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Are the FAFSA people just sadists?


April in CA
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Good Morning!

I am just popping in to commiserate with other stunned FAFSA moms. I spent a substantial part of yesterday afternoon working on that stupid thing, only to be told that our EFC is over $34K! I would really like to know where that $34K is supposed to come from, because I sure could use it!! I knew going in to the process that it would be an exercise in futility, but this is ridiculous. I feel like we are being penalized for living responsibly and trying to save money for the boys' educations.(right now we are trying to get back to where we wre before the markets decided to tumble - like so many of us here!) But, if that is the worst problem we ever have, in the big picture, things are pretty good. (In the middle of my little rant a picture of Haiti flashed through my mind...)

 

Blessings to you all as you try to get over FAFSA shock,

April

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We never bothered to fill out the FAFSA because so many of our friends had the same experience you had. I know that we would not qualify for anything because we saved $$$ in order to pay off our home, put aside $$ for retirement (dh is self-employed), and we drove older vehicles which have no loans.

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We never bothered to fill out the FAFSA because so many of our friends had the same experience you had. I know that we would not qualify for anything because we saved $$$ in order to pay off our home, put aside $$ for retirement (dh is self-employed), and we drove older vehicles which have no loans.

 

But what is not clear to me, Cynthia, is which schools require FAFSA for merit aid. And doesn't Work Study depend on FAFSA? I guess that I have been under the impression that one needs to fill out the FAFSA regardless.

 

Jane

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All the schools we looked at required the FASFA for work study and other "needs" based aid. Ds was able to get enough scholarship money based on academic merit for complete tuition (and a little extra). We pay for housing/food/etc. The academic merit scholarships did not require the FAFSA.

 

There are schools, though, that we looked at (online) that required the FAFSA for everything.

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One worthwhile reason to apply for financial aid is that your circumstances may change after your child's freshman year (i.e., there may be a job loss, illness, or a death in the family). For example, at my daughter's college if one does not apply for aid freshman year, one is locked out of applying thereafter.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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I'm glad this is still a ways away. Not only do I not expect that we'll get anything except merit aid, but I can't even answer questions like parents' state of residence without having a problem.

 

You would think that some of the spify tax software would do this as part of their program. Or can you upload you tax info without retyping it?

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OUr EFC changes based on where we live. Now according to the military and to what we have seen, our total income is supposed to stay the same because our housing allowance changes based on the neighborhood. Not the way these stupid programs calculate. WHy if rents are in the 2.8k here and 1.6k in FLorida, why we suddenly got a giant income increase. We didn't.

 

You don't have to have saved anything significant to get sky-rocketing EFC. All you have to do is be a 45+yo person who has worked in a single occupation for 20+ yearas and has a commensurate salary. There is no way we could pay our EFC at all. We don't even have enough in our savings for one year. I am just so thankful that we can afford to pay my son's tuition and will have GI Bill for number 2. Number 3 will have dad retired and getting a retirement pension along with a nice salary.

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You don't have to have saved anything significant to get sky-rocketing EFC. All you have to do is be a 45+yo person who has worked in a single occupation for 20+ yearas and has a commensurate salary.

 

This has been my impression, Chris. The assumption made is you should have saved a certain percentage of income from birth of your child onward.

 

Let's say we have the hypothetical two families with the same income, same number of children. One lived the high life and used their home as an ATM: lots of debt, no equity. One lived frugally and saved a modest sum (gosh--what's modest by today's standards? $25,000?) which is earmarked for Number One Child's education. Can we assume that Spendthrift family will receive more financial aid than Frugal family? That seems to be the implication that I read on occasion, essentially that there is no incentive to save for college. But after the FAFSA reveals the EFC, this argument does not seem to hold.

 

Two differing opinions offered. Any comments?

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What is worse is that my KIDS worked and saved a bit of money. The FAFSA people expect them to use every penny toward school expenses, leaving nothing for books, room, board etc. It is awful. If my kids had sat on their laurels or spent the money, they would have had a little Financial aid, but because they were responsible teens, they get penalized. Where is the sense in that? And what message does that send to the kids? If you hang out, and don't work during HS or college, you get a better deal? It's just plain awful!!

