The Swamp

The whole student aid process is incredibly frustrating. I feel like we are punished for saving money. We have friends with no savings because they spend like drunken sailors on shore leave and will get Federal Aid while we won't because we are responsible. Also another example of us getting screwed for living in an expensive part of the country, so our incomes make us seem much better off than we are when compared on a national level.

I’m sorry Rass and also thank you for confirming one of my top Tier 2 fears.

I assume even if it's rutgers she'd have to live on campus to be on the team? Not sure how that works from school to school.

Will the change in FAFSA have any affect on any of us. We are also in the same situation financially. Decent savings. Make too much to get decent financial aid but not enough to not put either us or the offspring into uncessary debt.

We have really thought about dumping our savings right before filing, but not sure if that will even make a dent.

At least her 529 is owned by my parents and can't be used against her filing. What a shit show.

Also, those true cost calculators on the school websites are surprisingly accurate. If you haven't already done those I'd suggest it. Of course, inflate it a bit for tuition increases which somehow seem to happen every year. BU started a tuition lock for freshman the year AFTER mine started, so they had to pay a bit more each year.

We want her to live on campus, but not sure.

And yeah, the changing and pushing back of FAFSA for months isn't helping. Everything I've read said the filing process should be easier now, but I feel like the delay is just going to make us wait longer to get real answers on all of this.

duff wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 9:02 am At least her 529 is owned by my parents and can't be used against her filing. What a shit show.

Take a read of the impact of that. I have the same situation for the bulk of the 529 but have heard the use of that becomes a "gift" and gets calculated in subsequent years by the financial aid process.

Yall are scaring me. Ga Tech looking so good right now. HS graduation is at McCamish anyway

duff wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 9:02 am
We have really thought about dumping our savings right before filing, but not sure if that will even make a dent.

At least her 529 is owned by my parents and can't be used against her filing. What a shit show.

We had the same thought, but I think income will make it irrelevant. Also sucks they at income two years back. What if someone loses their job?

I went to a financial aid discussion at the HS, and the guy said the best way to hide money is a 529 in a grandparents name. I’m guessing their is implications for dumping $100k+ into grandparents name.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 10:06 am

duff wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 9:02 am
We have really thought about dumping our savings right before filing, but not sure if that will even make a dent.

At least her 529 is owned by my parents and can't be used against her filing. What a shit show.

We had the same thought, but I think income will make it irrelevant. Also sucks they at income two years back. What if someone loses their job?

I went to a financial aid discussion at the HS, and the guy said the best way to hide money is a 529 in a grandparents name. I’m guessing their is implications for dumping $100k+ into grandparents name.

You can file an appeal for change in certain circumstances.

HaulCitgo wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 9:33 am Yall are scaring me. Ga Tech looking so good right now. HS graduation is at McCamish anyway

My nephew is graduating from a GA private school this spring. Despite being a 3 sports athlete and pretty good basketball player only looked at big SEC schools and Wofford. In at Auburn's honors college and UGA (love that lottery revenue scholarship). I think Auburn was his top choice but UGA is tempting and Wofford moved up the board recently. Others were South Carolina & Florida.

Yes to hope. All but $800 for tuition at tech and she would likely qualify for zell miller which pays 100% as I understand. State also pays $5k toward a private school but need to check on that... But not really. Spelman/tech dual degree mentions from time to time but $46k or so per. Ummm.

First things first. BC exam today and act (wtf is that) looms but she's good. Not wlulax jr good but good enough. HS gets about 30 in every year so looking positive. Just gotta keep her out the streets and off the smoke til next year.

FAFSA sucks. I thought being retired and at a lower income would allow us to get some money. But too much equity/home value blew us out of contention - as if I would sell my house for college money.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 1:32 pm FAFSA sucks. I thought being retired and at a lower income would allow us to get some money. But too much equity/home value blew us out of contention - as if I would sell my house for college money.

Maybe it's one of the changes this year, but I thought they can't look at home equity on your primary residence.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 2:28 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 1:32 pm FAFSA sucks. I thought being retired and at a lower income would allow us to get some money. But too much equity/home value blew us out of contention - as if I would sell my house for college money.

Maybe it's one of the changes this year, but I thought they can't look at home equity on your primary residence.

It sure is not supposed to.

