Should You Homeschool High School? Part 4: A Look at Financial Aid Basics

By Katherine O'Brien, MA CCPS

Founder, Celtic College Consultants

Author, Every Catholic’s Guide to College: The Best US Colleges & Universities for Practicing Catholics, 2018 & 2019, and The Ultimate Guide to Top Quality College Planning, all available through Amazon.com

Photo by Pepi Stojanovski on unsplash.com

Financial Aid, Scholarships

First things first.  Your child WILL be eligible for federal financial aid, even if s/he earns a non-accredited diploma.  S/He’ll need to file the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) each year, just like all other students.

Financial Aid & Scholarships Basics

Financial aid and scholarships MUST be applied for.  There are a number of means to do so: financial aid applications, scholarship applications, etc.  Sometimes the student’s application for admissions is also used to determine his or her eligibility for various scholarship programs the school offers.  Sometimes a separate application, or series of applications and/or interviews will be required.

IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT EACH COLLEGE’S FINANCIAL AID AND SCHOLARSHIP WEBSITE BE CAREFULLY REVIEWED.  The particular opportunities, requirements, and deadlines at that institution will be posted.  Some schools have a central scholarships page, sometimes with their own search function, while others have information scattered around.  Scholarships can be given by the university, the college within the university, and/or the academic and athletic departments.

Need Based Aid – is comprised of tuition reductions, grants, and loans which are qualified for on the basis of “need.”  In common parlance, anyone whose budget comes up short would be thought to be in need.  In the realm of financial aid, there are formuli used to determine need, also known as demonstrated need.  Forms must be completed and submitted by deadlines set by the schools.  For federal student aid, the FAFSA form (fafsa.ed.gov) is the form which qualifies all citizens and legal aliens for federal student aid programs ranging from Pell grants to federal student and parent loan programs.  Colleges award need based federal aid before they award any other aid.  There are a couple of colleges in the country who have opted out of the federal student aid programs.  These schools have their own financial aid programs. 

Colleges can also provide need based aid to students.  Many use the FAFSA formula as their guide.  Some colleges and universities also require the CSS PROFILE (profileonline.collegeboard.org) form and/or their own forms.  A few colleges require their own forms.

EFC/Expected Family Contribution – is the official amount of money the FAFSA or PROFILE processor determines, based on their formula, that the student and his or her family can pay for one year of college.  There are five factors that contribute to the EFC:

1.    Parent income (for the calendar year before the year in which the student is applying; for the 2020/2021 school year, 2018 income information will be used.) is based on the Adjusted Gross Income (bottom line on your 1040) of the parents.  In the case of divorce, the parent is the one with whom the student lives more than half of the time or the parent who provides more than half of the financial support. (50.1%)  If the parent is re-married, s/he will report the income of both him/herself and his/her spouse.

2.    Parent assets (current at the time of the form filing) including all portfolio assets with the exception of the family residence, retirement savings, life insurance, and/or annuities.  Businesses are valued at zero if there are fewer than 100 employees.  See PROFILE instructions for their alternate rules.

3.    Student income (for the same calendar year as the parents.  For example, for a student graduating in June 2019, starting college during the 2019/2020 school year (fall – summer), 2017 income information will be used.

4.    Student assets, current at the time of the initial FAFSA filing.  The same assets are reported for the student as were for the parents.

5.    Resources include all outside resources, be they money from grandparents or private scholarships. 

Grants – are monies given to students based on need.  They can be federal money, like Pell or SEOG grants, or they can be money from the state, like the CalGrant program in California, or from the college itself.  Grants do not need to be repaid.  

Scholarships – are monies given to students based on merit of some kind.  There are two main categories of scholarships, from a financial aid eligibility perspective.  Institutional scholarships comprise 93% of all scholarship dollars.  These funds come directly from the colleges themselves.  Private Scholarships are those offered by other organizations like the Knights of Columbus, Nordstrom, etc.  Private scholarships are considered resources by the financial aid formuli.  They reduce a student’s eligibility for need based aid dollar for dollar.

Some scholarships have a need component.  This means that the scholarship awarding agency takes into account both merit qualifications and the student’s financial need. 

