Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Filling out the fafsa is so easy there is no reason not to unless you have zero need for loans and/or your school doesn't require it for any school based or merit aid.

I did not find it that *easy*. Maybe it's easy if you have almost no assets. Also, I'm self employed, so I wasn't even sure what income I should use.

Our financial situation is pretty complex, but I recall that the FAFSA wasn’t difficult. As I recall, I just linked to the IRS, and all of the income info was downloaded automatically. I had to enter assets, but I calculate the value of our investments at least monthly, so that was straightforward.

Doing the taxes is the heavy lifting, FAFSA just requires some numbers pulled explicitly from the return, there's no ambiguity. But if PP is keeping two sets of books, sure, not really a self employment thing.

? when I was not self employed, filling out stuff like this was easy, like it is for most people. Also, yes, I did link the FAFSA to the IRS, but there were still things I had to figure out. If you only have one retirement account and checking out, then it's super easy. But we have multiple accounts across both my spouse and I.

Being self employed makes it harder because you don't know if you are supposed to report business income (which is all yours since you are self employed) or your income from the business minus business expenses. I had to google it but most of the research was a bit unclear. My spouse also has assets in another country; not a lot, but are we supposed to report that? They want to know your contributions to your 401k. Does that just mean my contribution as an employee or both as an employee and employer?

So, yes, being self employed made filling out FAFSA and CSS more complicated.

Anonymous wrote:The underlying theme isn't that my EFC is $jdafjeiioo and I am pissed that I don't get aid. The underlying theme is that that EFC is totally unrealistic. $500,000??? EFC???? Per year for college??? WTF. Underlying that high dollar amount is the fact that they (and I) know that we will get 0 aid dollars unless it is scholarship money and we are ready and willing to pay for college for our kids. What is infuriating is the fact that I am subsidizing 1/2 of the other students. It just gets tiring funding everyone else at some point. I am tired of hearing "pay your fair share". I pay way more than my fair share and on top of that I pay your fair share and everyone else's. Super maddening especially in this environment of "everyone goes to college" and we don't want to look at your ACT/SAT or grades we just want to say we have "diversity" and we don't mind if we have to offer remedial math/science courses to get everyone through a degree. And the comments about family planning are totally off base - what are they supposed to do? Abort one of the twins so that they won't have 2 in college at the same time. The entitlement mentality gets old and irritating. I do not owe anyone anything and I am tired of being expected to fund other's poor use of finances.

So, you’re mad because your hard-earned dollars will subsidize a URM who got admitted TO. You feel that you and your kids worked hard but others didn’t, yet your kid and the URM kid are attending the same school. Got it.

Here’s what you don’t get and a lot of wealthy people don’t want to hear. You didn’t get there on your own. Maybe you attended a public school or college that was subsidized by taxes. Maybe you eat at restaurants, drive on streets, enjoy safety (police, fire, and military), and live in a house that is staffed or built by people who get low wages and/or few benefits. Maybe you work in a fancy federal government job that pays you nicely and you’ll eventually receive a pension, all paid by tax dollars. Maybe you run a business on Amazon that sells worthless trinkets and poor people buy your crap. Maybe you run a McDonalds franchise and poor people buy your crap. Maybe you run a business that contracts to the government (tax dollars ). Maybe you’re a physician/surgeon who treats a lot of elderly who mostly use Medicare or Medicaid to pay you (tax dollars).

The point is, you do not live and succeed in a vacuum. Whether you admit it or not, you have benefited from public expenditures or the work of poor people. The taxes you pay and the full-price for college you pay is a form of giving back for the success the System/society has helped you attain.

Think and feel with gratitude. You’ll be much happier and maybe even change how you live your life.

Anonymous wrote:The underlying theme isn't that my EFC is $jdafjeiioo and I am pissed that I don't get aid. The underlying theme is that that EFC is totally unrealistic. $500,000??? EFC???? Per year for college??? WTF. Underlying that high dollar amount is the fact that they (and I) know that we will get 0 aid dollars unless it is scholarship money and we are ready and willing to pay for college for our kids. What is infuriating is the fact that I am subsidizing 1/2 of the other students. It just gets tiring funding everyone else at some point. I am tired of hearing "pay your fair share". I pay way more than my fair share and on top of that I pay your fair share and everyone else's. Super maddening especially in this environment of "everyone goes to college" and we don't want to look at your ACT/SAT or grades we just want to say we have "diversity" and we don't mind if we have to offer remedial math/science courses to get everyone through a degree. And the comments about family planning are totally off base - what are they supposed to do? Abort one of the twins so that they won't have 2 in college at the same time. The entitlement mentality gets old and irritating. I do not owe anyone anything and I am tired of being expected to fund other's poor use of finances.

