When will she be visiting St. Olaf’s?
OP,
You absolutely have the right to present SO with your situation and see what they say. If they honor their ED policy as described, they should match Earlham’s package at the very least. Just be patient and polite Simply explain the facts. Reinforce that your daughter is attending SO no matter what (obviously). My guess is that SO will immediately match/improve upon Earlham’s FA package because from SO’s perspective, the amount is probably small and not worth potentially losing an ED applicant over.
ED, EA, RD, an applicant always has the right to ask the FA office questions.
@Hapworth They didn’t budge. They just said she could borrow more, if I’m denied a plus loan.
@thumper1 I don’t know if she’s going to be able to visit at all. I don’t know if they will fly her in or not.
If I haven’t personally thanked all of you for the warm wishes, I apologize. Thank you all so much. I appreciate it immensely.
@citymama9 Yes there are college expenses (direct costs of 1300) that have to be covered out of work study, before the work study will begin to apply to books, travel, and personal expenses. This is what terrifies me. Hopefully she’ll be able to make enough money over the summer, but so far we’re not finding a plethora of jobs. Or hopefully I’ll be able to make that money, although not feeling incredibly optimistic about it. I don’t believe she can get more work-study hours beyond what they have allotted for her. I am a little confused about that part
Totally agree with @Hapworth FWIW. This ED propaganda machine created by the colleges to protect themselves shouldn’t be a one way street–students/parents need to protect themselves as well. The school has no right to tell you that $X difference shouldn’t have an impact on your situation…it’s YOUR situation and you know best. We’ve raised our kids to “question everything” and yet when it comes to this process, i see so many parents just go along with whatever is written on university letterhead as if it came down from on high. We have every right to ask questions and re-evaluate based on those answers and if those answers are not satisfactory–walk away. I refuse to let a financial algorithm that i have no control or knowledge of, dictate the amount of $$ i should be able to afford for my child’s education. Only I know what that number is. Sorry for the rant, but ED is destroying an already horrible system.
If they don’t give her more work study hours and she needs a little extra income one possiblity would be to get a job in the town of Northfield or babysit for a professor on the side. Also, if it’s hard to find a summer job in your area is there an opportunity to be a summer nanny/babysitter? Babysitting is a great way to get tax-free money for a teen and the hourly pay is usually better than most jobs. I’m wishing her all the best.
OP, Do you know that your D will not see any WS money til she actually gets a job and works. Even if she had a job right when she arrived on campus it may be two weeks before she sees a check. She will need book money right at the start of classes. Many schools will allow you to pay your costs over several months so maybe the WS money can be used to pay the last bill. OTOH, most students use that money for personal needs: toiletries, snacks, etc and do not use it pay school bills, at least not that first semester.
Be careful with this. If she earns more than a certain amount, she will need to file taxes. And she actually might have some self employment tax liability.
@BelknapPoint could you elaborate?
The bottom line is that the D needs to get a job before school starts to build up some savings. OP, there HAVE to jobs out there in a suburb of a major city. If D wants to go to St Olaf then she needs to fully understand the financial ramifications so she knows what she’s getting into. She was quick to send her deposit and it seems like she’s done so without fully understanding the financial picture.
And I agree with the posters above about ED. Don’t like it. If your D would have been accepted RD to St.Olaf and to Earlham with these packages…would you have chosen St. O? Hard to know but now you don’t get a choice. And she’s never visited. I honestly don’t know anyone who has ED’d to a school where they’ve never set foot on campus. I hope for your sake this leap of faith works out.
I do hope that you will visit. You say you will be letting her take a car six hour drive from home? Well…then hop in the car, and let her drive that six hours to an accepted student weekend.
She needs to see how long that drive actually is…it might help with the car decision. She may decide the bus is a better alternative.
But more important, she will be able to meet other accepted students and see the campus IN PERSON.
IIRC she has a medical issue as well. This might also give her (and you if you go as well )time to meet with the disability office at St. O…if any accommodations need to be put in place.
I do think the leap of faith can work and St. O sounds like a great opportunity for your D. With her paying the deposit and being so determined, I do think she can figure it out with your guidance. Given all the positive things you’ve said about your daughter, I feel confident that if she starts now and makes it a priority, she can earn at least $2000 before school starts and have enough for her start up costs and personal expenses throughout the semester. Depending on the job, she may be able to line up work for the winter break if she is proactive. Some colleges have long breaks and there would be a chance to earn enough to put toward personal expenses and books for the spring semester.
Money earned from babysitting is most definitely taxable earned income, and the recipient can be required to file a tax return and pay income tax and self-employment tax, depending on the amount of earnings (as little as $433 in the case of self-employment tax).
How would anyone know? No way the kids I know file taxes for babysitting. Some of them aren’t even 16.
Kids doing occasional babysitting seem unlikely to meet the minimum income test (based on the babysitting income) to be required to file federal income tax.
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p501#en_US_2017_publink1000220702
lol. So it seems that $433 in babysitting income is just fine. In fact, if I’m reading this correctly, one could make up to $6000 as long as she is a dependent and still not file.