 

~~Faithe

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What is worse is that my KIDS worked and saved a bit of money. The FAFSA people expect them to use every penny toward school expenses, leaving nothing for books, room, board etc. It is awful. If my kids had sat on their laurels or spent the money, they would have had a little Financial aid, but because they were responsible teens, they get penalized. Where is the sense in that? And what message does that send to the kids? If you hang out, and don't work during HS or college, you get a better deal? It's just plain awful!!

 

~~Faithe

 

Oh boy. I thought that books, room and board were school expenses??:confused: Are you saying that dear child's nest egg is allocated only to tuition?

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Well one think they do wrong with the calculations other than not considering living expenses are very different in different areas is that they seem to think you made the same amount of money all along and so should have been able to save a lot all that time. I don't know how it is in civilian world, but in the military, we spent many, many years making much less than average. Yes, now we make more. But it hasn't been very long. Also, we have been paying for another child in college for four years. I doubt many people who have EFC over 10K can pay that plus save enough for other children. BUt that is the way the system is set up. The very rich can pay and the quite poor get aid. The rest of us have to either win the merit award bonanza or made a killing in something like real estate before it crashed and kept it away from the stock market that crashed or borrow a lot. I think the people who have the worst outcomes are those who live in expensive places to live.

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Looks like we have been there and done that with FAFSA in past board conversations. (Like this thread.) I think the topic recurs as parents (like us) encounter the form as our first born heads off to college.

 

Anyway, it appears that we need to take all financial aid advice with a grain of salt since there is so much variation from college to college.

 

Further, I note that Kareni has been suggesting the WTM matchmaking service since '08. Perhaps the motto could be a variation of Austen's famous opening line:

 

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single person in possession of a Well Trained Mind, must be in want of a similarly Well Educated companion.

Have I told you about my charming son...

Edited by Jane in NC
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But what is not clear to me, Cynthia, is which schools require FAFSA for merit aid. And doesn't Work Study depend on FAFSA? I guess that I have been under the impression that one needs to fill out the FAFSA regardless.

 

Jane

 

My oldest attended a private college that required the FAFSA for all incoming freshmen. Families who are ineligible for need-based aid were not required to fill it out after that. She received significant merit aid as it is a college that has a large scholarship for National Merit Semifinalists (she was a National Merit Scholar).

 

We never filled out a FAFSA for our younger daughter. She has attended two different state schools. She had a full tuition merit scholarship at her first school, and now has been awarded a merit scholarship in her second semester at her new school. Neither one required that she fill out a FAFSA to receive her merit aid.

 

The new school is requiring her to prove that she is in the USA legally and won't accept her MI drivers license as evidence, but that's a different story!

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If it helps, DH did his FAFSA and his EFC is $0, yet the community college didn't offer him squat based on it even though the FAFSA says he should qualify for Pell and other need-based grants. Probably due to state budget cuts--the same ones that got DD dropped off state insurance because they changed the income limits--even though they didn't drop me. We're actually finding it more affordable for him to do an online program with a British university, than go to community college here (don't even get me started about what the local uni said when he tried to apply--he's waiting for a waiver and then MAYBE they'll let him in, because his high school transcripts, from a high school just a couple of miles from the university on a college-track diploma, are out of date and no longer meet their requirements--he graduated in 92.)

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... Further, I note that Kareni has been suggesting the WTM matchmaking service since '08. Perhaps the motto could be a variation of Austen's famous opening line:

 

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single person in possession of a Well Trained Mind, must be in want of a similarly Well Educated companion.

Have I told you about my charming son...

 

I love the quote, Jane! (And stop trying to offer up that son of yours to others. I have dibs on him for my daughter!)

 

 

... And doesn't Work Study depend on FAFSA? I guess that I have been under the impression that one needs to fill out the FAFSA regardless.

 

 

Since work study is federally funded, it would necessitate that you file the FAFSA.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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Considering telling my ds16 to keep his money under the mattress. :glare:

 

That's what I've been thinking as I read all these FAFSA threads, and after a recent conversation with some local moms. I'm thinking all that cash-pay for cutting lawns should just go right into a safety deposit box...

 

Where is the line between saving wisely and being deceptive?

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