Fwiw that's insane. I pay off my mortgage and qualify for financial aid? System games there

HaulCitgo wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 2:53 pm Fwiw that's insane. I pay off my mortgage and qualify for financial aid? System games there

They are looking at liquid assets you could use to pay for school. Not going to make someone sell their primary residence or take a home equity loan to pay. Now a second home, they can look at. The other thing they can't look at is retirement accounts and 529s for siblings.

Pro Tip: never put a 529 in your kids name, it counts double if it's in your kids name as opposed to in your name for their benefit. But putting it in a grandparent's name is ideal, as they can't include it at all.

So assuming you love your kids a lot, back when mortgages were 2.5%, it would have made more sense to refi the amount you need to pay school off since student loans aren't usually forgivable via bankruptcy?

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 3:36 pm So assuming you love your kids a lot, back when mortgages were 2.5%, it would have made more sense to refi the amount you need to pay school off since student loans aren't usually forgivable via bankruptcy?

I had this thought too. But you'd be responsible for the paying it back immediately and if you can afford that rise on the mortgage while letting the college money sit in some kind of CD maturing when it was time for college, it probably would have been worth it. Kind of an arbitrage, but of course CD rates weren't great then. So a series of smaller term ones might help early on, but these days you'd be raking it in.

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 3:36 pm So assuming you love your kids a lot, back when mortgages were 2.5%, it would have made more sense to refi the amount you need to pay school off since student loans aren't usually forgivable via bankruptcy?

They , in fact, cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.

Today was a better day.

Drive to LI couldn’t have been easier. Over 10 members of the girls track team came to meet us at the student union and took us on a campus tour. Nice campus. She stayed and had dinner and hung out with them for another 4 hours or so. She had a good time, though it talking to the girls about training they said the coaches aren’t a fan of weight training and that put her off a bit.

She’s going on a run with a couple of them tomorrow and then some meetings and lunch with the coaches.

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 2:30 pm

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 2:28 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 1:32 pm FAFSA sucks. I thought being retired and at a lower income would allow us to get some money. But too much equity/home value blew us out of contention - as if I would sell my house for college money.

Maybe it's one of the changes this year, but I thought they can't look at home equity on your primary residence.

It sure is not supposed to.

Maybe it changed since I last filled out the form, in 2020, but it sure used to be the case.

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 7:25 pm

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 3:36 pm So assuming you love your kids a lot, back when mortgages were 2.5%, it would have made more sense to refi the amount you need to pay school off since student loans aren't usually forgivable via bankruptcy?

They , in fact, cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.

So if my kids have $200K in student loans, could I refi or take out a second mortgage, pay off their loans and then carry the debt without a worst case scenario of no relief? That seems like a loophole and people like me aren't supposed to be able to use them.

Yes I agree it used to matter b

sancarlos wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 8:55 pm

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 2:30 pm

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 2:28 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 1:32 pm FAFSA sucks. I thought being retired and at a lower income would allow us to get some money. But too much equity/home value blew us out of contention - as if I would sell my house for college money.

Maybe it's one of the changes this year, but I thought they can't look at home equity on your primary residence.

It sure is not supposed to.

Maybe it changed since I last filled out the form, in 2020, but it sure used to be the case.

They no longer use your primary mortgage as part of the equation.

rass wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 10:00 pm Then a Rutgers coach reached out to her this evening to see how it's going, and the kid wrote back and was like RU is still a top choice but I'm still going through the process and in addition to the opprtunity to run, the financials are going to be key to my decision so do you have any idea how my merit-based aid might turn out? And the coach was like yeah unfortunately our pre-read (unofficial but maybe thorough enough?) is that you won't get much - more scholarships go to out of state kids?

More productive conversation with the RU coach this week. She was told they would offer her a roster spot were she to commit, with a chance at athletic scholarship $ at some point based on performance. I guess the first part is pretty damn cool, and honestly the second isn't unexpected at all. Just really thought she might earn more consideration for academic merit-based aid.

She's getting a bit stressed out and even raised the possibility of committing to RU just to end the cycle. We'll see, she really likes Fordham and SB and needs to let those play out a bit more, I think.

