<p>Catching up again after a couple days. D is currently planning to apply to 8 schools, no ED. One EA. 2 rolling. She’s applied to 5 of them, and gotten 2 official acceptances (1 rolling and 1 ea- already reported to you ) The ones she most wants to hear from are yet to come. Her other safety, also rolling, and should be an auto-admit, says they haven’t gotten her scores yet, but we sent them all at the same time and everyone else seems to have gotten them. There have been a few little things with that school that just make me feel like they don’t quite have their stuff together. Maybe we just got spoiled by the ones that gave her an answer so quickly.</p>
<p>She was hoping to use this Thanksgiving break to make some headway on the ones she hasn’t yet applied to, but then was assigned multiple projects to work on for school. ugh. </p>
<p>So, about this money thing. We have some money (not in a special account) that we planned to used for 1st year tuition, but also some that we’d been saving up for other things (car/home stuff). Now we feel conflicted about using that other money, or deciding when. Doesn’t it make sense to spend money that we intend to spend at some point soon, now…before we fill out the CSS Profile and Fafsa? That was the plan, but now we are starting to worry about it, and wonder if we somehow aren’t allowed to spend our own money. </p>
<p>I know people talk about letting things go, and not spending any money…saving it all for college, but we do have to take care of other things too, and if we don’t do it now, then colleges will think we can afford more, might not offer the needed FA, and will require that we use that money for college, then we’ll be stuck not being able to take care of the things we’ve planned for. </p>
<p>@Shoboemom…Not sure about CSS, but for FAFSA a certain percentage of your assets are “protected” based upon the age of the older parent, then the remainder is assessed at about 12%. The closer you are to retirement, the more of your assets are protected capping out at around 47% I believe. </p>
<p>I don’t claim to understand the whole FA process by any means, but it seems like only 12%-ish of whatever amount you would “spend down” would actually go towards your FAFSA EFC. Given that FAFSA EFC is usually looked at as a guesstimate of the minimum amount you might expect a university to expect you to pay, I honestly don’t know whether spending the money or keeping the money will make that much of a difference in what a school actually figures for your family contribution. The largest factor by far in the FAFSA calculations is your current income, so unless that it changing significantly you might not see much overall effect one way or the other.</p>
<p>Since CSS takes home equity, car values, etc. into account I would guess the overall effect would be even less than with FAFSA. If you purchase a car or do any home improvements that increase that asset value the net change might not be all that significant either.</p>
<p>I guess my uneducated advice would be that if you’re looking to spend money to reduce assets for FA purposes you probably won’t get the “bang for your buck”. Personally, my preference would be to hold onto the money for college purposes if we could but if we really needed the home improvement, new vehicle, etc. then do what you have to do but I wouldn’t anticipate it affecting the overall FA picture significantly.</p>
<p>Good morning, safe travel to those who will be in a car, on a bus or plane traveling today for the holiday.
I would like to give Thanks for this group of fellow CC cyber friends who have been a great group to hang out with though this process.
Have a blessed Holiday and may your football team win… go Dallas </p>
<p>My sentiments exactly @Hoosier96 (well not quite exactly, Chiefs fan here). While DH and I are not traveling, D13 is coming home from school and S will be traveling after Thursday for a drum corps audition camp.</p>
<p>Wonderful news @vistajay!! Of course, now I am obsessed with the thought that one of D’s schools might release EA admissions early. But then I remind myself that she only submitted the application a week ago. </p>
<p>Brief forays into the Selection/Search and the Admissions forums have reminded me how very lucky our kids are. We may have our moments but we are engaged in the process and are doing our best to support our kids through it. Reading some of those posts it becomes pretty clear that a lot of kids have no guidance and are floundering. </p>
<p>It is interesting that the CSS Profile does not usually count many tangible assets. I wonder of people do convert some of that cash if not into a Mazarrati a new Camry or a new kitchen. </p>
<p>I will have to check on the CSS profile, what specifics the schools on D’s list ask for. I guess I started worrying about 2 things: That we;d somehow get "in trouble’ for spending the money now. (My mother recently did the spend down for medicaid–a complicated process, with very specific rules on how the money could be spent, and when…if anyone has an elderly parent, plan at LEAST 5 years ahead for that)…So I started feeling like colleges would question why we got a new roof now…that sort of thing. OR, that if those things still count as assets, we would still be expected to pay a percentage of it to the school. If we have put the money into a new roof, etc, we then will no longer have that money to shell out. </p>
<p>How would the colleges know you put on a new roof now? I would hope you’re entitled to get a new roof if you need it! We just did an inexpensive kitchen update - the kitchen was in horrible shape, abolutely inferior to the rest of the house.</p>
) The ones she most wants to hear from are yet to come. Her other safety, also rolling, and should be an auto-admit, says they haven’t gotten her scores yet, but we sent them all at the same time and everyone else seems to have gotten them. There have been a few little things with that school that just make me feel like they don’t quite have their stuff together. Maybe we just got spoiled by the ones that gave her an answer so quickly.</p>
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It must feel so good to know where she will be going to college next year! </p>