@ARIVERA1. Welcome! I also have a Senior with a Junior. So much fun!
@Booajo Congrats, I know that waiting on the portal was excruciating with so many already getting their decisions.
So what is in the USC “white box” exactly ?
@BingeWatcher @ARIVERA1 me three on the 2021 student.
Not financial advice but our “educational savings” were best served when I was younger by maxing out my employer matched simple IRA. Doing it AND an educational plan was not feasible at the time. In very specific circumstances, like a simple IRA, they can be used for qualified educational expenses without being hit with early withdrawal fees. Roth I believe works similarly but I haven’t checked recently. It may not be right for everyone, and wasn’t the primary source, but it came in handy when other funds were tight. We were very careful about having funds we may need not at risk in the market as well. There are also various “loan” programs for 401ks as well, but I don’t have any relevant experience there to share. (I put loans in quotes because in some cases you are really just borrowing your own money temporarily and not using it as collateral).
Did anyone get an email from UCB? A friend’s kid is applying and I have been following the thread. A whole bunch of kids have reported getting an email that says to look at their portal but nothing on the portal. Just curious.
@labegg Inside the mythical white box from USC is a fancy-schmancy admissions packet.
@jpc763, my son is waiting to hear for UC Berkeley. It seems from the Cal thread that the people who reported receiving an email from Cal got it from the financial aid office and it appeared that the email was intended as a follow up to the admissions notification that would normally have been received previously. My son hasn’t gotten the email, but he wouldn’t be eligible for financial aid. He was accepted to UCLA, UCSB, and UCI.
@NamePoster , good info. I would like to add that a 401k loan would not require a credit check and will not affect your credit score. You are borrowing the money from yourself but missing out on gains (or losses?) while your money is withdrawn. Some employers will not allow contributions or company matching until the loan is repaid, others will allow it. You are also missing out on the tax advantages bc you are paying yourself back with after tax money and then essentially being taxed on it again when you withdraw in retirements.
That is all said without judgment. It’s an option I may consider (despite having excellent credit) versus paying insane interest amounts on PLUS loans, so to each his own.
Good info everyone on the tax implications. I educated myself today just in case it becomes an issue. By my estimate we are about $3500 in scholarships away from tuition, books and fees being 100% covered. We have enough local scholarships out there that we feel pretty good about that we might get close to that and some additional local scholarships that he might have a shot at that could put us over. It would be a good problem to have - although I will still grumble about paying taxes on it.
@Texasmom18, if the $12,000 maximum standard deduction does indeed apply to our dependent college students for 2018, then there shouldn’t actually be any tax due on a small amount of taxable scholarship.
@NamePoster our 401k plan also limits the amount of the loan to 50% of the total account or a max of $50,000.
No, the standard deduction of $12,000 is for earned income. For unearned income, including scholarships, only the first $2100 is excluded. See https://www.kiplinger.com/article/taxes/T054-C005-S001-big-change-for-kiddie-tax-under-the-new-tax-law.html
@Twoin18 I am not sure if the 2018 tax changes will affect this, but up until now taxable scholarships were considered earned income for the purpose of determining standard deduction and requirement to file a tax return.
But then for kiddie tax purposes they are considered unearned income.
I guess we will find out next year how it will all play out.
Even if the scholarship was taxed at 37%, you would still have 63% leftover. Better than not having that scholarship.
Yes, you absolutely come out ahead with the scholarship money but knowing that some of the money could potentially be taxed as income is a good thing to keep in mind. I’ll be sure to plan accordingly.
The thing that always worries me about a 401k loan is that in most plans if you leave the employment you have to pay it back immediately and in full, right? Too much of a shackle if I ever wanted to switch jobs or, God forbid, lost mine.
Looking for opinions.
The school which shall remain nameless in this post (and in your replies please) is giving us pause. My daughter emailed her AO that we would be in the area this week and will be visiting the school since we can not get up there in April. She asked what the process was for notifications as many have already heard over the last two weeks. The response was she would hear shortly and it was up to her if she wanted to visit again first.
In less than 5 minutes ( so no time for AO to put this in motion) the specific college at this school that she applied to sent her and about 25 other kids a note saying they were looking forward to their visit and the school had sessions weekdays at such and such a time. My daughter had signed up for a university tour not a school one as they were not offered at the time. She thinks this might be a good sign.
In the meantime due to snow her mandatory production rehearsal now has a session the night before we have to be at this school. It is a 6 hour drive.
CC threads from last year show the decisions that come down this week are waitlists.
Here is the question would you
A. Get up in the middle of night and arrive in the morning.
B. Drive until 1am and get a hotel.
Both of these means we could make the session but she could find out then next day(or that day ) she is denied or waitlisted.
C. Take a leisurely drive up that day and skip this school going right to the hotel of our destination school for the accepted student event the next day. If she gets waitlisted or in take a day off later in the month and go back.
I am leaning towards C for the following reason:
Touring the "mystery"college will overshadow the great one we she is in and we are going to see. She may then find out that night or the next day it is a denial. The college in question is one of the top 5 in country for her program but the other one we are visiting that she is in with good money is also nationally recognized and I would say in the top 20. All of this at added expense and/or major personal stress leaving on no sleep and having yet another night of to make arrangements for her sister.
I also am Irish and believe in Murphy’s law…if we go I think she will not get in. If we don’t I think she will.
Only problem is that if we don’t she will know that I really doubt her admittance. I also am afraid if she gets in to mystery school it will be NFW. Might be why I think we are ending up potentially on the WL since our EFC is so low.
DD has been accepted to the Air Force Academy.
@MinnieFan That is a tough call. Good luck on the decision. I think all the options have pos/neg so just go with your gut.
@MinnieFan
I’m with you - I would do option C.