At what income are you unlikely to get any aid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I realize it depends on a bunch of factors, but at what income would you not even bother to apply? 250? 300? higher?

I'm assuming you are talking about need based aid. Run the numbers on their COA page.. They are all similar. Income of 200K+ and/or net worth of about $2M (outside of retirement and primary residence) will get you zero aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I realize it depends on a bunch of factors, but at what income would you not even bother to apply? 250? 300? higher?

I'm assuming you are talking about need based aid. Run the numbers on their COA page.. They are all similar. Income of 200K+ and/or net worth of about $2M (outside of retirement and primary residence) will get you zero aid.

+1. This was us. 100 percent EFC. Both kids went in-state

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Got some aid with 300. It depends on the school.

+1 230k $27,500 financial aid/ not merit. Parent contribution $47k. School doesn’t count home equity. Told child can only apply to schools that don’t count home equity, in state or OOS w/ merit.

I'm relieved to hear this. Our dilemma is going to be how they calculate aid for divorced parents. It's hard to figure it out from the school net price calculators. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Yes. First of all, seriously consider the schools that only require to report the income of one parent (usually they only require you to fill out FAFSA), or might be more advantageous to divorced/remarried parents - e.g. Princeton, UChicago (do check what their latest rules are, it's on the websites). Otherwise, assume the worst - the income/assets of step parents will be counted in as well, and check with each specific school.

In CA, state schools consider only FAFSA of the custodial parent. It's not unusual for kids to receive enough FA to cover full tuition and fees if the custodial parent's income is lower. Non-custodial parent's income/assets are not counted. For privates, you need custodial FAFSA and both parents' CSS.

In the case of remarried parents, I believe most privates want income/assets of both biological parents as well as the step-parent(s). For Columbia, they want step-parent(s) in order to accurately segregate biological parent(s)' income/asset. They ask for, but do not count, step parent(s). If this is your scenario, always confirm with the school as this info may be dated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Got some aid with 300. It depends on the school.

+1 230k $27,500 financial aid/ not merit. Parent contribution $47k. School doesn’t count home equity. Told child can only apply to schools that don’t count home equity, in state or OOS w/ merit.

I'm relieved to hear this. Our dilemma is going to be how they calculate aid for divorced parents. It's hard to figure it out from the school net price calculators. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Yes. First of all, seriously consider the schools that only require to report the income of one parent (usually they only require you to fill out FAFSA), or might be more advantageous to divorced/remarried parents - e.g. Princeton, UChicago (do check what their latest rules are, it's on the websites). Otherwise, assume the worst - the income/assets of step parents will be counted in as well, and check with each specific school.

In CA, state schools consider only FAFSA of the custodial parent. It's not unusual for kids to receive enough FA to cover full tuition and fees if the custodial parent's income is lower. Non-custodial parent's income/assets are not counted. For privates, you need custodial FAFSA and both parents' CSS.

In the case of remarried parents, I believe most privates want income/assets of both biological parents as well as the step-parent(s). For Columbia, they want step-parent(s) in order to accurately segregate biological parent(s)' income/asset. They ask for, but do not count, step parent(s). If this is your scenario, always confirm with the school as this info may be dated.

PP. not all privates require CSS of non-custodial parent, that was my point. UChicago did not ask us for bio father's, but I don't remember whether that was because I was married. Princeton did not ask for bio father's because I remarried, so they only counted one family's income - me + step-father. Ursinus did not ask for CSS at all.

On the other hand, UMich asked us to fill out CSS, both parents, even though it's a public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

dvandivier wrote:If significant amount in savings (outside of retirement), it almost doesn't seem to matter the income (either/or).

+1

It doesn’t take much
1 million => 56k EFC

That’s a lot of money to have outside of college funds and retirement.

Not if you are older parents and very close to retirement

Are you insane? A million dollars is a lot of money. Full stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $145K, but we have $350K in savings outside of retirement accounts. Three years ago, we were denied any aid at every private college including Yale. The FAFSA said we could pay $59K. Ha. Ha. Ha. We're very close to retirement too.
Our youngest child is going in-state with merit aid and a bunch of scholarships. We would not allow DC to apply to any private colleges because even with merit, in-state would always be cheaper.
I really don't get what "qualifies" you for FA, especially at very wealthy colleges (think Northwestern, HYPSM, Haverford, etc.). We're middle class, live in a small house, drive old cars, live frugally. Why should we spend most of our savings to send our DC to a fancy private college? Why do the colleges think this is reasonable? We'd be crazy to do so, especially so near to retirement. It would be irresponsible of us to spend down our rainy-day fund. What if one of us gets laid off? We'd have no savings to fall back on.
Thank God for in-state colleges!!!

