<p>Well…I suppose you could write a letter if this is a one time happening…and is adding to your income for just this one year. Some schools will view this as a special circumstance because it is not really an increase to income…but a one time occurrence. </p>
<p>Contact the college. But you do need to understand…special circumstances considerations are not guaranteed. Some schools don’t do them at all. And where they are done, they are handled on a case by case basis. </p>
<p>ETA…you still got $10,000 in Grant aid…a reduction of about $20,000, correct?</p>
<p>What was your income…because maybe the capital gain was only part of the issue.</p>
<p>I think I have to use that gain to fund her education. How do you guys push kid to pursue a high pay career? she is doing a major that pays not much and I want to talk her into IB or consulting or law school. she is currently interning in a consulting company. but she keeps saying she wants to go to graduate school majoring English. </p>
<p>I did not push my kids into their majors. THEY chose their majors. My engineering major never wants to work in that field. My music major is working as a musician.</p>
<p>Here is my opinion…let HER fund grad school.</p>
<p>it is 5000 for fall and 5000 for spring . total is 10K grant. it is not one time thing, we have capital gains the previous two years but this year it is more. </p>
<p>that is what i said, if she wants to do grad school, i am not providing any funding unless it is law school. I think that basically cut her grad school dream for now.</p>
<p>This is way off topic from your thread, but I’m going to respond anyway. </p>
<p>Your daughter has as good a chance of finding a job with a masters in English as with a law school degree. There are way too many lawyers, and not enough jobs for them. Law school costs at least twice as much as grad school in English.</p>
<p>You should be encouraging your daughter’s career dreams, not your own. </p>
<p>if she is grad school worthy, she should look for programs that will underwrite her. This is all part of the needed research for financial decisions re: education costs.</p>
<p>What is your definition of a high enough income? Plenty of people are quite happy on an income lower than yours, especially if they live in a moderate COL area. Do you want a happy daughter or a miserable lawyer? And as posted above, there are a LOT of unemployed/underemployed law school graduates. She could get the MA in English and end up with a higher salary than she’d have with a JD.</p>
<p>My older daughter struggles every month to have money left over after bills, but is thrilled to death teaching math in a remote Alaskan village. My younger chose a medical career and makes double her sister’s income and has a large savings account. I am equally proud of them, but would say I have more admiration of the older for her dedication and struggles.</p>
<p>Hi thumper1,
Thank you very much for your advice. My non capital gain income is around 100k, I said in the thread my capital gain is about half of my agi. I asked the career choice question cz I don’t want my d to come here 20 years later to ask how to appeal fa and get told her kids can only go to cc instead of their dream school due to lack of funding.</p>
<p>Free advice. If your daughter comes to you in 20 years about college…tell your grandchildren to ditch the “dream school” idea. There are several thousand colleges in this country. Many affordable ones can fulfill a dream.</p>
<p>Since you say you have taken capital gains for several years, this is clearly NOT a one time event. You can ask if the college will give you a special circumstances consideration, but they very well could say no…because usually these are for ONE time events (an inheritance that increases assets, for example, or a one time sign on bonus, or something like that)…not something that is reoccurring.</p>
<p>I believe you said you had $300,000 in assets. Even after paying the college bills, you will still have $249,000…not including any interest from your account.</p>