How accurate is the FinAid calculator from 2009?

Paying for College
1

<p>I’m not a ■■■■■, but let me explain my situation. So me and my wife both government employees live in the SF Bay Area. Our combined income is about $109k. I know not poor and actually suppose to be well off. But we have a mortgage and put in to retirement etc. So our take home is a lot less that that. After insurance and everything I’d have to saw between $60-70k take home. With a mortgage, utilities, property tax, etc. You could do that math our remaining cash on hand is very small. But after punching in the numbers into that calulator. I got something like it expects our contribution to be around $22k, I thought total but thats per year. My eyes almost fell out.</p>

<p>I have a hard time scrapping together $3k for one of two property tax payments. So no way in hell I’d scrap $20k and that was based on a 2008-2009. So assume now its probably like $25k per year. Which is an insane amount of money.</p>

<p>I’m not a ■■■■■ I’m promise I’m just a depressed parent everytime I think about how I can’t help my child and he’ll complete school with a $100k loan burden. =(</p>

2

<p>It is fairly accurate. There have been a few changes to income and asset protection levels. They may make a difference of a few hundred dollars to your EFC, no more than that.</p>

<p>FAFSA does not take into account where you live or what your mortgage is. it also adds back any retirement contributions for the year (thought retirement asset balances are not taken into account). A 22k EFC sounds in the ballpark for your income level. Perhaps a little lower than I would have expected.</p>

3

<p>swimcatsmom, thank you sooo much for the reply. The worry about figuring this stuff out will probably give ma an ulcer. Sigh I guess I’m very out of luck. I’ll probably have to find a second job or something. Whats really horrible is that berkeley is right across the bay. By the time my son goes tuition will be $14k a year, and he’ll have to BART it from home with zero college experience. I can pray that he gets national merit. He did get a 5 on the AP Chem exam his sophmore year. I hope hist PSAT this October counts for something.</p>

<p>Thats just horrible doesn’t factor bottom line, and actually adds back money you socked away for retirement.</p>

4

<p>I like printing out the FAFSA formula itself, and working through it on paper. Here’s the link to the 2012-2013 formula: <a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Now you understand why so many talented students start out at their local community college!</p>

5

<p>I can’t help my child and he’ll complete school with a $100k loan burden.</p>

<p>Do not allow your son to borrow that much…not even HALF that much. Also, for him to borrow more than the following amounts would mean that YOU would have to co-sign and ultimately have to pay if he could not. </p>

<p>5500 frosh
6500 soph
7500 jr
7500 sr</p>

<p>Those amounts are really the most an undergrad should borrow because a newish grad can’t pay more than that back. Borrowing more is a bad idea.</p>

<p>Anyway…since you now know that you have an unaffordable EFC, you need to be looking for other options…</p>

<p>1) publics that he could commute to - CSU/UCs that are near your home. </p>

<p>2) publics and privates that your son could get a large merit scholarship at. It’s important that your son get high SAT and/or ACT scores (have him take both). Along with a high GPA, your son could get big merit somewhere (probably not to a UC, but to privates or OOS publics).</p>

<p>3) If your son does well on the PSAT (in Calif, a high score is needed, so if he can get a 223, he’d likely be safe), then he could get a free ride to a few schools.</p>

<p>4) Since your son is only a junior, you have some time to work on the above issues and also to determine if there are areas in your home life that you can cut back costs to set aside some money for college. Or, perhaps your son can take a part-time job now or in the summer to earn/save some money. Even with big scholarships, you may still have to come up with some money each year.</p>

<p>5) Private scholarships are often small, hard to get, and only for freshman year…so not much help for soph, jr, or sr year. So, look for COLLEGES that give merit scholarships…those scholarships are usually for all 4 years.</p>

<p>Since you made the comment about difficulty in paying prop taxes, that suggests that you would have a hard time contributing much for college. Try to figure out how much you can contribute and be very honest with your son so that he doesn’t get unrealistic expectations…and so that he knows what he has to do to be able to “go away” to school. </p>

<p>Schools believe that the primary people to pay for college is the family. Going away to school is a luxury, so if that’s the goal, hopefully your son can get some very large merit scholarships.</p>

<p>berkeley is right across the bay. By the time my son goes tuition will be $14k a year, and he’ll have to BART it from home with zero college experience.</p>

<p>Just because a student commutes, it doesn’t mean that he’ll have zero college experience. A commuting student who wants to be involved on campus should NOT just attend classes and then straight home. A commuting student can join clubs, study on campus, do homework on campus, eat on campus, etc…and just come home at night to sleep. </p>

<p>Again, “going away” is a luxury…for a UC, that can be $15k right there for room and board. For most families, paying that is out of the question after paying for tuition and books.</p>

6

<p>You should do a search her for threads written by momfromtexas. She found excellent full ride scholarships for her two kiddos. The thread is actually getting pretty old, and the specific colleges/scholarships may not still apply…BUT the strategy she used is outstanding and timeless.</p>

