippi.
What you may have avoided of course is getting grief about your choices from well meaning and/or officious relations, who will not understand what homeschooling is about at all. Their culture. Your culture. It’s all fine.
Or you can maybe link up with some other homeschooling groups online (I expect the homeschooling forum out here would be able to help), and prepare the types of documentation colleges want to see for the younger kid. I think everyone out here learned a ton with their first kid’s search, and adapts some things for the second.
The younger kid, 15, chose to start high school this year. She actually showed up to try out for archery in January, never having shot before, and this weekend was awarded the school’s Top Female Archer. So I am guessing she will stay in for the long haul I loved homeschooling but I guess that part of my life is now over! And maybe, if she sticks with it, this one will get some scholarship $ for archery, if there is such a thing!
Congratulations on this all working out! Agnes Scott is a fine school. Your DD has a wonderful opportunity.
Several things came out in this thread that are important in the college process. The first is health insurance. One more thing for those who have a budget to have to watch. If you are in an HMO plan, or as the IP’s daughter, CHIP, or any insurance that does not meet the mark, it can be a sizeable hole in the financial planning. I can tell you that we got a good ACA policy for one of sons who moved out of state for a job training and career opportunity that cane to just a few dollars a month with the Premium Tax Credit. It was not an east do, however and so had to personally run it through as he was not likely to be able to do so himself. The health insurance issue is one that does need to be highlighted $3k a year is not insubstantial to many people.
The other issue, is with Homeschooling. I have the upmost respect for Homeschoolers who do it right. Their kids tended to d very well in the groups I knew. I homeschooled a few years for two of my kids, and I was nowhere as good as these families I knew. A dedicated homeschooling family can give so much to their children and gain much too.
When it comes to high school homeschooling and college possibilities, many homeschooling families run into problems. It’s a whole other set of rules. You miss something, don’t do things a certain way, your kid can miss out. Most high schools do cater to the college crowd and do make sure that at least state and local college requirements are communicated to parents and met. Those wonderful homeschooling groups I knew during lower grades did not do do well. Their kids were often better prepared in some areas, maybe mostcareas than mine, but with few exceptions, some important things were missed. A number of families put their kids in local high schools for the last several years to make sure college requirements were met. Those kids tended to do well. Navigating college applications, financial aid, merit awards, not to mention nuances is a difficult journey. It can be done well in homeschool settings but the parents have to learn the college admittance rules early. There is a thread on this forum where a student missed the Bright Future ride because no one checked on the requirements for the award until too late to make them all. I see this a lot and a dear friend’s daughter, brilliant girl who badly needed the money missed a given award because they just didn’t know the terms. It hurt.
I’m glad this worked out well. Too often, no SugarPlum fairy steps in.
@cptofthehouse, Yes, we were very, very lucky our Fairy stepped in. We didn’t ask for it and certainly never expected it. We consider ourselves more blessed than you can possibly imagine. Though I do hate for that issue to get lumped into the homeschool issue.
And here’s the thing about that - homeschooling can be a wonderful, beautiful thing. And I never wanted it to turn into a public school at home. To ME, that’s not the point of homeschooling. My oldest was withering and dying in public school…we watched it happen. She came alive again when we brought her home. She got to go and do wonderful things because of it. Were we lacking in some other things? Yes, of course. Upper sciences with labs come to mind. But I had hoped colleges - the ones we picked specifically - would see that she was never going to be a science (or math) major, see her perfect scores in English and Reading on the ACT and her Scholastic writing awards and her political stuff and other out of the box stuff that that wouldn’t matter. You see on here all these public and private school kids just ticking the boxes off for what they think colleges want and look for without really doing the living and the learning. I didn’t want that. And I was hoping some schools would look beyond those ticked boxes and look at the whole kid and the things she did do and accomplish. So, yes, I am disappointed and bitter about that part. I’m willing to take responsibility for the things we didn’t know soon enough and maybe knew and didn’t do (again: science) but I do put some responsibility on the colleges, too, for most not being able to step out of THEIR own boxes. But that’s another rant for another day and that the large majority here probably don’t agree with, anyway. And as my daughter told me when we were in the thick of this mess, and I was feeling particularity awful and guilty about it, she said, “Mom, I had rather been happy and home and learning how I did for the last six years with only two choices than miserable and dying in school and ten to pick from.” So there ya go.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Since the OP’s issue has been resolved and the thread has wandered off topic, I’m closing the thread.