<p>MTnest–I know, it’s scary. If you take that much disposable income out of circulation across the US the effects are going to be STAGGERING. I know people grip about not taxing the “rich”, which is defined as those making over $100,000 or $200,000 depending on what you are talking about but those are the income levels that drive the economy. They are the ones buying new refrigerators, cars, taking vacations, etc. that stimulate the economy. Incomes lower than that in most areas (or the equivalent in lower cost areas) tend to use “found money” from tax returns, etc. to pay bills which does nothing for economic growth. Not to get political or anything but that $25,000 swing for us is HUGE–and a good chunk of what we would use to pay tuition next year…</p>
<p>Many economic indicators point to a crash worse then 2006, I’m seriously worried about this…</p>
<p>Oh good grief. Steve. NOOOO. I’m already dreading the Christmas bills and have had my head deeply buried in something more like quicksand than regular sand trying to ignore the potential impact of both falling off said cliff, and of the results of being determined to be “rich” by someone who does not pay the bills at our (2000 sq foot nothing special) house. Guess the FAFSA and I are going to be getting to be rather chummy here. Question further in that case. My ex is a deadbeat of rather spectacular proportions. Hasn’t seen the kids in literally years. Maybe 7 years? At any rate, a long long time- and he lives in the same county we do. Accordingly, he also stopped paying child support. His “choices” were such that I didn’t choose to rock that boat, since I’d decided we were better off without him contributing (and he “adjusted” his contribution before it ceased completely, anyway) as long as he didn’t take the kids and put them in potentially dangerous situations. Anyway. D literally named him on her common app and didn’t fill in another word about him. Does he have to be mentioned on the FAFSA? Or do I use current H?</p>
<p>From my understanding you use you and your current H for income if you are filing jointly. Since your deadbeat doesn’t contribute to her support and she doesn’t live with said deadbeat, you don’t have to include him at all. Once you start the FAFSA, there are “?” as to how you are supposed to enter everything in there so click on those to verify but I’m pretty confident you don’t have to add in his information at all.</p>
<p>As someone said on the tax thread on the Cafe page–we would be considered rich by 1969 standards, which is probably true looking at the house my parents paid $19,000 for in '69 that is now worth well over $1,000,000 and the little money they made back then and were comfortable. Our current income is a LOT higher than that but then again, our mortgage payments are a heck of a lot more than the $200/month they were paying for the 6500 sq foot Victorian home I grew up in…:eek:.</p>
<p>89Wahoo: I am no FA expert, but I think for FAFSA schools, non custodial parents aren’t listed, but on CSS Profile schools they are. Good luck.</p>
<p>Galaxy: the rigidity of scholarship weekends varies by school. D2 has been invited to one that states at the end “if you unable to attend this event, we would still like to interview you by phone or in person. Please contact us to make arrangements” while another one states “this interview (weekend) is required of anyone who wishes to be considered.” She has a 3rd that I know will conflict with a major EC; don’t know how rigid they are and we won’t find out till February. </p>
<p>I’ve spent 1 1/2 hours trying to book flights, hotels & cars for various types of these events. Figures that the “easiest” one is being the biggest PITA for a hotel room. Just walk away Renee…</p>
<p>The AMT tax could affect up to 30 million households and couples making as little as $45,000/year. It is a big issue that could cause major problems! I hope Congress does something about this…</p>
<p>SteveMA - you can definitely do the PIN now but you keep that from year to year. </p>
<p>89wahoo - definitely fill it out. It also helps qualify for loans and federal work study (guaranteed job on campus). Also, HOLY COW, what a great gift! Are they adopting?</p>
<p>terinzak - yes, some money is first-come, first-served (definitely all the Illinois money), but I don’t think that usually applies until after Feb. 1. If the school is need-aware, I wouldn’t send it until after the 7th.</p>
<p>S13 decided not to apply for the super-scholarship at one school because the mandatory scholarship weekend conflicts with the concluding performance of his favorite EC, at which he will be directing. I just couldn’t make him fill everything out when we already knew he wouldn’t go. Now I wish I’d called and asked about alternatives.</p>
