So I just got accepted to BU and their financial aid offer gave me 25k presidential scholarship and 56k need-based scholarship. This really shocked me because my noncustodial parent’s parent is really high and when I did the cost estimator, it said I would only get around 8k. My mom’s income is significantly lower (<40). Point is, I wasn’t expecting to get much financial aid from any school so this is really surprising. Can I expect this much financial aid from other schools as well, or is BU just being super generous for some reason?
The financial aid offer does say tentative until my FAFSA has been processed and income is confirmed. Can someone explain how colleges determine how much need you have? I was thinking they would make my mom pay very little and ask my dad to pay the whole thing.
Edit: is it possible I’m misinterpreting the financial aid offer?
Has your FAFSA processed and if so, what was your SAI? Did you use your mother or father’s income for FAFSA?
So your father filled out the CSS form with the correct financial information? Did BU require tax returns with the CSS form? Some schools do not, so if you do make a serious mistake on our CSS it will not be confirmed until the FAFSA is processed.
My FAFSA was my mom’s income and the estimated SAI (it says cannot calculate at the moment) was -1500. I believe everything on his CSS should be correct.
I don’t remember uploading tax returns in the BU portal and it doesn’t list under the checklist.
Yes, my mother provides the majority of my financial support.
I’ve seen his tax return. He has around 80k in wages and 170k in “Rental real estate, royalties, partnerships, S corporations, trusts, etc”. Does this 170k not count towards determining financial need?
There has also been a problem, which they’re trying to fix quickly, where the SAI was lower than it should have been (meaning some students will get less FA than promised). However since you filled out the CSS in addition to FAFSA-related aid, it’s hard to know.
Keep your fingers crossed I guess. At best, you’re getting an excellent FA package ; at worst, you know your father has your back (which can’t be taken for granted).
I would run the NPC using income for parents as $35K (mom) and $80K (dad) or total of 115K total income plus $170K as investment or cash. Add in any savings/investments/cash of mom.
That would give you a rough idea.
But hold on, I guess the only tax returns which are coming via FAFSA are your mom’s as you only used her income. Your dad’s tax returns aren’t part of FAFSA and it sounds like BU didn’t require filing them as part of the CSS.
So in all likelihood assuming your got your mom’s income correct on the CSS then there wouldn’t be any reason for it to change once they get her tax return.
However, Dad’s tax returns were not submitted as part of the CSS and are not part of the FAFSA submission, so however he listed the 170K of assets will probably stick unless she is chosen for verification.
If the $170,000 is assets and BU assesses those at the roughly 5.6% of value, that could be where the $10,000 net cost comes from. It seems from what was reported here that the mom’s contribution portion would be $0. BU costs about $90000 a year. The student got $80,000 or so in aid.
I just put it in a cost estimator that way and it said 57,700. So I guess they aren’t counting the 170k as part of his income. Thank you! I wonder if other schools do the same.
I had him send me a pdf of his css profile and the 170k is listed under “Rental real estate, royalties, partnerships, S corporations, trusts, etc.” just like it is on his tax return. Is this considered assets?