OP, your daughter has an opportunity to attend a high caliber private college like St. Olaf for less than $2000 out of pocket (acknowledging the federal loan that most students accept). And you are dithering about whether she can swing it? Are you kidding? I am a very very hardworking single mom of an adopted daughter and I have worked for well over three decades as a public school teacher and I will be working eight years past the typical retirement that my colleagues are taking. My daughter has almost the exact same stats, plus she’s a state level varsity athlete, gifted musician, people-person, positive spirit, etc. Equally deserving and special as your admittedly lovely daughter. She would kill for that opportunity! We are expected to contribute $35,000 a year (EFC) and she has been working her butt of since the week she turned 14, saving like crazy. The modest inheritance my mother left us has been invested and will be fully tapped to help pay for her education–not used to buy three new cars. My daughter will not have a new car of her own until well after she graduates and puts a really good dent in whatever loans she takes on to allow her to attend college (.Although I’m sure my mother would have loved for her to have a nice new set of eco-friendly wheels.)
Please count your blessings. Urge your daughter to get out there and drum up some cash for college. Snow shoveling, babysitting, dishwashing, whatever is out there. Sell that car if necessary and split it up over four years. Plenty of bus fare! Cover that $1200 shortfall! Really, this will help with growing up and overcoming anxiety. Put herself out there with the diverse population she looks forward to meeting in college.
I know you have suffered emotional trauma and are struggling financially. I know you are a loving and devoted mother. But I want to pull my hair out when you don’t recognize how very very fortunate you are to be impoverished enough at this particular point in your life that your daughter will be given a $250,000 gift of an education.
Most of us are making sacrifices for our children’s education. We are not getting a nearly full ride.
Yes, I’m venting a bit. I don’t mean to offend you. I don’t resent the hard work my daughter and I are putting into achieving a college education. My daughter too will have an opportunity to attend St. Olaf. But please acknowledge: you got the Golden Ticket. Most of us have to work hard for it.
No. The threshold for filing a return and paying self-employment tax is $433, unless the babysitter is a W-2 employee and the employee side of FICA is being withheld by the employer. My guess is that the vast majority of teenage babysitters are self-employed.
Well, if you go by the rule “if no one knows than it’s not cheating,” I guess that works.
Incidental costs at college are a controllable expense. If she needs shampoo and has $1 to spend, she’ll buy $1 shampoo. It’s that simple. She’ll spend what she has. My kids rarely spend money on toothpaste and shampoo and makeup. They head to school with a full supply in Aug, restock in Jan. They set up their dream dorm rooms with stuff from our home. Not surprisingly, their dorm rooms look a lot like their home bedrooms - same comforters, pillows, foam mattress pad, towels. We did have to buy XL sheets ($3 at the thrift store for a new in the package set).
You’ve asked several times about work study. It’s very simple - it’s a job you get paid for after you do th work. What you do with that money is up to you. You can pay tuition, you can buy shampoo. WS is just an opportunity to make some money. She’ll need seed money to start college as she won’t make that money for several weeks (my D is just starting her WS job this week, the 3rd week of the semester because she was sick all last week; she won’t be paid for 2 or more weeks). Your daughter will earn money this summer, say $2000, and that’s what she’ll use in the fall for her books, shampoo, medicine, travel costs to school. As she starts to earn WS money, she can replenish her bank account and then she’ll have $1500 to start in the spring. She’ll spend that but work in the spring and replenish again. Summer earnings again will build up a balance for the fall. And on and on. The trick is to not spend more than you can earn to replenish the pot.
She will learn what to ask the FA office for in an emergency. Shampoo is not an emergency, traveling home is not an emergency, being in the choir is not an emergency, travel abroad is not an emergency. Medicine is an emergency.
I think the school either doesn’t know that you are losing $500 per month in child support or doesn’t care. You asked them not to consider the NCP and any contributions he makes, so they didn’t. I don’t think you can have it both ways. I absolutely understand that it matters to your home budget, but the school isn’t going to consider that you are down $500 per month. They already have you at a $0 EFC and you can’t go lower than that.
Are you getting a tax refund with EIC or child credit? Apply for it now and bank it. Your business can’t afford an employee but can it afford one/both of your kids to work there?
Another thing you might look into is the expanded medicaid in MN. If she becomes a resident, she might qualify and if so her medication would be covered.
@BelknapPoint lots of kids make more than $433 in babysitting in a year in our neighborhood with the going rate at $10-$15 an hour. A couple goes out for dinner and a show in the city and the babysitter makes at least $60 in one night! Too bad OP’s D doesn’t live near us since babysitting here is a boom business!
I think babysitting during the summer would be the perfect job for her. She’s got a car to bring kids wherever they have to go and kids love having teenage babysitters. :). Start putting the word out early. Ask classmates if they know any families who need help.
I knew kids who got paid to go on vacation with a family so that the parents had a sitter they could trust and go out to dinner and have a little downtime. I realize you wouldn’t want to do this with total strangers, but it seemed like a great deal all the way round.
Does anyone have ideas for how to connect with those opportunities, if not in your community, near it?
As an aside, we were told by an FA consultant that in general, they want some of your past (savings ), some of your future (loans) and some of your present (WS, current income.) Just a way of framing it.