<p>I’m trying to fill out the SSS for my youngest son. I’ve already filled out FAFSA and CSS Profile for my older son, so I thought this would be easy, but… not so much. He already attends the school, but this is our first time requesting aid because we will also have 2 in college next year. </p>
<p>Anyhow, I’m trying to fill out the Education costs section. It asks about the costs for 2013 and estimation for 2014 for the applicant. Obviously, the costs for 2014 depend in large part on how much aid he is awarded. How do you fill this section out? Do you guess based on the amount you said you could afford? Also, are they wanting calendar year and not school year (looks like it)? Since we’re only dealing with one school (not applications to many) I know what the full price for the school will be (approximately). I just don’t know what to base our expected cost for next year on if we may get aid.</p>
<p>In case it helps anyone else, I called and they said they want school year, not calendar year. So when they ask for 2013, they mean the 2013-14 school year. </p>
<p>For the “tuition and other educational expenses” you fill in the full cost of tuition. Then you fill in what you think you can pay from different categories, which should add up to the number you said you could pay for that student in the question above, but probably doesn’t add up to the full cost on the first line (or you wouldn’t be applying for aid). </p>
<p>I couldn’t get a straight answer on whether room & board should be included in “tuition and other educational expenses” for college students – at first she said no, if it’s billed separately from tuition. But then I asked how I should allocate their financial aid since it applies to the full cost of attendance, including room and board, and she said if the financial aid didn’t differentiate, to lump it all together, and just add a note explaining what I did. </p>
<p>When I asked what falls under “other educational expenses” (do required textbooks count? and so on) I got no answer :-/ Because of that and the confused answer about room & board, I will try calling again later. </p>
<p>I would have thought that what goes on that line would be a frequent question with a straightforward answer for each stage of schooling.</p>
<p>And I would think that college room and board would be part of college educational expenses. That seems logical, unless parents pay tuition only and send the college student off with a backpack and pup tent! Oh, these forms sometimes…</p>
<p>I think there is a lot of room for making your own determination. As long as you make your best effort to be accurate in your eyes and can defend your rationale, you should be okay. There will be just as many folks who don’t take the time to think twice about how they answer that and there will be folks who decide to roll in room and board and supplies costs along with tuition. </p>
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