How much can we afford to contribute?

[Anonymous]

When the financial aid forms ask how much you think you could contribute, will they discount you if they think your number is too low?

Do they expect you to raid college and retirement accounts?

What are some percentages of how much net income you have vs how much they think you should pay?

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Just answer the question honestly. If you can comfortably give $100 per year but not more, fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just answer the question honestly. If you can comfortably give $100 per year but not more, fine.

I think they mean how much can the family pay towards tuition - 60%,90% etc. the form isn’t asking about the fundraising amount.

[Anonymous]

How far removed from daycare are you? If it hasn’t been too long, that may be a good starting point. We applied to private preK, so we said we could afford to pay what we paid for daycare.

[Anonymous]

The forms get pretty personal, so if there are large assets at all, regardless of Annual HHI, you aren't going to get much/won't get aid.

We thought we might get *something* based on our HHI. When I called and asked the Financial Aid person, she said the mere presence of assets that could cover tuition basically disqualified us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The forms get pretty personal, so if there are large assets at all, regardless of Annual HHI, you aren't going to get much/won't get aid.

We thought we might get *something* based on our HHI. When I called and asked the Financial Aid person, she said the mere presence of assets that could cover tuition basically disqualified us.

What high assets did you have?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just answer the question honestly. If you can comfortably give $100 per year but not more, fine.

Gotcha. Been solidly full pay the whole time so never have seen the forms.

[Anonymous]

Are you talking about financial aid? Or charitable giving?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The forms get pretty personal, so if there are large assets at all, regardless of Annual HHI, you aren't going to get much/won't get aid.

We thought we might get *something* based on our HHI. When I called and asked the Financial Aid person, she said the mere presence of assets that could cover tuition basically disqualified us.

Yeah, you’re kind of expected to liquidate or leverage assets in this case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The forms get pretty personal, so if there are large assets at all, regardless of Annual HHI, you aren't going to get much/won't get aid.

We thought we might get *something* based on our HHI. When I called and asked the Financial Aid person, she said the mere presence of assets that could cover tuition basically disqualified us.

Yeah, you’re kind of expected to liquidate or leverage assets in this case.

Yep. We said what we could contribute based on HHI and explained a large, unavoidable upcoming expense. They [basically laughed and] determined we could pay twice+ what we’d stated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The forms get pretty personal, so if there are large assets at all, regardless of Annual HHI, you aren't going to get much/won't get aid.

We thought we might get *something* based on our HHI. When I called and asked the Financial Aid person, she said the mere presence of assets that could cover tuition basically disqualified us.


What high assets did you have?

Our college and retirement savings. It has to be listed on the Fin Aid application. And as another poster said, we said what we thought we could comfortable contribute from annual HHI and they laughed.

[Anonymous]

yes, college accounts, savings, all count for being able to afford tuition. Some school might might not consider retirement if you are only contributing a small amount currently.

Private school is a luxury and your ability to pay is treated as such.

[Anonymous]

How much in college savings are they looking at? We have 3 kids, no cash savings, but the kids have 529s (just abt $60k each).

No aid for us I assume?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The forms get pretty personal, so if there are large assets at all, regardless of Annual HHI, you aren't going to get much/won't get aid.

We thought we might get *something* based on our HHI. When I called and asked the Financial Aid person, she said the mere presence of assets that could cover tuition basically disqualified us.

as they should. many people are not saving as much as they would like for retirement because they pay full tuition. this is a no brainer. we found out several people were getting a lot of aid and had much more expensive homes than us and we reduced our annual fund contributions drastically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much in college savings are they looking at? We have 3 kids, no cash savings, but the kids have 529s (just abt $60k each).

No aid for us I assume?

What's your income? If that's your only asset and your income isn't high, I wouldn't rule out financial aid.