Reply to Is college aid process biased against prudent savers?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Is college aid process biased against prudent savers?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]We are going through this process for the first time. Here's our experience, FWIW: We have HHI of >200K, but applied for FA because it was a requirement to be considered for merit scholarships at the schools DD applied to. If you are putting money into 529s, then yes - they will expect you to tap those and draw them down fully if necessary before you get any FA. They also expect you to tap other savings accounts and investments (but not retirement savings). They ask about earned income, total of cash/savings/checking accounts, child support paid and received, various other kinds of income (combat pay, grants and scholarships received by the parents, WIC), payments to tax-deferred pensions and savings, deductible IRA payments, distributions from IRAs and similar accounts, number of family members, number in college, free/reduced lunch, and numerous other data points. The FAFSA does NOT ask if you have anyone in private school below the secondary level, so if you are paying $50K for private school tuition for other kids in the family, this is  not taken into account for financial aid determinations. Some schools also require that you complete a FA form from the College Board; this second form does ask about private school tuition for siblings, as I recall. They came up with an estimated family contribution of over 80K for the coming year - they were definitely considering our 529s and regular savings as available to pay for college. We have two other kids in private school, and DD has gone to private HS, but fortunately she's going to UVA and we can afford to pay the in-state tuition.
I hope this information helps. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics