<p>Birthday - In our family, the 21st birthday is a big deal and it’s traditional to do 21 presents. When my first child turned 21, she was away at college so I tried to make it last all day. I sent her a big box and numbered the present 1 - 21 and had different times of day to open different ones, with the last present being pretty special. The morning present were things like tea and scones and a new toothbrush, one group was Pennsylvania centered products like a Hershey bar and tastycakes and a book about PA, evening was a pass to a local movie place, etc. When my oldest son turned 21 it was much harder. He was home and would have just as soon had money. <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>FAFSA, PROFILE - We had to fill them out to be eligible for merit money at several schools and for at least one, if you didn’t fill it out that first year, you wouldn’t be considered in later years if your circumstances changed, like a spouse losing a job. My older kids were only able to afford their private colleges because of merit aid so we will be filling out all the forms to make that a possibility for #3.</p>
<p>The reason they add back the SEP business contribution is that it reduces the amount of income you report on your 1040-while and employers contribution to a 401(k) has no impact on a persons 1040 income.</p>
<p>I hope I have explained that in plain English.</p>
<p>^^ right however WE did not make the SEP contribution on the personal side of the taxes…there is no contribution from us.
The EMPLOYER made the contribution and its in the business returns, not on the personal returns…</p>
<p>Here’s the rub, no matter what the calculators (used several, nor the viewbooks, and parent info sessions)
there is no way to REALLY know what the “institutional method” of each university is and that is why we are so surprised…
the EFC is more than 2x the EFC of a calculator–of another ivy…
Pt being–“institutional method” is a very shadowy character…</p>
<p>fogfog, sorry you got such a shock. So far as your son’s portion goes, it is typical for schools to include summer earnings and term-time earnings for all students as part of their self-help expectation. Most schools also include 25% of any assets they have although Pton caps it at 5%, I think. They will allow scholarships to be used to offset the student’s self-help portion so be sure to tell him to work hard on scholarship apps. </p>
<p>I think if any unusual circumstances are involved it is impossible to predict what a school’s FA package will be.</p>
<p>I just bought my mom a digital frame and loaded it up with a bunch of pictures. That might be a good gift starting with pictures from ages 1 to 18. I am also planning on having one of the photo companies make some collages for me. They do them in different sizes, different background colors and with or without titles. They also make cool books. Any of these would be great gifts espec for a kid leaving home.</p>
<p>fogfog–I am sorry to hear that the pre-read did not go your way, but I am not entirely surprised. I remember with S1 we sent the same numbers to all the schools, and they came back with offers that varied widely. The other factor that makes me anxious is whether the will be equally generous in years 2-4 as they are in year 1.</p>
<p>Such a good news story. Amazingly they sent down 6 rescuers to help bring everyone up. How would you like to be the guys getting lowered down…? That takes some courage!</p>
<p>One of the sites I subscribe to just wrote very insightful reviews of Colgate, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Union, Skidmore, Syracuse and Hamilton. PM if you want the name of the site.</p>
<p>fogfog, I am sorry that your FA numbers weren’t as you expected/hoped. Having no experience with FA, I am worried about how it will come out. I started the Profile and have done several calculators, but it seems, from your experience, that those are not necessarily reliable.</p>
<p>I was wondering why my D (and other kids) seem not to be able to appreciate that there may be financial reasons that they cannot attend a certain school if FA isn’t enough. Well, mystery solved: I learned from D yesterday that HS principal told all seniors “Apply to whatever colleges you want. Don’t worry about money. Money should not be a factor.” Are you kidding me? I asked my D- is Principal planning to pay for it? I think that is terribly irresponsible of principal to say.</p>
<p>^^^That is exactly what the college admissions counselor at our HS said when I went to the college planning night when my D1 was a jr. Totally reckless, particularly since our town is mostly made up of typical families in the middle, who neither fall under low income initiatives or are wealthy enough to pay full fare. Luckily I had been on CC long enough to know it wasn’t true, but most others ate it up, hook, line and sinker.</p>
<p>As some of you posted above, our list is long in part because there are schools on it for possible merit aid which otherwise would have probably been crossed off. My son’s GC thought he should shorten the list but when we were in a family meeting w/ her and I mentioned that some of the schools are on it for merit she said I’d know more about that than she does. We received no advising from her re: the merit piece. when she counseled our son and us about the list in 2 family meetings w/ her, it was all about academic/social fit, whether he had the stats to match, and does he have his bases covered in terms of reach, match, safety. Nothing about merit. I discovered all the merit info initially here on CC and then by PMing CC parents and investigating the schools’ webpages. All this was done betw. last Jan and June.</p>
<p>I think a lot of us are on our own when it comes to this piece of the application strategy. I honestly don’t know how kids do this w/out parental help. There must be so many kids who will fall between the cracks, getting into schools they won’t be able to attend.</p>
<p>A friend visited a well-known school on the east coast with a relative. On the tour they gave the “don’t let cost prevent you from applying; we’ll make it work” speech. My friend thought that was terrific. I had to break it to her that they were just talking to the lower income kids and that HER relative, the child of a lawyer, absolutely needed to be mindful of cost because she would be a full pay.</p>
<p>Ok, I’m seriously grounding myself this weekend. No leaving the house, no doing anything fun until real progress is made on the finaid stuff.</p>
<p>I’m sitting at the library this very minute with last year’s edition of Princeton Review’s “Paying For College Without Going Broke” because it has line-by-line instructions for FAFSA and Profile.</p>
<p>It looks atrocious.</p>
<p>I’m also terrified because one or two of you wrote here earlier that with the Profile, once you enter something, you can’t change it? Even a mistake? Even a typo?