Some scholarship money may be taxed.  Money used for purposes other than tuition and fees is considered taxable income to the student.  Check with your tax preparer for particular information for your situation.

Gap – is the difference between your demonstrated need and the amount of financial aid offered.  Most schools “gap” students; they do not meet the full demonstrated need.

Other Aid – Some schools participate in collectives through which they offer tuition discounts to students who live in certain other states.  The Western Undergraduate Exchange & the Midwest Student Exchange Program are two examples.  These tuition reductions are not need based and are only merited by virtue of the student’s state of residence.  Not every public school in states that participate in an exchange offers the program.  Some limit the program to include or exclude certain majors.  Details are found on each regional exchange’s website.

Net Price Calculator – By federal law, every college and university is required to have a net price calculator on its website.  Sadly, many tuck them away and make them difficult to find.  It is often easier to simply use the school’s search function to find it.  In order to get an accurate estimation, the calculator will need to ask about the student’s GPA and test scores.  The less information requested, the less reliable the estimate will be.  Sadly, they are not required to provide a calculator that gives an accurate estimate of inquiring student’s likely out of pocket costs.

Katherine O’Brien, MA CCPS is a Catholic homeschooling mother of six who has homeschooled since 1998.  She is the founder of Celtic College Consultants and has served college bound teens all across the US since 2004.  Students in her 2015 -2018 classes were offered over $237,000 each, on average, in merit scholarships. In 2017, Katherine compiled and released Every Catholic’s Guide to College: The 315 Best US Colleges & Universities for Practicing Catholics, 2018.  It is available on Amazon.com.  Kolbe Academy families are eligible for 10% off of all of her services and $100 off her initial consultation fee.

The Far Reaching Impacts of the 2016 FAFSA Financial Aid Application Changes: Families can Avoid Crippling Loans by Starting College Planning Early

This year, the financial aid application process has been significantly changed.  The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, better known as the FAFSA, can be filed for the 2017/18 school year starting October 1, 2016.  Previously, the FAFSA was filed in the first few months of the year.  With the filing date change comes a second deviation from the past: the use of the “prior, prior year” income information.  For the 2017/18 school year, FAFSA filers will use their 2015 taxes.  These two changes have numerous implications for all college bound families.

First, families should receive their financial aid awards considerably earlier.  This will give them several months to determine how they will fund the upcoming school year.  For those applying to college, alarming changes to their financial aid awards well after the May 1 decision date should be eliminated.  In the past, numerous families received very unwelcome news after having committed to a school.

Second, families need to begin serious college planning much earlier.  The financial aid base year is now the calendar year which begins in the middle of sophomore year. Used well, this information can help families avoid taking on crushing amounts of debt.  Those working with me will benefit even more from my expertise.

The FAFSA is the financial aid form required by nearly every college and university in the US. In order to be able to take federal student or parent loans or to get any federal grants, the FAFSA must be filed.  In California, the FAFSA must be filed by March 2 in order to qualify for a CalGrant.  Additionally, most of the colleges and universities across the country use the FAFSA results to determine how to distribute their own grants and tuition reductions.

With annual college costs exceeding $70,000 at a number of schools and many more topping $60,000/year, even many wealthy families are qualifying for need based aid.  The FAFSA uses what is called the “federal methodology” to calculate the EFC, or Expected Family Contribution.  In turn, financial aid offices use the EFC to determine the aid they will award.

There are two primary reasons for the filing date change.  A few years ago, the IRS and Department of Education introduced the DRT or Data Retrieval Tool.  This tool enables filers to transfer their tax information from the IRS database into their FAFSA. Unfortunately, the IRS could not process returns fast enough to provide the data in a timely fashion.  As a result, some families committed to a particular college or university, only to have their financial aid package altered months later when their tax return data was finally available. 

Additionally, with the earlier filing period, financial aid offices will be able to provide financial aid awards to families much earlier in the application process.  Families will then have more time to determine how to pay for the upcoming year of college.  They will also have time to work with the financial aid office to create a workable plan or to apply to additional schools, if needed.