Exciting. Even if she doesn't run there must be confidence to know she's wanted

So lots of college marketing materials are showing up at our house. Most are not of note. Variety of Virgnia schools. Some funny pictures (one postcard that my son asked if the school was for Furries). A "magazine" style thing came from Hampden-Sydney today. For those who don't know the school is in Farmville, VA. Small, liberal arts, all-male, same athletic conference as my alma mater (4-0 against them in my career). Anyway, they sent what can only be seen as the most juvenile college recruiting materials I have ever seen. The magazine is titled "The Swagalog" and has a drawn picture of a tiger in a vest. I actually though this was a high school publication my son signed up for. Maybe I am just an old foggie or the school is targeting a specific type of kid..but this just seems off. And H-S is not an Ivy or a big state school, but none of their peers have sent anything like that.

Some highlights

* "We used to have zero cool buildings. Now they all have AC! So Chill"
* "18 holes of civil disc course. Disc Golf is as good as regular golf. And if you disagree, we agree to disagree. Civilly"
* "Just four sharp dudes keeping each other sharp"
* "See you Soon you rugged Tree Trunk of Brain and Brawn"


Shoot apparently it gets results
https://www.familiarcreatures.com/proje ... --swagalog

Hampden-Sydney must spend a ton on mailers. I hadn't heard of them when I was in HS, but they sure did send me a ton of literature. Ended up meeting a few H-S undergrads when studying abroad and really didn't care for them. Rich asshole kids.

govmentchedda wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 3:14 pm Hampden-Sydney must spend a ton on mailers. I hadn't heard of them when I was in HS, but they sure did send me a ton of literature. Ended up meeting a few H-S undergrads when studying abroad and really didn't care for them. Rich asshole kids.

Never heard of it before meeting my wife's college roommate's husband. Great guy and is super proud of H-S. He also went to my law school but graduated the year before I started. Not sure if he had the same Torts professor.

(I know way too many D3 schools due to my soccer nerd-dom. With that said, I had no idea they were all-male.)

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 3:27 pm (I know way too many D3 schools due to my soccer nerd-dom. With that said, I had no idea they were all-male.)

And he was captain of the soccer team!

Given that chasing girls is such an important part of a boy’s college life, I couldn’t imagine attending an all-male school.

Buncha guys from my high school go there every year. Can you imagine a boy going to an all-male high school and then deciding to go to an all-male college? Well, actually, it's not that hard to imagine for some, but I don't think anyone I know who did that is gay.

Longwood University is in Farmville. There used to be an all women's school called Sweet Briar, but it closed sometime in the last 10 years.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 3:34 pm Given that chasing girls is such an important part of a boy’s college life, I couldn’t imagine attending an all-male school.

From HS's website wrote:There are several women's colleges within a two-hour radius of Hampden-Sydney, as well as many other colleges and universities.

The all Male schools and All Female schools in VA was thing for a long time. Even though W&L was co-ed for more than 10 years before I went there, there was still a big tradition of Mary Baldwin, Sweet Briar, and Hollins gals showing up at W&L events.....I guess W&L folks used to go away too but by the time I got there that was not the case. I may have gone to Hollins once as a freshman very early in the year and realized there was no reason to pretty quickly. The girls schools were more commonly frequented by the VMI Keydets (plus they had to leave the county if they were given leave).

I got recruited to RPI. The male to female ration was like 8-1. The also highlighted other schools that had girls nearby.

We got the SWAGALOG in the mail today for our sophomore!

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 4:37 pm Longwood University is in Farmville. There used to be an all women's school called Sweet Briar, but it closed sometime in the last 10 years.

I'm pretty sure Sweet Briar nearly closed, but was saved and is still open. It's not too far from Charlottesville. Apparently it was a big destination for the formerly-all-male UVA students.

Cookesville Tennessee better than I thought. Had never heard of it but seems like a decent college town... Tennessee tech. Sooner this town over Blacksburg in similar environs. Will have to drive through the campus and see what it looks like.

Anyone else having issues with the new GD FAFSA form? We got her account registered and started the form but paused, as it suggested, at the financial info section because it says if we wait a couple of days for them to verify her account that might be partially automated. Couldn’t get the Save button to work, but there was another menu option with a save and exit and that worked.

During that process we chose to invite a parent to collaborate, but when I try to register my account it just gets stuck on the contact info page. Clicking Continue spins for a sec, scrolls up to the top of the screen but doesn’t show any errors. The info is just address and phone #, nothing else.

Willing to try again tomorrow when support is available, and we’ve read of issues but this is annoying.