My son will be a Freshman in a few weeks. With the change in tax years,and the new prior prior years taxes, can we expect the same type of aid since info being evaluated will be the same? If we were fortunate with regards to financial aid this year what possible pitfall am I missing to change the award.
It all depends on the school’s financial aid policy. The FAFSA prior prior only speaks to federal aid. The school still sets their own policies when it comes to giving out their own institutional aid. If the school that your child is attending a FAFSA only school?
no it has css profile as well. But if data is the same will aid follow suit? I read that CSS also will use prior prior year for its data.
You must apply for financial aid every year. One of the challenges with prior prior is that a family’s financial situation can change drastically from year to year. Regardless of what process they use if your financial situation is consistent year over year, you should get a similar package.
While colleges may use prior prior on the CSS profile nothing stops them from asking about your current financial situation.
As sybbie719 said, it depends on the school’s policies. Also, the financial data will not necessarily be the same. 2015 income and tax information will be used again, but assets will be reported anew as of the day of completing the forms. Profile will also ask for estimates of 2016 income; how a school will use that information is anyone’s guess.
Yes, we will have the same income for 2015 for 2016/17 FAFSA, and 2017/18 FAFSA.
But our assets will be reported as of the day we submit FAFSA in the fall.
In January my D had less money in her savings account than she will have to report in October, because she worked during the summer to replenish her savings.
So her contribution to EFC will be higher.
But we are also a year older, so parent asset protection allowance is higher, and income protection amount increased somewhat from last year’s FAFSA EFC formula, so our FAFSA EFC will be similar I expect, but not the same.
@rgosula made a spreadsheet to calculate EFC, you can PM him for the link
You can download my spreadsheet:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19864471/#Comment_19864471
and check that it matches your 2016-2017 EFC,
then you can use the 2017-2018 Spreadsheet to predict your EFC.
Then you can also play with the numbers, increasing and decreasing to see how they affect aid.
Thank you