In order to make October filing happen, the income information had to come from what is called the prior, prior year.  This is the calendar year before the calendar year that is finished before the year of school starts.  For example, for the 2017/18 school year, the prior year is 2016 and the prior, prior year is 2015.  By October of 2016, when families can file the FAFSA for the 2017/18 school year, the IRS should have been able to process their 2015 tax return.  When the families use the DRT in the process of filing their FAFSA, the tax information should be processed and ready to be pulled into the FAFSA.

The reason you need to start working with me during freshman year is because of this shift to using income data from the prior, prior year.  Here's an example:

For students who just started high school in August 2016, their high school timeline was this:

2016/17 Freshman year

2017/18 Sophomore year

2018/19 Junior year

2019/20 Senior year

Their first college year, assuming they go directly from high school to college, will be 2020/2021.  These students will apply for college during the 2019/20 school year.  In October of 2019, they will also be able to file their FAFSA form.  2018 will be their financial aid base year, the year of income used by the FAFSA processor to calculate the EFC (Expected Family Contribution).  2018 is the prior, prior year to 2020, their first year of college.  Take a look at those high school years again.  When does 2018 start?  It starts in the middle of the sophomore year.  Therefore, any changes which would be beneficial to a family’s financial aid eligibility need to be identified and executed during 2016 or 2017, the freshman year.

Unfortunately, most families don’t consider working with me until the junior or, even, the senior year.  With the changes, college funding planning can start sooner, since families will be able to know their EFC and financial aid eligibility a year earlier in the process.  With student loan debt crippling so many college graduates’ lives, finding good colleges which are affordable is more important than ever.

Additionally, the average time to complete a bachelor’s degree is six years.  Often this is due to students arriving at college lacking sufficient academic skills, the necessary life skills, or a clue what they want to study.  Without these three elements, students cannot complete their degree on time.   By starting to work with a college planning specialist like me who works both with student preparation as well as college financial aid and funding, the student has time to develop a focus for college and the family has time to prepare for their first financial aid base year, 2018.

To schedule an appointment to discuss your particular situation,click here: LET'S MEET!

Net Price Calculators - Another way to mislead parents?

Net price calculators are tools which are supposed to help parents and students determine how much a given school is likely to cost, after financial aid is factored in.  This is a terrific idea!  Many parents grasp the notion that their actual price will differ from the published, official price of the college their child attends.  Everyone hopes the price will be very small; their family will receive large scholarships and grants.  Obviously, this cannot always be the case.  A few students will pay very, very little.  A number will pay full price. Most will pay something in between.

However, a look at the net price calculator the Department of Education has online reveals some of the challenge parents face when trying to sort all of this out for themselves.

Dept of Education’s site - http://collegecost.ed.gov/catc/

College Affordability and Transparency Center!

            The fine print at the bottom of the page says:

Note: Average net price is generated by subtracting the average amount of federal, state/local government, or institutional grant or scholarship aid from the total cost of attendance.

 Total cost of attendance is the sum of published tuition and required fees (lower of in-district or in-state, where applicable), books and supplies, and the weighted average for room and board and other expenses.

Average net price is for full-time beginning undergraduate students who received grant or scholarship aid from federal, state or local governments, or the institution. 

Let's take a moment to understand what this means.The first paragraph is pretty straightforward.  The average net price is the cost of attendance less grant or scholarship aid.  That is as it should be.  Now, the next sentence defines the way cost of attendance is defined.  Note the parenthetical information - the figure used is IN STATE.  Therefore all the costs are skewed down significantly.  If that weren't enough, take a good look at the third sentence of their fine print.  First, they used data for Freshman, who typically receive the most aid, period.  Second, they only used the data for those Freshman who received grants or scholarships!  They EXCLUDED all those who PAID FULL PRICE!

Consequently, parents cannot trust the net prices listed on the website at all!  They are less than what most families will pay.

Please realise that this is critically important.  All schools were required to have a net price calculator on their website by October 2011.  If the Department of Education's data is this misleading for parents, how reliable are the numbers on the schools' own sites? 

When I work with my clients, I calculate the net price for each of the schools under consideration myself.  My clients have a realistic estimate of their costs.  Then they can judge the affordability of the schools their child is considering.  For more information, please visit my website: www.celticcollegeconsultants.com.  Schedule your initial consultation today and start working with a seasoned professional who has your best interests in mind!