High EFC -- not sure I did the FAFSA correctly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m still confused. If we make 250k AGI and have 1.5 million in assets (outside of retirement accounts and home) we aren’t getting financial aid right? I’m certainly not expecting it, even at schools that are 85k/year. Am I missing something though??

There are a few schools that require you to fill out Fafsa or css in order to get merit. I have 3 kids, none of the 30+ schools they applied to required fafsa to get merit.

Only reason someone in your situation might want to fill it out is in case your situation chances drastically for some reasons. However, with those assets, it's not likely to make a difference (ie. going to zero income wouldn't change much, they'd still expect you to drain the assets before getting FA).

No, if they fill it out their children get access to the federal unsubsidized loans which start at $5500 a year for about $26,000 total. Both of my children took those out. We received no merit and no financial aid

Right---the access to loans is the other reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your gross income is $450,000, is it even worth completing the FAFSA?

Not unless you have six children!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here:

AGI from 1040: $217,019
Assets: $1,275,000
EFC: 139894

Yes, OP, it sounds like you did it correctly. They basically assume that with a $200k income, you’ve been saving and investing since your kid’s birth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here:

AGI from 1040: $217,019
Assets: $1,275,000
EFC: 139894

Yes, OP, it sounds like you did it correctly. They basically assume that with a $200k income, you’ve been saving and investing since your kid’s birth.

They assume that with a $130k income, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here:

AGI from 1040: $217,019
Assets: $1,275,000
EFC: 139894

I'm guessing the high EFC is due to the assets. Is this just investments and bank accounts? It should not include primary home value or retirement.

Our income (w/ retirement contributions added back) is around 140K. Savings/investments were 130k. EFC 35k

This. If you have 1.3 mil cash/stocks not in retirement funds, you’re going to have an EFC of over $60k before even getting to your salary. If it’s in retirement funds, it wouldn’t count.

Retirement won’t count at FAFSA-only schools. But some CSS schools consider retirement fair game. We were making $150k for a family of four and had uncovered medical expenses of $30 to $40k per year and top choice school with $B endowment would give us nothing because of retirement funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here:

AGI from 1040: $217,019
Assets: $1,275,000
EFC: 139894

It is the asset, for us

AGI from 1040: $300,000
Assets: $2,000,000
EFC: $233,000

I feel it is not fair to older parents close to retirement with limited future income.

They don’t count dedicated retirement savings against you.

Think again - it depends on the school.

[Anonymous]

So funny, OP. We had the same question when we got ours back. AGI of $225k, they told us we could afford $80k/year!! I about spit out my drink.

[Anonymous]

Schools that use only FAFSA and not CSS give barely a grant need-based FA anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So funny, OP. We had the same question when we got ours back. AGI of $225k, they told us we could afford $80k/year!! I about spit out my drink.

Why? That's a lot of income! We have agi of 130k/year and still save 10k per year for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So funny, OP. We had the same question when we got ours back. AGI of $225k, they told us we could afford $80k/year!! I about spit out my drink.

Useless without describing your assets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like how Purdue does things: merit scholarships exist, but every kid largely pays the same tuition no matter how rich or poor their parents just so happen to be. Every kid should have some skin in the game.

Purdue is a public school snd beautifully run by Mitch Daniels

I don't hate the guy, but I live in West Lafayette and know any number of people who would disagree with the "beautifully run" contention. I'd say he's done more good than bad but Purdue has its share of problems, and Mitch probably resigned at the right time. His governing philosophy probably cut what bloat was possible. If he stayed on, it would probably be at the expense of the education Purdue is able to provide.

My kid goes to Purdue and I am delighted by the value as compared other state schools we were looking at. Mitch Daniels ran a tight ship, the value is unmistakable. It has the same challenges as most other large state schools- but overall I am impressed. My son didn't even have any of those giant freshman lecture type courses, everything was pretty reasonable in size. I will say they are struggling with housing. Too many kids were accepted and they ran out of room, it's a bit Hunger Games in that regard. All that said, with inflation they will have to raise tuition at this point (frozen for 11 years!) but I am betting it will still be a bargain. Those tuition payments come up fast, it's incredible to think of the money we all spend for essentially 15 weeks of classes.

Hard to argue with the value. My family and my wife's family have always been big Indiana University fans. So, trashing Purdue has come with the territory, and we raised our kids in that tradition. However, when they started getting close to college age, I had to break character for a second and make sure they knew that our ripping on Purdue was just us having fun. If they were interested in science, engineering, and those sorts of areas, they should give serious consideration to Purdue. Absolutely no need for us to pay double or take a cut in academic quality just because I like to yell at the TV during basketball games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here:

AGI from 1040: $217,019
Assets: $1,275,000
EFC: 139894

How was the OP’s EFC more than the total cost for tuition, room and board for any school??? Or is that for all 4 years?

Per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like how Purdue does things: merit scholarships exist, but every kid largely pays the same tuition no matter how rich or poor their parents just so happen to be. Every kid should have some skin in the game.

Purdue is a public school snd beautifully run by Mitch Daniels

I don't hate the guy, but I live in West Lafayette and know any number of people who would disagree with the "beautifully run" contention. I'd say he's done more good than bad but Purdue has its share of problems, and Mitch probably resigned at the right time. His governing philosophy probably cut what bloat was possible. If he stayed on, it would probably be at the expense of the education Purdue is able to provide.

My kid goes to Purdue and I am delighted by the value as compared other state schools we were looking at. Mitch Daniels ran a tight ship, the value is unmistakable. It has the same challenges as most other large state schools- but overall I am impressed. My son didn't even have any of those giant freshman lecture type courses, everything was pretty reasonable in size. I will say they are struggling with housing. Too many kids were accepted and they ran out of room, it's a bit Hunger Games in that regard. All that said, with inflation they will have to raise tuition at this point (frozen for 11 years!) but I am betting it will still be a bargain. Those tuition payments come up fast, it's incredible to think of the money we all spend for essentially 15 weeks of classes.

Hard to argue with the value. My family and my wife's family have always been big Indiana University fans. So, trashing Purdue has come with the territory, and we raised our kids in that tradition. However, when they started getting close to college age, I had to break character for a second and make sure they knew that our ripping on Purdue was just us having fun. If they were interested in science, engineering, and those sorts of areas, they should give serious consideration to Purdue. Absolutely no need for us to pay double or take a cut in academic quality just because I like to yell at the TV during basketball games.

+1. We were thrilled when our kid got into aerospace engineering there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here:

AGI from 1040: $217,019
Assets: $1,275,000
EFC: 139894

OP, what is the EFC amount that you feel you can afford? I ask because our numbers are much smaller than your numbers but your EFC and our EFC is the same percentage of our assets (10%) and we are ok with it.

[Anonymous]

Our HHI is over $375k and EFC was around 32K but pay $0 for DD college as she has full ride scholarship so really didn't matter.