How much equity do you have in your house? I found that equity was more of a problem than savings outside of retirement.

How do you know this?

The FAFSA doesn't even ask about home equity.

The CSS asks for retirement accounts and home equity, savings, etc., but how do you know what factors are the most important?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $145K, but we have $350K in savings outside of retirement accounts. Three years ago, we were denied any aid at every private college including Yale. The FAFSA said we could pay $59K. Ha. Ha. Ha. We're very close to retirement too.
Our youngest child is going in-state with merit aid and a bunch of scholarships. We would not allow DC to apply to any private colleges because even with merit, in-state would always be cheaper.
I really don't get what "qualifies" you for FA, especially at very wealthy colleges (think Northwestern, HYPSM, Haverford, etc.). We're middle class, live in a small house, drive old cars, live frugally. Why should we spend most of our savings to send our DC to a fancy private college? Why do the colleges think this is reasonable? We'd be crazy to do so, especially so near to retirement. It would be irresponsible of us to spend down our rainy-day fund. What if one of us gets laid off? We'd have no savings to fall back on.
Thank God for in-state colleges!!!

Are you self employed? Otherwise, I can't explain Yale. My kid is in another T10 school which doesn't count home equity, and our EFC from FAFSA was also $59K. This is about what we are paying, so about $20K FA, no loans.

Not self employed, but can't pay $59K. In-state is about $19K with merit and scholarships. Yale gave us nothing three years ago, but we only had one kid in college. Now we'll have two. No mortgage, as we inherited our house, so maybe that's why we got no FA. But that's crazy too. We're supposed to mortgage our house to pay for our kid to go to college right before we retire?

The whole system is broken for middle class people like us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $145K, but we have $350K in savings outside of retirement accounts. Three years ago, we were denied any aid at every private college including Yale. The FAFSA said we could pay $59K. Ha. Ha. Ha. We're very close to retirement too.
Our youngest child is going in-state with merit aid and a bunch of scholarships. We would not allow DC to apply to any private colleges because even with merit, in-state would always be cheaper.
I really don't get what "qualifies" you for FA, especially at very wealthy colleges (think Northwestern, HYPSM, Haverford, etc.). We're middle class, live in a small house, drive old cars, live frugally. Why should we spend most of our savings to send our DC to a fancy private college? Why do the colleges think this is reasonable? We'd be crazy to do so, especially so near to retirement. It would be irresponsible of us to spend down our rainy-day fund. What if one of us gets laid off? We'd have no savings to fall back on.
Thank God for in-state colleges!!!

+1, it's ridiculous. This is how middle class families basically get cut out of elite colleges, because we are expected to mortgage our retirement for our kid's education. It's not reasonable. I went to a in-state public school and my kid will too. It's fine. I took out loans to attend an elite graduate program and regretted it. Yes, it opens doors, but being debt free in your 20s is true freedom and I regret giving it up.

This is not middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $145K, but we have $350K in savings outside of retirement accounts. Three years ago, we were denied any aid at every private college including Yale. The FAFSA said we could pay $59K. Ha. Ha. Ha. We're very close to retirement too.
Our youngest child is going in-state with merit aid and a bunch of scholarships. We would not allow DC to apply to any private colleges because even with merit, in-state would always be cheaper.
I really don't get what "qualifies" you for FA, especially at very wealthy colleges (think Northwestern, HYPSM, Haverford, etc.). We're middle class, live in a small house, drive old cars, live frugally. Why should we spend most of our savings to send our DC to a fancy private college? Why do the colleges think this is reasonable? We'd be crazy to do so, especially so near to retirement. It would be irresponsible of us to spend down our rainy-day fund. What if one of us gets laid off? We'd have no savings to fall back on.
Thank God for in-state colleges!!!

Why do you put such a large sum of money outside of retirement accounts? Why can't you put it into your retirement accounts if retirement is what you worried about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $145K, but we have $350K in savings outside of retirement accounts. Three years ago, we were denied any aid at every private college including Yale. The FAFSA said we could pay $59K. Ha. Ha. Ha. We're very close to retirement too.
Our youngest child is going in-state with merit aid and a bunch of scholarships. We would not allow DC to apply to any private colleges because even with merit, in-state would always be cheaper.
I really don't get what "qualifies" you for FA, especially at very wealthy colleges (think Northwestern, HYPSM, Haverford, etc.). We're middle class, live in a small house, drive old cars, live frugally. Why should we spend most of our savings to send our DC to a fancy private college? Why do the colleges think this is reasonable? We'd be crazy to do so, especially so near to retirement. It would be irresponsible of us to spend down our rainy-day fund. What if one of us gets laid off? We'd have no savings to fall back on.
Thank God for in-state colleges!!!