Did I misunderstand that?</p>
<p>I guess I’ll follow my own advice and break this down into small pieces. The whole chapter is 55 pages, so I’ll just read it first, today and tomorrow.</p>
<p>Sat I’ll start doing the forms, much of which (from what I can gather) is simply getting your info together.) I know FAFSA can’t be done until Jan 1, but at least I can get all my tax stuff together for the accountant.</p>
<p>I really, really HATE this. I was just thinking whether I’d rather go through this this weekend, or go through labor. You know what? If they gave me the epidural promptly, I’d take a 36-hour labor!</p>
<p>If there’s any justice in the world, you’ll tell us that the principal has some high school aged children of his own. :D</p>
<p>Huzzah to all of the acceptances. Here’s to hoping that those very first letters attract many, many more of the same.</p>
<p>For those doing the ED dance, how do you juggle the conflicting emotions? There’s a delicate balance here. On the one hand, I of course want her to get in, so I’m still hunting any new information nuggets about the school’s admissions process. And since we the parents have gotten over the emotional hump of committing to the financial implications of ED, I’m more than glad to learn about wonderful opportunities at the ED school, because that makes us more convinced it would be a wonderful place for D1. It also rationalizes the money decision for us. </p>
<p>But the reality is that this is a reach school for D1, so odds are that she won’t get in. So our expectations have to be ramped down. I think it’ll be easier once she pushes the “submit” button, because then it’s out of our hands and she (and we) can then move on to focussing on the other (wonderful) schools on her list. </p>
<p>Cue Tom Petty: the waiting is the hardest part. :)</p>
<p>MomofSongbird^^
Though I may not be the one for giving advice since I am soooo mad about the employer pension added back in</p>
<p>I can say…
doing the Profile–you can absolutely fix things BEFORE your submit it.
That means you can go in, register and get the “customized work sheets”
and then can enter info, save each page, and close, etc etc…come back to review, add /change etc etc…
Think of it like the CommonAp in that you can fix stuff UNTIL your SUBMIT.</p>
<p>Once you submit–THEN any errors, changes etc MUST be sent in paper form to the school fin aid office.</p>
<p>The work sheets are very helpful and you need your 2009 taxes, and as much financial data for 2010 you can gather–If you use quicken that will help. If your employment/income is through an employer and you don’t have complicated taxes/business taxes etc, it will be much much easier.
If you are self employed, you get to join me in the self employed penalty pool. ;o)</p>
<p>Haven’t tackled FAFSA yet, however from what I have read online, the trick is to be sure to NOT use decimals, put 0 in for not applicable things, dot leave blanks etc. The fin aid web site had a couple fo good times about common errors.</p>
<p>Don’t fret.
Please don’t let my shock and rant upset you.
Like I said, UNLESS you are in the self employed pool, or have non custodial parent forms to get filled out, it’s pretty straightforward. </p>
<p>They want it all, hahahahahahahaha!</p>
<p>Ok So instead of an epidural, how about chocolate AND martinis!!</p>
<p>Thank you, fog! Appreciate the info and moral support. The bad news is I AM self employed and DO have non-custodial forms to get filled out.
I’ll keep you posted…</p>
