Sorry in advance if this or a similar question has already been asked before, I couldn’t find it using the search but I’d be happy to be pointed in the right direction!
So here’s the deal: I’m a rising junior at Tulane University in New Orleans, studying bio-med on a 5-year masters program, and completing pre-med requirements as well. I have good grades and a great financial aid package considering my parent’s status, I think. As for my parents, they are recently retired (laid off) but have always had great financial planning and are, for the most part, set for life as long as they are careful. While I have a good aid package, there is still about $20,000 unaccounted for between living expenses and tuition and books etc. for the next year. Freshman and sophomore years, I had an even smaller financial aid package as my parents were still working, but they would help me out quite a bit so that my loan amounts were rather small. This year, they are helping me out less, but my aid package is larger and living expenses are lower (off-campus, no meal plan) so that my required loan amounts are almost null.
Now here’s where it get complicated. I believe the major reason for me getting about 11 grand more financial aid this year is due to my parents’ changed financial situation, and the fact that they claimed they were not planning to support me financially any more on the fafsa or css or whatever. In reality, this is not completely the case. However, we are wanting to be very careful in how we represent where the money is coming from that’s paying for my tuition, if this makes sense. Basically, we are worried that, if my parent’s use a significant amount of money from their own bank accounts to pay for my education, could we potentially have that 11 grand award stripped from us for my senior and fifth years? If it would mean the difference between continuing to get this aid package and getting it stripped, my parents are willing to take out loans for the amount that is unaccounted for and then immediately pay off their portion as soon as I graduate. Is this overkill? Anyone with similar experiences, we’d love your help!
TL;DR: Will (smaller, private) colleges compare your parents’ annual contribution to the answers on their FAFSA and potentially lower their aid offers in the future because of this? I really don’t want to lose this 11 grand in future years as it will mean exactly that much more in loans.
Thanks for the help!