How much equity do you have in your house? I found that equity was more of a problem than savings outside of retirement.

How do you know this?

The FAFSA doesn't even ask about home equity.

The CSS asks for retirement accounts and home equity, savings, etc., but how do you know what factors are the most important?

I was referring to schools that use CSS. If you run NPC’s for schools that consider home equity vs those that don’t you can see a difference of at least $5k/$100k equity in parental contribution depending on how much equity you have in your house. Also, check out this website that explains the issue: https://www.edmit.me/home-equity-financial-aid-calculator

Of course if you have high non- retirement savings that will be an issue too. But for people with low to moderate savings and/or 529 accounts, home equity can be the difference of $20-30k in you have $400k+ equity in your home. For our family they eliminated many schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $145K, but we have $350K in savings outside of retirement accounts. Three years ago, we were denied any aid at every private college including Yale. The FAFSA said we could pay $59K. Ha. Ha. Ha. We're very close to retirement too.
Our youngest child is going in-state with merit aid and a bunch of scholarships. We would not allow DC to apply to any private colleges because even with merit, in-state would always be cheaper.
I really don't get what "qualifies" you for FA, especially at very wealthy colleges (think Northwestern, HYPSM, Haverford, etc.). We're middle class, live in a small house, drive old cars, live frugally. Why should we spend most of our savings to send our DC to a fancy private college? Why do the colleges think this is reasonable? We'd be crazy to do so, especially so near to retirement. It would be irresponsible of us to spend down our rainy-day fund. What if one of us gets laid off? We'd have no savings to fall back on.
Thank God for in-state colleges!!!

Are you self employed? Otherwise, I can't explain Yale. My kid is in another T10 school which doesn't count home equity, and our EFC from FAFSA was also $59K. This is about what we are paying, so about $20K FA, no loans.

Not self employed, but can't pay $59K. In-state is about $19K with merit and scholarships. Yale gave us nothing three years ago, but we only had one kid in college. Now we'll have two. No mortgage, as we inherited our house, so maybe that's why we got no FA. But that's crazy too. We're supposed to mortgage our house to pay for our kid to go to college right before we retire?

The whole system is broken for middle class people like us.

Yes, it was the house— Yales counts equity in home and if you live in a high housing cost area they counted it as a high equity towards your total assets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $145K, but we have $350K in savings outside of retirement accounts. Three years ago, we were denied any aid at every private college including Yale. The FAFSA said we could pay $59K. Ha. Ha. Ha. We're very close to retirement too.
Our youngest child is going in-state with merit aid and a bunch of scholarships. We would not allow DC to apply to any private colleges because even with merit, in-state would always be cheaper.
I really don't get what "qualifies" you for FA, especially at very wealthy colleges (think Northwestern, HYPSM, Haverford, etc.). We're middle class, live in a small house, drive old cars, live frugally. Why should we spend most of our savings to send our DC to a fancy private college? Why do the colleges think this is reasonable? We'd be crazy to do so, especially so near to retirement. It would be irresponsible of us to spend down our rainy-day fund. What if one of us gets laid off? We'd have no savings to fall back on.
Thank God for in-state colleges!!!

Are you self employed? Otherwise, I can't explain Yale. My kid is in another T10 school which doesn't count home equity, and our EFC from FAFSA was also $59K. This is about what we are paying, so about $20K FA, no loans.

Not self employed, but can't pay $59K. In-state is about $19K with merit and scholarships. Yale gave us nothing three years ago, but we only had one kid in college. Now we'll have two. No mortgage, as we inherited our house, so maybe that's why we got no FA. But that's crazy too. We're supposed to mortgage our house to pay for our kid to go to college right before we retire?

The whole system is broken for middle class people like us.

Yes, it was the house— Yales counts equity in home and if you live in a high housing cost area they counted it as a high equity towards your total assets.

I thought the $350K saving in non-retirement accounts is more significant than the house. If you have $350K sitting on your bank account, why would colleges give your child need-based aid? You should use at least part of the $350K towards tuition first, right? For a family with $145K HHI, emergency funds should be about $50K (6 months of after-tax HHI)?

