@Dave_N, great visit report! UCF is supposed to have great dorms too.
@stlarenas, the first year we filed FAFSA my D didn’t have much in her savings account. She did have some babysitting income and we reported that, even though she was under the tax filing threshold.
In the last two years she has worked, and so her savings is higher. But it only increases our EFC by a few hundred dollars. We are not Pell eligible anyways.
If your D is saving up money for college, you could put some of it into a 529 account and it would then be considered a parent asset for FAFSA. If she is planning on making a big purchase, like a computer for college, she could buy that now.
The first determiner for FAFSA is parent income. Then parent assets, if over asset protection allowance.
Student can make at least $6420 before income is counted towards EFC, and assets count at 20%.
If parents make under $50,000 and can file a 1040A or EZ, or household qualified for federal means tested benefit, or parent is dislocated worker, then simplified needs test applies and then assets are not considered in the FAFSA EFC formula.
Google “the EFC formula 2017/18”, it’s helpful reading. A CC member @rgosula also made a spreadsheet you can calculate FAFSA EFC with. I’ve found the Collegeboard EFC calculator pretty accurate as well.
I’m from Cleveland and have a student at Wash U – I think the previous two posters have it about right. Cleveland has really redeveloped Euclid Avenue from Terminal Tower/Flats all the way east past Cleveland State Univ and the Cleveland Clinic up to University Circle. I was blown away by the progress that has been made in the past few years. Because Case is near Severance Hall, Crawford Auto Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, etc. it is in a somewhat park like area – so a fair amount of green including a parkway that heads north to the lake. There are residential areas nearby but it doesn’t feel quite as suburban as WUSTL (although Forest Park on its doorstep and the Delmar Loop on the other side gives Wash U an interesting feel as well.
Frankly I like both very much! Proud son of Cleveland and father of a WUSTL Bear.
Penn, NYU, and BU are definitely urban – and neither WUSTL nor CWRU are close to that.
Glad to hear that, @Mommertons! However, it was way past 5 o’clock, as @Ynotgo pointed out, so I went ahead and joined many others here in that vino in your honor a while ago. (I guess emojis don’t post here.)
@stlarenas We do joint accounts with our kids with the parent being primary which makes them a parent asset. I feel a bit better knowing that if something was going really wrong in their lives I could stop the $$ flow. For them they like the convenience of me being able to immediately transfer funds into their accounts from my account. We also made them authorized users on our charge cards which let them build some credit and at 18 it was easy to get their own cards and really build credit as they pay in full each month automatically from their bank account.
@dcplanner – Question re the credit card and building credit for student: I am just trying to figure all this out (about how to help your kid build credit). Do they build the same “amount” of credit whether they have their own account or own account with you as co-signer or just an authorized user on your credit card account? Need to get older kid a cc before going abroad. Thanks so much for any guidance.
@DMV301 – I will jump in here and provide some info but am not able to fully answer your question about building credit.
I recently pulled a credit report for my college Jr and was very surprised to see that the card he has had in his name but completely under my account did appear on his credit report. The MC (or Visa) has the same exact # as my card (unlike the AmEx which issues a different # to each card holder, even though all under one account). So I never expected the MC/Visa to accumulate credit history, but it did.
So, cannot tell you how this affected his creditworthiness…but when he applied for his own card earlier this year, he was only issued one with a $1000 limit. The issuer increased the limit by $500 after six months, and that is really all the credit he needs for now. My point in relating this is to say that even though he received some ‘credit’ for having a card under my account, it must not have been all that much since the issuer would only extend him $1000 in credit on his own. He has the card set up as auto pay out of his checking account as he is not one I would trust to remember to pay by the due date. He is responsible, just a bit absent-minded.
I will be interested to hear if you have a different experience when applying for a card for your older child. And you may be looking for one that does not charge foreign transaction fees, which was not a concern for me. Good luck!
Well, @payn4ward, I tried to post some alcohol-themed emoji for you to copy and paste, but the CC parser apparently won’t take them. So sorry, couldn’t help you.
(Or maybe it’s aware that I shouldn’t be allowed to post such things, since actually [url="<a href=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCt_yNgyV24#t=1m37s%22%5DI”>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCt_yNgyV24#t=1m37s"]I never drink. Wine.)