Sure, you do not owe anyone anything. And nobody owes you a private education for only the price you wish to pay.

Private college is very expensive. I don’t know why you felt like you should be immune from the need to do any kind of financial planning in order to pay for it. Is saving money only for poor people?

The entitlement mentality here is that you feel you are entitled to private college at a price that doesn’t make a blip on your radar.

Community college first is an option. We aren’t expecting to get anything and I’m reading this to see if the FAFSA is worth it it fill out. CC and transfer will save a lot. I’m not expecting anyone to pay for our kids except for us but there are limits to what we can reasonably afford and not drain everything.

Anonymous wrote:The underlying theme isn't that my EFC is $jdafjeiioo and I am pissed that I don't get aid. The underlying theme is that that EFC is totally unrealistic. $500,000??? EFC???? Per year for college??? WTF. Underlying that high dollar amount is the fact that they (and I) know that we will get 0 aid dollars unless it is scholarship money and we are ready and willing to pay for college for our kids. What is infuriating is the fact that I am subsidizing 1/2 of the other students. It just gets tiring funding everyone else at some point. I am tired of hearing "pay your fair share". I pay way more than my fair share and on top of that I pay your fair share and everyone else's. Super maddening especially in this environment of "everyone goes to college" and we don't want to look at your ACT/SAT or grades we just want to say we have "diversity" and we don't mind if we have to offer remedial math/science courses to get everyone through a degree. And the comments about family planning are totally off base - what are they supposed to do? Abort one of the twins so that they won't have 2 in college at the same time. The entitlement mentality gets old and irritating. I do not owe anyone anything and I am tired of being expected to fund other's poor use of finances.

So white …

Anonymous wrote:I am funding other kids; if I am full pay a portion of my $$ goes to paying their merit.

Not really, schools have dedicated funds. My daughter write's a thank you letter to the family that supports her grant every year, not tuition dollars. Get over yourself.

I am funding other kids; if I am full pay a portion of my $$ goes to paying their merit.

Anonymous wrote:The underlying theme isn't that my EFC is $jdafjeiioo and I am pissed that I don't get aid. The underlying theme is that that EFC is totally unrealistic. $500,000??? EFC???? Per year for college??? WTF. Underlying that high dollar amount is the fact that they (and I) know that we will get 0 aid dollars unless it is scholarship money and we are ready and willing to pay for college for our kids. What is infuriating is the fact that I am subsidizing 1/2 of the other students. It just gets tiring funding everyone else at some point. I am tired of hearing "pay your fair share". I pay way more than my fair share and on top of that I pay your fair share and everyone else's. Super maddening especially in this environment of "everyone goes to college" and we don't want to look at your ACT/SAT or grades we just want to say we have "diversity" and we don't mind if we have to offer remedial math/science courses to get everyone through a degree. And the comments about family planning are totally off base - what are they supposed to do? Abort one of the twins so that they won't have 2 in college at the same time. The entitlement mentality gets old and irritating. I do not owe anyone anything and I am tired of being expected to fund other's poor use of finances.

You aren't going to get a bill for 500K even if you have twins in college. You are not funding anyone except your own kids. What are you on about? Being full pay is a hook.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Filling out the fafsa is so easy there is no reason not to unless you have zero need for loans and/or your school doesn't require it for any school based or merit aid.

I did not find it that *easy*. Maybe it's easy if you have almost no assets. Also, I'm self employed, so I wasn't even sure what income I should use.

Our financial situation is pretty complex, but I recall that the FAFSA wasn’t difficult. As I recall, I just linked to the IRS, and all of the income info was downloaded automatically. I had to enter assets, but I calculate the value of our investments at least monthly, so that was straightforward.