[Anonymous]

Didn’t get any aid at 106k HHI, EFC 29k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $145K, but we have $350K in savings outside of retirement accounts. Three years ago, we were denied any aid at every private college including Yale. The FAFSA said we could pay $59K. Ha. Ha. Ha. We're very close to retirement too.
Our youngest child is going in-state with merit aid and a bunch of scholarships. We would not allow DC to apply to any private colleges because even with merit, in-state would always be cheaper.
I really don't get what "qualifies" you for FA, especially at very wealthy colleges (think Northwestern, HYPSM, Haverford, etc.). We're middle class, live in a small house, drive old cars, live frugally. Why should we spend most of our savings to send our DC to a fancy private college? Why do the colleges think this is reasonable? We'd be crazy to do so, especially so near to retirement. It would be irresponsible of us to spend down our rainy-day fund. What if one of us gets laid off? We'd have no savings to fall back on.
Thank God for in-state colleges!!!

Are you self employed? Otherwise, I can't explain Yale. My kid is in another T10 school which doesn't count home equity, and our EFC from FAFSA was also $59K. This is about what we are paying, so about $20K FA, no loans.

Not self employed, but can't pay $59K. In-state is about $19K with merit and scholarships. Yale gave us nothing three years ago, but we only had one kid in college. Now we'll have two. No mortgage, as we inherited our house, so maybe that's why we got no FA. But that's crazy too. We're supposed to mortgage our house to pay for our kid to go to college right before we retire?

The whole system is broken for middle class people like us.

Yes, it was the house— Yales counts equity in home and if you live in a high housing cost area they counted it as a high equity towards your total assets.

I thought the $350K saving in non-retirement accounts is more significant than the house. If you have $350K sitting on your bank account, why would colleges give your child need-based aid? You should use at least part of the $350K towards tuition first, right? For a family with $145K HHI, emergency funds should be about $50K (6 months of after-tax HHI)?

5% of the $350k is expected to be used towards tuition in calculating EFC. My point was that the OP’s contribution may have been lower at schools that use CSS and don’t count home equity. OP’s income is way below Yale’s threshold for no aid. So yes, the $350k is considered but that is not the only reason they didn’t get aid. OP has to have other assets not accounted for in the post and my guess is home equity which many people on this board and people I know in NYC and CA never consider. That is why Stanford and USC dropped home equity in their financial aid formulas. People in high COL areas with expensive homes tend to have more equity because of the rapid increase in real estate value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $145K, but we have $350K in savings outside of retirement accounts. Three years ago, we were denied any aid at every private college including Yale. The FAFSA said we could pay $59K. Ha. Ha. Ha. We're very close to retirement too.
Our youngest child is going in-state with merit aid and a bunch of scholarships. We would not allow DC to apply to any private colleges because even with merit, in-state would always be cheaper.
I really don't get what "qualifies" you for FA, especially at very wealthy colleges (think Northwestern, HYPSM, Haverford, etc.). We're middle class, live in a small house, drive old cars, live frugally. Why should we spend most of our savings to send our DC to a fancy private college? Why do the colleges think this is reasonable? We'd be crazy to do so, especially so near to retirement. It would be irresponsible of us to spend down our rainy-day fund. What if one of us gets laid off? We'd have no savings to fall back on.
Thank God for in-state colleges!!!

Are you self employed? Otherwise, I can't explain Yale. My kid is in another T10 school which doesn't count home equity, and our EFC from FAFSA was also $59K. This is about what we are paying, so about $20K FA, no loans.

Not self employed, but can't pay $59K. In-state is about $19K with merit and scholarships. Yale gave us nothing three years ago, but we only had one kid in college. Now we'll have two. No mortgage, as we inherited our house, so maybe that's why we got no FA. But that's crazy too. We're supposed to mortgage our house to pay for our kid to go to college right before we retire?

The whole system is broken for middle class people like us.

Yes, it was the house— Yales counts equity in home and if you live in a high housing cost area they counted it as a high equity towards your total assets.

I thought the $350K saving in non-retirement accounts is more significant than the house. If you have $350K sitting on your bank account, why would colleges give your child need-based aid? You should use at least part of the $350K towards tuition first, right? For a family with $145K HHI, emergency funds should be about $50K (6 months of after-tax HHI)?

5% of the $350k is expected to be used towards tuition in calculating EFC. My point was that the OP’s contribution may have been lower at schools that use CSS and don’t count home equity. OP’s income is way below Yale’s threshold for no aid. So yes, the $350k is considered but that is not the only reason they didn’t get aid. OP has to have other assets not accounted for in the post and my guess is home equity which many people on this board and people I know in NYC and CA never consider. That is why Stanford and USC dropped home equity in their financial aid formulas. People in high COL areas with expensive homes tend to have more equity because of the rapid increase in real estate value.

But PP said they live in a small house.