<p>So, I have a question. Because of QuestBridge, S13 applied to all HMFR/xHMFR schools, and has been accepted to his #1. We don’t have the aid offer yet, but their Net Price Calc was good. He has been accepted to one safety state school at which he has been offered a full ride. We are not in position to help with college, so we don’t have financial matches that are not HMFR admission schools or safeties. He has 6 other applications submitted at schools with acceptance rates under 20% last year. There was one other school on his list (also low admission rate) that he really liked, but now he isn’t sure he wants to apply. My instinct is to make him, to increase the chance that he’ll have choices. His take is that he’s satisfied with choosing between his two current acceptances. I’m afraid that he won’t get the aid he needs at his dream school and will then feel stuck… Question: am I over-managing? Is the slim chance that he’ll get accepted at yet another highly selective school worth the application time?</p>
<p>Wahoo…your deadbeat sounds an awful lot like my deadbeat. FAFSA only requires data from your household…some CSS Profile schools will require info from noncustodial parent, but you can try and get a waiver. We may find ourselves in that boat should s be accepted to a couple schools. We don’t even know where the deadbeat is.</p>
<p>Confetti…my understanding is that those npc are pretty accurate…if you qualified for QB, I don’t see why you wouldn’t get an excellent package…especially if its a non-loan school.</p>
<p>Confetti, I dunno. I’m thinking the same thing. D has one more “sort- of-a-match- but- no-guarantees” school on her mind. She didn’t want to apply there, and suddenly thinks she may. Its a great school but would be #3 academically (I think) and #3 as far as being affordable- expecting she’ll get some merit $ from at least two others, we shall have to wait and see- so I’m sitting here thinking, “why…” and not coming up with much of an answer. Such quandaries we face, huh?
@ Mommy. We sure picked 'em well, huh? ;)</p>
<p>I’m gonna have to stop reading SteveMA posts. I ran my numbers through turbotax and I OWE money for the first time EVER!!! ***. I’m hoping that my figures were off since I used my end of year paystub. But I really don’t think they are :(</p>
<p>I went to the PIN page on the FAFSA and couldn’t find the answer to needing a PIN for each parent. I saw that if you haven’t used your PIN for 18 months that you need to sign up for another one. I signed up for another one but got confirmation that my old one was ok. I checked DH’s and we never had one for him so my guess is both parents do not need one. I just signed him up for one just in case though.</p>
<p>Hi parents! Looks like I’d better start dealing with the FAFSA. When I do it for my DS, it transfers the information over from the previous year. I wonder if it will do that for a second child, or if I need to start all over? My guess is that I need to start over, since the child is filing, correct?
About absent parents - for FAFSA, noncustodial parents aren’t included. For CSS Profile, most schools will ask the NCP to file their part, or have them complete a school form. You can ask for waivers for the NCP info if the absent parent has been completely absent - I think it’s 3 years? I seem to remember that there needs to be some collaborating documentation of that.</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind - if you’ve done an estimated CSS Profile, take a look and make sure that your numbers match up (where applicable.)</p>
<p>I just looked at the WSJ article about the AMT. The line that stood out for me - that people may have to delay filing until it’s all sorted out. I don’t think that will affect our initial financial aid filing since they don’t seem to care about your tax paid, just income earned. But if they want copies of the 2012 returns, that may not be possible for a while. I wonder if schools have been thinking about that?</p>
<p>Annie: When you get the end with child #1 it will ask you if you have another child you want to fill another FAFSA out for and you check that and a new one appears with of your information brought into it.</p>
<p>I saw on the FAFSA site that you can transfer some numbers from your tax returns–not sure how it works but it also says that colleges don’t need copies of your returns if you do that. I think you have to start the actual FAFSA to use this feature so I didn’t look into it too carefully.</p>
<p>FAFSA pin done. Thanks for the reminder! :)</p>
<p>@SteveMA - soon after you have filed your taxes you can use that feature. However, there may not be enough time to do that between when you file and when the FAFSA is due for a given school.</p>