Financial Aid Forms for College
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Anonymous
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So my first born is a Senior in HS and the colleges required her to fill out FAFSA and now two schools requested the CSS
My question is it a waste of time? I am not rich by Urban Mom standards but have around 250k HHI and a few hundred thousand in savings. The CSS even makes you list value of home and 401ks. I do have two younger kids. What is point of schools asking for this info? Do I have a shot at getting money. One school did tour this weekend and the all in cost is $67,000 a year. Wow. Do you think I will get something? How low does you income and assets Have to be to get need based aid. |
Anonymous
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The most you're likely to be offered is federal loans.
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Anonymous
| Most schools require that you fill out FAFSA before they will consider you for merit aid (aid that is not tied to income). Generally it is recommended that you fill the form out even if there is no way you will get financial aid. |
Anonymous
This is true. Some schools do and some don't. If your kid is going after merit $ and school requires one, you should fill one out. But you will not get FA at your HHI level. |
Anonymous
Whenever you are negotiating a large purchase, don't you think that it is appropriate for the seller to demand "show us your wallet?" 
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Anonymous
To give you a data point, our HHI is around $200k (gross), we have two children in college with R&B and tuition totaling over $80k a year (one in an out of state flagship and one in an expensive private with a merit scholarship). A few hundred k (mostly saved for college) outside of house and 401k/IRAs and our children are awarded only loans that are not subsidized. You have no shot in getting need aid beyond the loans that are available to everyone regardless of income, as PPs have said, some schools require the FAFSA to be submitted in order to receive merit aid. |
Anonymous
I wouldn't say most. We asked our college counselor and she said that there were very few exceptions where you would need to file a FAFSA/CSS to be considered for merit aid. Just to be sure, we checked at the 9 schools where DC applied and we didn't need to file to be considered for merit aid at any of them. So we didn't file one. DS was awarded merit aid without a FAFSA where DC's stats were high relative to the pool of applicants. Our income and assets though were multiple times higher than OP's. OP might actually get need-based grant money at some very pricey schools with 3 kids. |
Anonymous
You won't get aid with a "few hundred thousand" in savings. There is your aid right there. 
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Anonymous
| We are in the same position but went ahead and filed this year. Wanted to make sure we'd be eligible for merit or in case of change in circumstances. Will see what happens this year & where she ends up. May not do in future years. |
Anonymous
I thought only five percent of assets have to go towards tuition? Plus I have retirement to save for and two younger kids. I hope my kids gets some merit aid. I will pay what I have too but it seems fasfa just gets folks hopes up. |
Anonymous
| We had him about 120k when my daughter was a hs senior. My daughter got merrit aid in the admissions letters from a few colleges whuch were not based on our finances. Then we did the FAFSA and she also got the subsidises student loans too. For us its worth it for those student loans.we were really shocked at how expensive college has become. |
Anonymous
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Re-upping this thread because we are in a somewhat similar situation but with less HHI ($160k-210k in HHI in a couple years when oldest DC goes to college; 3 kids). It was unclear to me whether the OP's savings were in 529s. I was surprised when doing a few colleges' estimated financial costs calculators that they seemed to be less likely to give aid if you have $ in 529s. I always thought that they only considered 5% of retirement assets and about that for 529s - in other words, I thought they didn't count retirement and college savings against you too much in deciding if you'd get financial aid.
So do the 529s count against you more than that? If so, is there any other way to save $ besides in retirement that won't reduce your financial aid offer later? Our situation is also more complicated because my father-in-law passed away and we will soon inherit about $700k in stocks, plus $90k for each of our kids. I was planning to put the $90k for each kid in their 529... I don't know if there's anywhere else I could put the inherited money that wouldn't jeopardize whatever slim chance we have for aid like subsidized loans. I'm from a working class background so it's hard to get my head around paying $65k for 12 years without help even from loans. |
Anonymous
A 529 is money that you are expected to pay towards the cost of college. That's the entire purpose of the 529. It makes total sense to me that they would consider that when doling out financial aid. |
Anonymous
The FAFSA doesn't consider retirement assets, and treats all parents' assets (including 529 plans) as able to contribute 5.6% (after a small savings allowance). 529 plans are considered an asset of the parents so when child 1 goes to school, all 3 kids' 529 plans would be assessed so if you had $270000 across them, you would be expected to contribute in a given year about $15000 from those. Similar percentages of any other assets outside of retirement accounts. Income is usually the biggest contributor of your expected family contribution--with anywhere between around 20-50% above the income allowance (which is miniscule and affected by factors such as number of children and your age). The CSS profile --which some schools, mainly private--also takes into account retirement accounts and home equity in addition to what the FAFSA looks at and there are less established rules on how private schools use that info. The only "better" place to park your assets would be to max out all available retirement accounts if you're not already doing so as those are not counted at all by the FAFSA. |
Anonymous
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Yes, fill it out and submit. One of the first requirements for many scholarships is to apply for financial aid.
Love, Former Financial Aid Worker Bee |