Pretty much as the title says. I have this weird glitch with all the schools that use the CSS Profile that makes my “cash, checking, and savings” about 20 times more than it actually is (an insane amount), leading Cornell, Northeastern, and USC to all think I can pay full tuition when I DEFINITELY cannot.
Is this a common issue? All of my appeals have already been denied once, but I am willing to try again. Does anyone know a way to solve this problem? Financial aid offices won’t tell me how to fix it for some reason; I guess they think I might try to cheat their system if they tell me why they’re not giving me money.
P.S.: Other schools like UC Irivne and RPI calculated my estimated financial contribution at around 18-25k, no where near the full tuition the CSS colleges think I can pay.
College Board only sends what you entered into CSS profile to colleges. You may have incorrectly entered the information.
To correct the wrong info, print out the profile, cross the wrong value and write the correct value below it. Fax/Fedex the corrected profile with an attached explanation to colleges. You cannot appeal without correcting your profile first.
I can’t understand your statement. CSS does not change the amount of ‘cash, checking and savings’. Like @coolweather says, it sounds more like an error on your part.
However, schools that use profile are going to have very different EFC calculation than schools that use FAFSA-only. If you are instate in CA, then many students will find that most privates will not come anywhere near the aid you will get at a UC. CSS schools have a different formula, particular to that school. Some will use home equity and other things that FAFSA-only don’t use. But CSS schools will never represent your Cash and Bank as different than the actual, they my only use a different formula on it. Go line by line to find your error. It is almost too late, decision time.
I will try doing so, although I honestly can barely understand all the tax forms that were used to fill it out.
Is it a possibility they could have associated the checking/bank of a company my step-dad owns as our own? We can’t actually use it and the company itself is in a weird debt situation (which we tried to explain in our appeal but I don’t think they cared).
So, are you saying that Cornell, NU and USC all told you what their calculated amount of your “cash, checking and savings” was? Or are you just assuming that’s where the issue is? Keep in mind that the school-calculated EFC isn’t just about how much money you have in the bank. It also takes into account non-cash assets, income, business assets, etc.
One major difference between FAFSA and most CSS schools’ EFC calculations is how divorces and re-marriages may affect the EFC. FAFSA uses only the custodial parent’s household income and assets. Some CSS schools do the same but many (if not most) also takes the non-custodial parent’s income/assets into consideration. If your parents are divorced, this can make a big difference in the FAFSA vs CSS calculations. You mention a step-parent and RPI, so I suspect this may be what you’re experiencing. RPI is one of the few schools that do not require a CSS profile from the non-custodial parent. USC does.
makes it sound like you think they calculate and insert a number. They don’t-- you put in that number. So if you put in the wrong number you can correct it (but you have to do it by hand for each school). If you mean something else, then you need to clarify the problem is and maybe people on here can be more helpful. Otherwise, we are just guessing.
When I went to USC and complained in person,they showed me a number on their screen that said cash checking and savings and it was ridiculous. They then pointed at it and said “this looks abnormal”.
I had submitted a noncustodial parent waiver to all 3 of the schools that did and it was approved, but I had never thought about that (they wouldn’t just assume I could get money from the noncustodial parent anyways right? Cause that would be ridiculous).
The number was shown to me by USC, and I am assuming the other 2 schools got the same number by some turn of events. My appeals were already denied at Cornell and USC (in regards to my step-father’s company and home equity evaluation), so there had to be something else if the cash checking and savings were still super high. I will try to print the CSS out and go through everything and see if I can find any mistakes.
So you are saying that you entered X dollars for your “cash” and they changed it to Y dollars?! How would they know what’s in your/your parents bank accounts?
I guess so. There was some mention from my parents about them ignoring our “paper losses”, and maybe that has something to do with it. Ucla had actually asked for my tax forms seperately and did the exact same thing as the above mentioned private schools (apparently they have some jurisdiction beyond what the other UCs have).
It sounds like the CSS schools added something (deductions, reported value of assets, etc.) back in. The fact that your stepdad owns a company can affect your aid. Have your parents talked to the financial aid staff to find out how they calculated the aid? It sounds like they need to speak to someone to sort it out.
Yes, many schools will add losses back in (like Schedule E losses, for instance.) They may also add in income that’s not subject to income tax, so not accounted for in the AGI.
They have not, and practically refuse to since they are tired of trying to get finaid out of my top schools when others are offering me it. I think I will go in in-person today to USC and try to sit down with their counselors and sort it out. I recently discovered that as far as the business goes, they may be taking the interest income (line 8a on tax forms) from the business’s loans and assuming it is from cash/checking that we personally have. The appeal regarded that, but it changed nothing, so an in-person appearance seems unavoidable at this point.
Okay, I found the issue, but don’t know how to solve it.
For some reason the interest income of my step-father’s company is showing up on our personal tax returns, leading all the schools to believe its our own money. In reality my step-father is only the CFO and does not own the money by any means.
How would we prove this? How do we get it removed from our personal tax returns (why is it even on there in the first place)?
There is one quirk with the FAFSA and DRT but it only applies to students who have received scholarship income in excess of their qualified educational expenses (i.e. where their scholarship also covers room and board, health insurance etc).
When the DRT imports your data, it leaves the field blank for “scholarship income included in AGI”. Many students miss this field or assume it is DRT data you shouldn’t change. In reality, you need to enter a number into that field (if you have scholarship income in your AGI).
If, however, your scholarship is your only source of income, when you enter the number you will get a notice in red saying that the number appears high and to check the information you have entered. This panics many students. This notice appears because the software is not programmed for cases where your scholarship income equals your AGI. You should however ignore the warning and leave the number as is. This will not result in you being selected for verification but it is important that you enter this number as otherwise your university will conclude that you had income in addition to your scholarship.
This issue arises quite often at the “full demonstrated need” colleges that are grant only.