<p>memama, does the Wash U form have similar questions about real estate that is not the primary residence (info that IS requested on the Profile).</p>
<p>andio…the only thing you can do is contact these schools directly and see if they will make an adjustment based on the information you provided here. </p>
<p>However, if they don’t, you also should be helping your son understand that “plan B” might be necessary. You are a dislocated worker which means your financial situation may have changed or would make it difficult to fund an expensive private school educatino especially if the school does NOT give you some kind of special consideration.</p>
<p>The other thing you want to be SURE to ask…make sure that any special consideration given to you will be applicable for ALL FOUR YEARS your son is in college. It will do you no good to get a reduction in family contribution with higher aid this coming year, if the school can’t guarantee you the same for the next three years after that. College is a four year plan.</p>
<p>In the end, you will need to make a decision about what you can or can’t afford to pay.</p>
<p>Happymom makes a good point. To the OP…you have been through this financial aid process for a few years now. Surely along the line you must have realized that your assets should be in real retirement accounts…since you had to provide the same explanation for your daughter as you now need to for your son.</p>
<p>I believe the schools that use the Profile are going to be less likely to make the adjustment you are hoping for. I have a couple of reasons for this…first…your assets are more than substantial. Second…having that amount in retirement accounts would beg the question…WHY didn’t some of that money get put aside for college costs…especially with your “low income” how did you amass this amount?</p>
<p>Some Profile schools also ask for the balances in retirement accounts although I’m not sure anyone can tell you with certainty how this info is used.</p>
<p>I do hope you have a financial safety school in your son’s mix…that is a place where he would attend if need be.</p>
<p>Wash U allows prospective students to submit the FFP-EZ Family Financial Profile in place of the CSS Profile. It gathers standard income and asset information including “Stocks, Bonds, Investments, & Real Estate Equity (current market value, do not include IRAs, 401K & 403b plans or the home you live in.)” It also asks for home/family farm equity and “Cash, Savings & Checking Accounts.” It asks for contributions made to retirement accounts, but unlike the CSS Profile does not ask for the balances of those accounts. There is also a section to explain any special circumstances.</p>
<p>I don’t know what forms are required for returning students.</p>
<p>Real estate cannot be held in any retirement accounts of which I am aware?? And if they are truly self-employed, then SEP amounts are limited to a percentage of income.</p>
<p>So, they could have sold a business years ago and invested that entire amount in the rentals in hopes of putting away something for retirement, even if it was not within a qualified plan. I know several families in this type of situation, where being responsible for their own self-funded retirement does not fit within the formula’s for financial aid.</p>
<p>I am impressed that the OPs buildings have an equity of well of $1MM and still cannot be borrowed against.</p>
<p>Real estate can definitely be owned by a retirement account (Roth/trad IRA/401k). All you need is a custodian that allows real estate investments. </p>
<p>However, you can’t transfer property you already own into a retirement account.</p>
<p>vball- can you own individual RE or only things like REITS?</p>
<p>In a regular IRA you can invest in REITs and other 3rd-party real estate assets. In a self-directed IRA, you can purchase real estate directly.</p>
<p>Like Himom said inj post #2: “Your S needs to look around and find a financial safety, as all kids should have.”</p>
<p>In your case it sounds like you all are choosing not to pursue a financial aid safety school so that your athlete S can play and compete in the leagues that fit his capabilities. That’s certainly your choice.</p>
<p>But what I read here is a story about a family that is cash poor/assets rich and that has 3 choices:
1- go to a school that it can afford within its current cash flows
2- liquidate some of the assets to pay for college at the schools they’d rather have S attend
3- borrow against current assests to pay for college</p>
<p>For #1 OP said that their S “didn’t like it (that school) as much as the small East Coast LACs.”
For #2 OP says they don’t want to sell in a depressed real estate market
For #3 OP says they can’t borrow w/o paying a $150,000 penalty</p>
<p>Sounds like the kid needs to go to the school he likes less, which brings me to 3 points:
- students should ONLY apply to schools that they would be happy to attend, no matter how many acceptances occur; parents must drive that point home, for 2 reasons: first, the kid may not get accepted where they want to go and second, since financial aid offers come out when acceptances occur for most of us there is no way to know if the schools are affordable until well after applications are due
- EVRY KID must have a financial aid safety school, a place where it’s likely the kid will get in AND that the family can reasonably afford w/o any extraordinary merit aid or loans
- parents MUST PLAN AHEAD; that means diversifying assets (all retirement funds in real estate???really???) running FAFSA and PROFILE scenarios (even using their quick estimators a year or so before application can let you know if there are problem areas) and knowing your own finances enough to be able to tell your child what the family can afford</p>
<p>good advice, Kei-o-lei
spot on.</p>
<p>Our family came to the (then) painful reckoning that we could not afford to send our kids anywhere they wanted w/out extreme financial pain. We want to retire someday! Luckily, we figured this out Jr. year and found those finincial safeties. D is attending one and loving it, even though she initially also thought she’d only be happy at an east-coast LAC.</p>
<p>You have a lot of options, way more than most people have, but you don’t like them.</p>
<p>I am sorry that your kid is going to college in this market, but keep in mind that we are all facing this real estate market.</p>
<p>You have rentals in those buildings of yours–do you really think that your family needs aid more than they do?</p>
<p>We have friends who, to allow their child to play sports at a D III school, put themselves at tremendous financial risk. For one year.</p>
<p>The child wasn’t that happy and the parents were beyond miserable and so he transfered to a more affordable school.</p>
<p>Perhaps he could investigate the club level sport at the school that is his financial safety.</p>
<p>I think this family really only likes elite schools, but doesn’t want to pay for them.</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like this family is really low income. It sounds like they’re self-employed and can take lots of deductions to make themselves look low income. If they really were making as little as their AGI, they’d have lost their home by now. </p>
<p>Our AGI is below $10,000 this year due to required maintenance, lawyer fees on a dismissed lawsuit, etc.</p>
<p>I wonder how long a person can claim to be a displaced worker. Anyone know? And how is that tested?</p>
<p>I agree, you, as opposed to someone really low income, have options. It saddens me that people like you want to take advantage of the system despite that.</p>
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<p>Only if you decide to pay for it. Good luck!</p>
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<p>There is a difference between not having any assets or income and truly not being able to afford it, and having over a million in real estate assets and $200,000 in stocks and not wanting to have to liquidate. It is OK to not want to liquidate or borrow with heavy penalty. I get that. But that does not make a college sympathetic and willing to foot the bill. You want to give your kid the education he wants at the institution that he wants, but you want someone else to pay for a chunk of it. I just don’t think that is going to happen.</p>
<p>I am sorry but going to a private 50K+ private school is not guaranteed to all of us by our Constitution, it is not one of our “inalienable rights” and so on. </p>
<p>As many others have pointed out, there are other choices.
Or your Son could take a Gap Year & not go to college right away.</p>
<p>The gap year will not make the $1.5 milliion in real estate go away unless they sell and then there will be capital gains to report. Ditto the stocks.</p>
<p>I think this family was able to pull the wool over WashU’s eyes a few years ago with their D, so they’ve assumed that other schools will give similar consideration.</p>
<p>I highly doubt that this family has been (really) low income for the past 4 years.</p>
<p>We are in a same position as the OP, our solution is to apply to schools which we can afford with our current income (with the help of some of liquid assets).</p>