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<p>

It doesn’t add back all the money you have put in retirement. It just does not allow income to be reduced by current year contributions for the years you are filing FAFSA. Fairly logical as it considers that in the years you have a student in college, the money should be going toward college. The asset balance in your retirement accounts is protected.</p>

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<p>ASSURED SCHOLARSHIPS…$$$ CC Important links to Merit Scholarships given for stats…
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>the above thread is a more current list of ASSURED scholarships for specified stats (if you apply by the deadlines!!). Be sure to look towards the later pages because those will have the most up-to-date scholarships.</p>

<p>Note that some merit scholarships mentioned at the beginning no longer exist or have changed. Always check the schools’ websites to verify scholarships.</p>

<p>Since your son is a junior, you will have to check again next summer because if a school is going to change/reduce an offered scholarship, they do it in the summer before the new app season starts. </p>

<p>Thumper’s advice about the Momfromtexas thread is good. As she said, some of those scholarships no longer exist, but the message is that if you look at some “lesser known” schools where your child’s stats are very high, they may offer a full ride or other large scholarship to your child. Be aware that a few of these schools may be “commuter” or suitcase schools so an OOS student may get lonely on weekends if not many kids stay on campus. </p>

<p>However, there are schools that are “residential schools” that do offer large merit.</p>

<p>A note about EFC…the amount determined to be EFC is not based on current income alone. The formula believes that families will be using savings, current income, and future income (loans) to pay for college.</p>

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<p>You are so much more likely to find merit than need-based aid…definitely start searching for public and private schools, instate or OOS, that will give your son merit aid. There is no way any college student should be borrowing more than $40K for an undergrad degree (and that is actually more than most borrow). You will be eligible for Parent Plus loans, or other loans that you can secure privately, up to the full cost of attendance. How much you can free up in your budget to make those payments is the question…sounds like not too much without putting your retirement savings on hold for the duration, or continuing to work a second job. If you’ve been unable to save for college before, and have trouble meeting current bills, I’d be very careful about incurring much debt.</p>

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<p>Wow everyone here is amazing at answering my questions. Everytime I log in a lot of my anxiety dissipates. Thank you everyone for being patient with me.</p>

<p>You guys have given me soooo much perspective. The ideas help a lot. I’m extremely blessed my child is a smart cookie. Especially coming from two teen parents. I personally found my college experience horrible. I did the community college and state route with zero aid. I worked full time and the two days off I had I was at school from 7 am to 9 pm. I pray that my son has an amazing college experience. He takes tons of APs passed the chemistry one with a 5 last year. His GPA is always around 3.83 with AP classes so I assume its past 4.00. He lacks in volunteer work and sports so no idea if his college apps will look crappy. I definitely plan on having him take the ACT and SAT soon. I’ll be starring at the merit based award for the year and absorbing its impact and changes.</p>

<p>I actually had that discussion with him the other day about debt. He understood it completely, at the moment I think he wants to be a physics or engineering major. We’ll see. I’ve also already told him how much we can contribute. I think my mom (his grandmother) has money for him, not a lot but some.</p>

<p>I’ll be investigating every possiblity and other peoples success stories. I just wish there was something. I actually heard a rumor that I could never validate that teachers in california children got a break on tuition. But I guess its only for UC teachers. My wife teaches in SF at a public school.</p>

<p>Thanks again everyone for the advice. It’s been invaluable!</p>

11

<p>Wow I just read some of the momfromtexas posts. Some people are so critical. About the difference between a 4th or 3rd tier school full ride as opposed to paying out the nose and owing tens of thousands. But momfromtexas posts from 2006 in today 2011 context is completely different. In 2006 State colleges in CA were still around $3k a year tuition now their in the $6k. I think the higher costs of tuition makes momfromtexas’s decision look like genius.</p>

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<p>I actually heard a rumor that I could never validate that teachers in california children got a break on tuition. But I guess its only for UC teachers. My wife teaches in SF at a public school.</p>

<p>That must be for UC profs. My SILs are Calif high school teachers and neither have gotten any breaks for their kids at UCs.</p>

<p>I just read some of the momfromtexas posts. Some people are so critical. About the difference between a 4th or 3rd tier school full ride as opposed to paying out the nose and owing tens of thousands.</p>

<p>Yes, there were some “prestige snobs” that posted very rude and insensitive posts on her thread. However, in the end, her way worked for her family. </p>

<p>That said, if your child has high stats, he probably won’t have to go to a 3rd/4th tier school unless you’re looking for a complete full ride (tuition, room, board, books etc). Personally, I would be very careful about choosing a 3rd/4th tier school unless I was sure that it was a residential school where students didn’t mostly all leave on weekends or every evening during the week.</p>

<p>If you’re just looking for free tuition or similar, then you’ll be able find good scholarships at mid-tiers (schools in the old-style 2nd tier).</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If you go to the above link, you won’t find the ugly posts, you’ll just find posts with assured scholarships (but again…the early posts may have scholarships that have changed, so look towards the later pages. )</p>