I work on commission - need advice

Paying for College
1

HI all,

I am new here and was wondering if there is any advice out there for people that work on commission. My son has been accepted to a few very impressive schools (average 65K COA) and the aid has been less then stellar. We did our EFC last year prior to an ED (which he wasn’t accepted). But anyway my EFC was about 30K at the time. When we did it this year for RD it jumped to 50k because of some unexpected stock options that they made me cash out and some unexpected sales commission. My sales commission isn’t like a real estate agent where they get it and can keep it. What I sell has risk. I get the $$ upfront but can lose it anytime within the next year if they decide to cancel if something doesn’t go right in implementation. This has happened to me numerous times - I owe the company back and sometimes it takes me months the pay back. I get a very small base salary and the rest is based on how hard I work. So over the past year I have lost a few large sales and owed the company money. When that happens it puts my family in a bad place, we are actually 3 months behind on our mortgage and racked up tons of credit card debt… I wish I could find a new job, but this is all I know and don’t have a college degree so I can’t find one. I made the most I ever made last year and do not expect to make that much again…

SO my question is, do you think I can write to the colleges to explain and get more $$$. They are all need based and I am not sure if it will help. If I knew this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have gotten my sons hopes up. But this was all unexpected. Yes, I made more money but am always using it to catch up. Also, year to date this year I have made 15K less then last year but could make it up in the back half of the year, just never know.

Any advice with negotiating with the schools. Or don’t bother?

2

You can ask them… and show them evidence that you have made $15K less at this point this year than last year (some kind of actual evidence – not sure if you have some kind of report or paystub or something). Ask for a financial aid review, maybe show them your 1040/AGI for the past 5 years, and evidence that you are on track for a more normal year this year. It can’t hurt…

3

Did your son apply to any financial safety schools…schools that awarded him large merit for his stats? Is he a NMF?

4

@mom2collegekids … Yes we have some safety schools and one did give him merit. But obviously not his top choices… He is not an NMF

5

@intparent I just started putting data that data together. I was thinking the same thing. Couldn’t hurt to try

6

Yes… the risk is that you have a bad year in the future (worse than normal). I am sympathetic, I have variable income as well. My kid’s college did adjust when I had a really bad year, but not all colleges do from what I understand.

7

@intparent So I guess I should ask if they will give me more aid in future years if I make less money… I read some where that one of the schools my son applied to does not, but we haven’t heard from them if he was accepted

8

Absolutely ask for professional review after he gets his offers.

I think you have to lay it out a little more clearly than you have here.

Explain the terms of your employment, maybe your employer has a fact sheet on it that you can present. Then if it is not violating any confidentiality, let the school know exactly what happened.

You made X in 2015, however you now have to refund Y back to the company (how does that even work with taxes, seems pretty awful), so your net for 2015 is _________.

Be prepared to show a few years returns. Also let them know that your bank account which was ____ in 2015 is now _____ which is much less. Try to make it simple for them.

Then have the discussion about where his FA will go in future years depending on your income.