<p>Why don’t NPCs take into account taxes, mortgage costs, and health insurance costs? Instead, they just seem to look at salary and assets, and seem to ignore other children if they aren’t in college. Let alone if a grandparent lives with you or if you are supporting a grandparent. </p>
<p>We’ve got a 20K discrepancy between what we could afford (adding in our mortgage cost, taxes, utilities, food, clothing, gas, supporting parents) and what the NPCs say we can. </p>
<p>Am I missing that there is more financial aid available than shown in the NPC, but just not from the school? Or are middle class folks being shut out from top colleges, since poor folks get full aid (at Ivies for example) and rich folks just pay?</p>
<p>As hard as it seems…everyone has housing costs of some kind…mortgage or rent. If the grandparent is a dependent of yours, you can list them as a member of your household. It is very generous to be giving money to relatives, but this is a choice you are making (I’m not criticizing your choice…but it IS a choice). </p>
<p>If your mortgage costs are very high, again, it is your choice to remain in that house rather than find less expensive lodging.</p>
<p>I know this sounds harsh, but consumer debt, including a mortgage is NOT considered because it is considered your choice.</p>
<p>It is what it is. Whether you or I agree really doesn’t matter…it is this way.</p>
<p>There is a great stickie here with info about guaranteed merit awards. You might want to look at it to see if your student would qualify for any of these awards…which are not income or asset dependent.</p>
<p>ETA…if you really want that aid you feel “poor people” get at Ivies, then give your house away, and work part time at a minimum wage job. You too would then be eligible for this aid. </p>
<p>Really though…be grateful for what you are fortunate to have.</p>
<p>Actually debt is considered in the form of a mortgage in that your primary home value is reduced by that mortgage in PROFILE. For FAFSA, primary home values are not considered at all. Taxes paid are considered. Number of dependents are considered in the asset protection allowance.</p>
<p>Basically, by not recognizing debt, the fin aid system is rewarding the savers. and those who have lived wihtou gett ing in debt. Otherwise spend thrifts who borrow up a storm could have that used to their advantage. It would advantage the well to do who can borrow massive amounts far more than the middle class, IMO.</p>
<p>I am not defending the way fin need is calculated as I am well aware of the many unfairnesses in the method, and the niches that are get advantages and are caught short. However, given that the funds are limited, there is no fair way I can think of to allocate them when defining need. The biggest unfairness of all is that most schools don’t even meet need when a family has it. Not a school ot there that meets need as defined by EFC.</p>
<p>*Let alone if a grandparent lives with you or if you are supporting a grandparent. *</p>
<p>If the grandparent is living with you and doesn’t have a source of income (no retirement, no social security, no medicare, etc), then you probably can count them in your household. I think you have to show that you provide more than 50% of their expenses…which may be hard if they get SS or retirement… </p>
<p>If the grandparent lives elsewhere and you provide money, I don’t think you can count that person. </p>
<p>seem to ignore other children</p>
<p>Other children are counted and the formula does take them into acct.</p>
<p>The formula also takes into acct basic family expenses…housing, food, etc. If you have pricey housing, etc, that’s considered a choice.</p>
<p>Our EFC was almost four times what we could afford. Our kid spent two years commuting to the local community college, and now is at an in-state public U that is affordable now because of what we didn’t spend those first two years.</p>
<p>True, but without children there is no need for college at all. lol</p>
<p>I don’t think the formulas are ever going to get so nasty as to exclude children beyond a certain “approved” number…after all, what if you had one baby and then had triplets? Or your large family is the result of a blended family? Or you had a couple of oops? I don’t think we should get to the point that people will be penalized for not choosing to abort.</p>
<p>If you have a special situation, you can also alert the chosen college and sometimes an accommodation will be made.</p>
<p>For example, when my MIL was terminally ill, she lived with us and we paid her medical costs. It was a very complicated, but fully documented, situation and the college that my D attended gave some assistance for that year until she died. Sometimes it does happen, but you have to ask and document.</p>
<p>Financial aid rewarding saving? That’s not what it seemed like in my experience. My parents have always been very frugal, and then when my older brother started college, the EFC was $34,000+, with ~$60,000 a year income and a terminally ill mother! Realistically, my parents figured they could contribute $10,000 a year, so I knew I would be looking at merit scholarships.
Yes, there’s a middle class trap, but it’s more like middle class and below. If you’re very low income, things like Pell Grants can help, but there can still be a big gap, and they have fewer options to close it than middle class families.</p>
<p>^ Assets are capped at 5.6%. We’ll assume that your 60k income adds about 15k to the efc (1/4 of income). That means they would have somewhere in the neighborhood of $340k in assets. </p>
<p>I think it’s pretty fair to expect <20k to go to your child’s education when the assets are in that neighborhood. (And luckily, no public in-state school costs that much… yet)</p>
<p>I’m new to this, but I would assume that one reason not to recognize debt is that not all debt deserves to be treated equally. I’m sure we all know people who live beyond their means. You could have two families with identical incomes, and one could be burdened with 50K of debt for medical costs, supporting an aging grandparent, taking care of a special needs kid, etc., while the other family has 50K in debt because they spend their money on every “must have” consumer good (new cars, new phones, new iPads), lavish vacations, etc etc. It would be difficult for the FA office to have to review every application and make a judgment about how “worthy” each families’ debt is. It’s easier to have a system where debt (other than mortgage debt) is not officially recognized but people hopefully can contact the financial aid office and plead special circumstances.</p>
<p>To go back to OP.
Just because you feel there is a gap between your costs and what you can afford does not indicate that your dependents & other expenses are not taken into consideration.
FAFSA EFC is often 1/4 of BEFORE tax income for under $100,000 and 1/3 of BEFORE tax income for over $100,000.</p>
<p>Wmmv especially if you have unusual circumstances.</p>
<p>Private schools have their own forms in addition to FAFSA. They may be spending their own money to subsidize your child’s education so they want to insure that is really necessary.</p>
<p>Oldest attended a private school that met 100% of need and FOR HER, used the FAFSA EFC. This is unusual. Most private schools come up with their own EFC & most gap need.</p>
<p>Public schools are often a great deal however especially instate or through surrounding states with a reciprocity agreement and for undergrad.</p>
<p>rhandco when you look at what you can afford be sure to consider these sources:
tax credits or deducations you will recieve
expense savings for not having child living with you
childs contribution from savings or job income</p>
<p>Thats not going to get you to 20K but every bit helps. </p>
<p>The reality is that the EFC is not something most can “afford” in the sense they they can pay for it with their current income. Most parents have to dip into some other source of money (savings or loans).</p>
<p>As per CSS profile health insurance premiums are part of medical expenses. So I would assume you can include them when you do your NPC calculations.</p>
<p>OP, it looks like you’ve got a kid applying ED as an athletic recruit. If that’s the case, the FinAid office should be working with you on an early read on their aid offer. That should include nuances like supporting older relatives. The NPCs are better than nothing, but can’t pick up on everything.</p>
<p>If your kiddo isn’t ED and/or an athletic recruit, then there’s still no harm in applying and seeing if the FA office will make adjustments in any offer given your circumstances.</p>