<p>bump. I’d like to hear from people about their 2009-2010 financial aid offers.</p>
<p>One problem I see with the current system is failure to consider income history beyond a year or a couple of years. My H, as a new immigrant, started out in his late 20’s in a poorly-paid job well below his ability and experience level. But it was a good start in a new country for which he was grateful. Thereafter, though, since prospective employers always find out your salary history, H kept on making less than others with the same experience doing the same job. Finally, only a few years before S went to college, H got a much better job and almost doubled his salary. Suddenly, we looked much wealthier on paper than what we really were since that salary level was a recent and significant change upward. Worse yet, next H was laid off late fall of S’s senior year, and so his severance, which is designed to tide you over until you find another job, was all counted as income on the FAFSA. The combined effect of that was not pretty.</p>