Doing the taxes is the heavy lifting, FAFSA just requires some numbers pulled explicitly from the return, there's no ambiguity. But if PP is keeping two sets of books, sure, not really a self employment thing.

The underlying theme isn't that my EFC is $jdafjeiioo and I am pissed that I don't get aid. The underlying theme is that that EFC is totally unrealistic. $500,000??? EFC???? Per year for college??? WTF. Underlying that high dollar amount is the fact that they (and I) know that we will get 0 aid dollars unless it is scholarship money and we are ready and willing to pay for college for our kids. What is infuriating is the fact that I am subsidizing 1/2 of the other students. It just gets tiring funding everyone else at some point. I am tired of hearing "pay your fair share". I pay way more than my fair share and on top of that I pay your fair share and everyone else's. Super maddening especially in this environment of "everyone goes to college" and we don't want to look at your ACT/SAT or grades we just want to say we have "diversity" and we don't mind if we have to offer remedial math/science courses to get everyone through a degree. And the comments about family planning are totally off base - what are they supposed to do? Abort one of the twins so that they won't have 2 in college at the same time. The entitlement mentality gets old and irritating. I do not owe anyone anything and I am tired of being expected to fund other's poor use of finances.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our EFC is 230k. We don’t even make that much 300k with both parents working + 2 million assets

You make $300K and $2 Million in assets, you have plenty of money to pay for college.

You are quite presumptuous; I am in the same situation financially and I have worked my tail off my entire life for my assets and income. I support elderly parents and fund my retirement and my children’s inheritance. I have also saved diligently for college but to assume that I can pay full price for college without it hurting is stupid. I will have 3 in college at the same time for a few years (Full price will be easily over 200,000/year). I am sick of people just saying that those with finances need to shut up and just pay pay pay…. I’ve worked so hard to pay my share and your share and your brother’s share and your neighbors share and I am getting really really tired of it.

No one is saying you didn’t work hard for your assets. We’re saying you can afford to pay for your kids to go to college without need-based aid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS has been offered merit aid without filing FAFSA.

Depends on the school. Some won’t offer merit if you don’t do FAFSA.

Can you name one?

DP. They exist, although I’m not going to go do your research for you, because school policies vary from year to year and even within schools, depending on what scholarship your kid has. My DC is receiving merit aid and did not have to file FAFSA to get or keep his scholarship, but I’ve heard other parents with students at his school comment that they *do* need to file it annually to keep their kid’s scholarship. It seems to be for the scholarships that are basically “full ride” grants and I could see why the school would want to verify that the student doesn’t qualify for any financial aid at all. I did complete the FAFSA, because my DC’s counselor told us that one school he was applying to did require it for merit. As I recall, it wasn’t a big deal (and our net worth is in 8 figures).

All someone needs to do is check with the schools that their kid is applying to, and if they don’t require FAFSA for merit aid, don’t fill it out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our EFC is 230k. We don’t even make that much 300k with both parents working + 2 million assets

You make $300K and $2 Million in assets, you have plenty of money to pay for college.

2 million asset is 1 million after expenses and taxes, not even enough to pay for 3 kids @350k each after depleting my lifetime savings

So do what the rest of us do…guide them to schools within your budget. Your whining about your wealth is annoying

NP. It's not annoying. People should not have to deplete their hard earned money that they've saved a lifetime for, to send their kids to college. No one should. And don't say there "are plenty of schools." When a kid works hard and does everything asked of them, stays out of trouble, etc. it's not unreasonable to want to send them to the best schools they can get into. And even a lot of state schools cost in excess of $30k/ year. The cost of college is ridiculous and unsustainable.

So don’t pay for your kids college. No one is forcing you, but no one is giving you any FA. You sound ridiculous. Your kid can join the military and get the GI Bill for all we care.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Filling out the fafsa is so easy there is no reason not to unless you have zero need for loans and/or your school doesn't require it for any school based or merit aid.

I did not find it that *easy*. Maybe it's easy if you have almost no assets. Also, I'm self employed, so I wasn't even sure what income I should use.

Our financial situation is pretty complex, but I recall that the FAFSA wasn’t difficult. As I recall, I just linked to the IRS, and all of the income info was downloaded automatically. I had to enter assets, but I calculate the value of our investments at least monthly, so that was straightforward.