Hey everyone, junior here! My parents are both blue collar workers who make about $45K with their normal income. However, they both began working a lot of overtime the past year to both save some extra money for college and have more money in general. For that reason, their combined income with overtime has risen to about $65K.
Because of this rise in income, I’ve been unable to qualify for free lunch programs that I used to qualify for before and it seems like that will force me to pay for the June subject tests and college application fees later this fall. Also, it could stop me from getting full rides at the selective schools that meet need.
Should I worry about this? It just seems like the cutoff for all these programs that give financial benefits is around $50K-$60K and my parents’ extra work will actually limit me rather than help me.
It’s an unfortunate reality that the more money you try to make to be able to send your kid to college, the more money you end up having to pay. I have a higher income than you, but my father this past year worked so much extra to try to be able to more comfortably afford college and the result of that is I get less money in financial aid, forcing him to pay more. It’s a never ending cycle (and by never ending, I mean once you’re a millionaire, then it doesn’t really matter anymore). For uber selective schools, a family income of around $65,000 would still leave you paying close to nothing for your education.
It is what it is. They make a higher income so you have less need. You are right that some programs are eased out at about $50k, but usually you will get proportionally less, not cut off. It will d3 pend on what state you live in and what programs that state has.
Though it’s worth recognizing that $20k in additional income will nearly always result in a less than (much less than) $20k increase in EFC. Basically, as with so many other things, more income nearly always means you come out ahead.
Your parents have a good work ethic, and want to actually work to earn money. This is not a bad thing. Your financial aid will be less…but since most schools don’t meet full need anyway, it’s hard to say how much less.
If you were eligible for and used a SAT fee waiver (in the past) then you can send four free scores and get four application fee waivers from Collegeboard. You should see them by fall of senior year I think in your Collegeboard account.
You could help out by getting a part time job and paying for your subject test fees if you no longer qualify for test fee waivers.
As someone said, it really depends what level of school you are aiming for. If you are looking at a meets full needs highly selective, you will probably still qualify for plenty of aid. However, if you are looking below that to schools that give you loans and leave a gap, it is probably good that your parents are saving money for college.
Run the NPC at schools you are interested, see the difference at different income levels. Also include assets and savings. Pay attention to what the school policy on meeting need is.
Yes, run the Net Price Calculator on each college’s web site. See what they project in grants/free money. And look at colleges offering merit aid based on your grades, scores, major, and whatever else.
For every extra dollar your parents earned, may be a quarter goes to tax or reduction in certain benefit. At the end, they are still bringing more money home. Unless they have a lot of assets that they want to keep the income low in order to avoid reporting them.