We live in an area where the cost of living is super high. As such the salaries are also higher. We do fairly well, but are also the perfect bullseye for being taxed more than the rich, and penalized the most in financial aid.
On top of all that, there is a real (and admirable) push these days where top colleges are looking to bring in students from lower incomes, so much so that they will often be taken with lower stats than your standard issue upper middle class students.
What I am wondering is - when to submit the FAFSA and the CSS. Especially with the CSS, that the moment we disclose income levels we may be put in the bucket of āpenalized for being higher incomeā.
I know that I have heard that financial aid is irrespective of admissions, but I also know schools dictate their own student body stats based on family income - so these two themes seem to contradict one another.
Weāre waiting on a bunch of decisions that might come out in Jan, and some in Feb.
wondering if we should:
A) send asap since maybe in some way it helps
B) send soon, but not right away
C) wait longer so Colleges make their decision without family income details (and is this more relevant for privates)
Many schools have a deadline for financial aid documents. Some are hard deadlines and other are recommended deadlines. If you miss these deadlines, you can expect your financial aid offers to come in late. This could put you at a disadvantage if you are trying to compare offers and make a May 1 decision.
My advice would be to submit the documents before the deadlines.
Your income is reported from the prior prior year. So for the 2024-2025 academic year, your income info from the 2022 taxes are used. For 2025-2026 your 2023 income is used.
Itās not like you can change your income from the prior prior year.
So reallyā¦I donāt understand your question WRT income.
Nowā¦assets are reported as of the day of filing.
I think it is important to realize that if you are concerned about when the school will āknowā your financial position - it is way earlier than when your FAFSA and CSS are submitted.
A studentās application gives tons of information about their financial situation. What town/zip code they live in, what high school they attend, what activities theyāve participated in, whether their parents went to college, etc.
Student 1 - Lives in Northshore Chicagoland suburb, attends New Trier (highly ranked public school), 1st violin in CYSO (Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra), parents grads of Northwestern U. - Admission Officer is going to recognize this student is probably from upper income family. Could that possibly be wrong? Sure, but likely not.
Student 2 - Lives in Chicago southside neighborhood, attends Title 1 school (which indicates a large proportion of lower income families), Class President, first generation college applicant. Student most probably comes from lower income family. Again, could this be wrong? Sure but likely not.
This does make sense. Thanks. I will say thought that even in our town and school, we have some families living in 1.5mm massive houses, and some that rent 3 bedroom apartments/condos. Weāre in the middle with the raised ranch. But I agree they will make some ballpark assumptions.
Iām really just worried a recent high salary (last 2-3 years) will put us in the penalty box for acceptance chances
I donāt think this is what Iām asking about. Iām more asking if providing them via CSS with my salary from the prior years now might hurt her chances of being accepted since they have limits on how many they will accept from each tier. It may also help her (Iām not quite sure of the game on this front and it may differ from school to school. For example a school like Boston college might prefer as many wealthy families as they can get to pay, where as a state school like UNC may prefer to pad their lower income percentages)
As for what you are referring to, this is where I might get hurt since my 2023 year I will make about 20 percent less than my 2022 year (my company had a bad year and they are making huge reductions to end of year comp), which is crushing for us, but we will get fin aid allocation based on the years before this one.
Boston College and UNC are need blind. Admissions wonāt see any of your financial aid docs. They may however look at your demographics as beebee3 explained.
Could you point me to sources of info on that? (note: I know the elite schools prefer the super rich, but Iām more talking about good state schools and some good privates, not the top 10 elites)
Knowing that colleges now gain higher ranking in Us News if they have more lower income kids on their roster, it would seem to me that the very rich and the lower income would have best odds, with middle class (or even slightly upper) middle class kids having to have better stats to fit in that less desirable window.
The Chetty study released last year (I think?) showed that all other things being equal - upper incomes applicants were accepted at higher rates than any other applicants to colleges. You can go look at that study if youād like to read it.
Also, you can request a professional judgement appeal based on change of circumstance (reduction in income). Once your child is accepted and has their package - contact Financial Aid and ask for a professional judgment review.
Thanks for that. So I had read that one - but it was limited to āIvy plusā colleges, which she isnāt applying to. Sheās looking at schools in the 20-80 ranking range. She has an Ivy-enough gpa and sat score, but preferred a number of large state schools as well as some Privates in the Boston area.
Re-reading now, itās interesting since a lot of that āadvantageā is chalked up to things like being ED or legacy. After most of that is removed, it sounds like the difference is an almost negligible advantage for higher income, which I guess is good news since it means it may not matter for me if I apply now and get it over with .
I think the time to think about finances was b4 you chose a list of schools to apply to. There are many for various budgets - all across the country.
Schools have deadlines for submitting.
Like anything else, meet the deadlines.
Your need will be determined by formula. The date you submit doesnāt change it.
If you get into a school you canāt or donāt want to afford the price tag they present, then itās a rejection anyway. Most schools are need blind and donāt meet needā¦if youād even be deemed to have it.
Play by the stated rules to get the proper responses is what Iād do.
With regard to admissionsā¦most colleges are need blind for admissions. So, admissions wonāt have a clue what YOUR financial need is. For need aware schools, if you have MORE income, your need will be less and that could work in your studentās favor.
I canāt think of one college that penalizes admissions for students because their parents had an increase in income. Perhaps someone else hasā¦but I have not.
Once moreā¦
For 2024-2025, your income from the 2022 tax year will be used.
For 2025-2026, your income from the 2023 tax year will be used.
And yesā¦with increased income comes more of a family contribution in most cases. Of course, most colleges donāt meet full need anyway. Of the ones that do, your income can be pretty high at some and your need based aid wonāt be affected. But then it might beā¦frankly itās a first world problem to be earning too much money to qualify for as much need based aid. And yes, I know college is expensive.
I believe Iāve give you the same advice in the past (as you have brought this up before).
Choose a less costly college that comes in at your price point. They are out there.
If your student is a fabulous student, then do the merit aid hunt. Merit aid is not affected by your income at.all. Many schools donāt even require you to submit the financial aid forms for merit aid ONLY consideration.
Soā¦have you looked at less costly colleges yet? Have you looked for places where significant merit aid is possible? Start there.
If your screen name is an indication of your state, we have also discussed the lesser costly public options in your home state. Look at those first.
@beebee3 this poster is worried about higher salaryā¦not lowerā¦or at least thatās what this says. @hankCT please clarify.