Good morning all. I hope those of you who observed Yom Kippur had an easy fast.
** Naviance, Transcripts, and LORs: ** I was getting nervous as some serious deadlines are approaching and almost all of my son’s outstanding apps are missing transcripts and LORs. GS told me that final transcripts were uploaded to Naviance on Tuesday and with a little luck and the push of a button, all of his transcripts and LORs will be sent out on Friday (10/14). Fingers crossed for that!
Unlike @STEM2017 none of my son’s outstanding transcripts and LORS have been update and sent. Frustrating.
My son submitted everything 2 weeks ago and zero movement by GC yet. So I wrote a nice email last night telling her to get her behind in gear and get it all done. I gave her a list of everything that needs to get done, by when.
The GC had been pretty helpful until the time when I was actually hoping she would get this done. Almost all of his applications are early action with deadlines at the end of the month. Ugghh.
It’s going to be a long 2 months until decisions come out.
I"m trying to catch up, but might not so I’ll do little bits here and there-at one point Cal Poly was on D’s list-I can’t remember exactly why but I have glowy memories about liking it. We took it off the list because Cali was just too far after flying out there-and it wasn’t just flying out and then an uber, it was flying out and then a looooong trip to the school. Plus the whole OOS thing.
@STEM2017 G’mar Hatima Tova! I’m not Jewish, but I grew up with a lot of Jewish friends in MA, and somehow I always ended up at their house when it was Passover (jelly on crackers for dinner!) or sometimes Yom Kippur (no food!) and have funny memories of being really hungry (I had the metabolism of a humming bird back then). I do non-sequential fast days every now and then to maintain my weight, so I’d probably be good at hanging out over Yom Kippur now.
D17 sent in her Northeastern app last night, yay! Two (maybe 3) to go. She did give me a really good compliment-she said “my friends who were seniors last year really seemed to be a lot more stressed about this whole thing than I am, and I know I’m applying to as many schools as they did, so I think it’s your schedule that has made it so good for me.”
Oh, I about burst into tears over that. I’m hoping that she has learned somewhat how to manage giant projects over long periods of time by doing the applications this way and “chunking” them into manageable, time-prioritized bits. She seemed to be really impressed at how it all came together and how she’s almost done without wanting to tear her hair out. The magic of spreadsheets and prioritized lists…
On the common app it shows one teacher and one coach having sent in their recommendation, and one teacher hasn’t and the GC who just came back from maternity leave hasn’t. On the MIT dashboard, none have (eek.). D17 says she’ll talk to her Bio teacher next week and touch base with her over that.
Right now the only thing she’s anxious about is the Sat subject tests, which come out on the 21. I’m trying to be zen about them (because they are a one shot deal for her, because she didn’t think she’d want to apply to schools that wanted them until lately), but it’d be nice if she got numbers she was happy with-nothing would guarantee her anywhere, but a bad number could knock her out of a few places.
@MotherOfDragons my son has applied to NEU as well. He liked it there. I am not sure he will get in, but he has a chance. On Naviance, he is in the “good zone”. But it is very competitive, so I’ll give him a 1/3 shot. I’d say the school is in his top 3 choices. Good luck to your D.
@CT1417 When we asked for an extra credit card issued from our account for DS14, we were told that this will help build his credit worthiness. I am glad to know that you see it on your son’s credit report. It’s interesting to know that it only helped just a little for your son. I hope it’s still better than having to start from scratch.
@STEM2017, @RightCoaster , we are in the same position waiting for Transcript, school report, and LORs to be uploaded. This is stressing me out since we have little control of it.
My D was added to my one CC as authorized user at 18. This summer she applied for DIscover student CC in her name. She is almost 20. She had a credit score over 700 already when she was approved for the card.
@CT1417 I do think it helps, and the initial $1000 credit limit is pretty generous I think. I think it has to do with age and not having that high an income. It goes up over time.
CC companies have tightened up on their requirements.
I’m hoping that she has learned somewhat how to manage giant projects over long periods of time by doing the applications this way and “chunking” them into manageable, time-prioritized bits. She seemed to be really impressed at how it all came together and how she’s almost done without wanting to tear her hair out. The magic of spreadsheets and prioritized lists…