<p>Asking for a friend-
Does financial aid take into account the imputed income of a nonworking spouse? Say husband is sole breadwinner, but wife has a degree- use engineering as an example- and she did work at one time but is now a SAHM. Is there some assumption in the EFC calculator that takes into account her ability to work, assuming no physical limitations?</p>
<p>Also, is there anything that takes into account other children going to private schools (not college)? </p>
<p>Finally, if there is a 529 account, is all of it taken into consideration? If so, what about remaining younger siblings- is there an assumption that some of it should be saved/used for them?</p>
<p>1) No, imputed income is not considered. Only real income.
2) Yes, at least Profile asks for other childrens’ tuition; I’m not sure about FAFSA.
3) There should only be one beneficiary for a 529 account. The other children should have 529 accounts of their “own”. However, because a 529 account generally owned by the parents, and the parents can change the beneficiary, the accounts are usually considered as available for the student (but only to the tune of 5% or so, since they are parental assets). 529 accounts owned by the other children, however, wouldn’t be considered because parents cannot change the beneficiary on those accounts - the beneficiary owns the account.</p>
<p>Calculations do to some extent take into account that there are other children who may be going to college in the future. Of course, never as much as one would like.</p>
<p>Family is currently in the low six figure range.
Would it make sense then, if the family were contemplating removing the rest of the siblings from private elementary school next year (in total, the tuition is around $25K), to NOT remove them- in hopes that older sibling will be ‘better off’ as far as financial aid is concerned? Would they come out $25K ahead in this game? Also, wife was contemplating returning to work- should she not?</p>
<p>doubleplay, I might be wrong but I thought that the Profile assumed that both parents should work in some capacity. I do think that some income is sufficient such as a part-time job.</p>
<p>I would have them play around with the figures on a financial aid estimator. That’s what I did. Private school tuition is only a factor in the Profile. I did estimates as far as jobs and how that would affect our EFC for CSS schools. Be sure to select instutional method in estimating. [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml]FinAid”>http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml)</p>
<p>As I recall, Profile merely requires that both parents report their income, married or not. If there is no income, there’s nothing to report. </p>
<p>Whether you send your kids to private school, or whether your wife returns to work are personal questions that can’t be answered on an anonymous internet board. While either or both scenarios may have an affect on potential financial aid, they also have a lot of non-monetary components to them. Definitely fool around with the calculators, but also remember: very few schools promise to give 100% of need anyway, and those are generally the most selective; having an income to cover the “gap” is usually better than not.</p>
<p>I agree with everything Chedva says. Also, in the low six figures, you are not going to be getting a lot of aid (except maybe at Harvard, but even there they also take into account assets, too.)</p>
<p>I also don’t believe colleges raise the EFC dollar for dollar with a raised income, so even if you don’t see as much aid, there should be a net increase in resources. Of course, this doesn’t take into account the personal effects of making those changes.</p>
<p>At Princeton, the average need based grant for families with income between $100,000 and $119,999 for the Class of 2011 was $27,000. Family size is also a factor. If you say “move the rest of the siblings”, then the grant should be above that number, given typical assets.</p>
<p>The Profile asks for private school expenses. I think it’s there if schools want to take that into consideration. I don’t know which schools do and which don’t. That info might be found on school websites.
Princeton doesn’t use the Profile, but does take private school education expenses into account.</p>