Frequently Asked Questions - Frequently Ask Question

As we know, college expenses or Costs of Attendance are extremely high these days:

• UC: University of California: $35,000
  
  
• CSU: California state university: $24,000
  
  
• Private colleges: $60,000 to $66,000

A lot of Parents and students think college financial aid is free money, but actually it is not. It includes:

• Grants and Scholarship: Cal Grant from State, $12,000. Pell Grant from Federal, $5,500. Scholarship from schools. These are free monies.

• Student loans: Subsidized loan, $5,500, a loan without interest during your kids’ school years, and unsubsidized loan, a loan at 3.9% interest rate.
  
  
• Work study: $2,000 to $5,000. Students will work for school to earn money for their tuition.
  
  
• Parent plus loan: Parents will borrow the loan at 7.9% interest rate to pay for kids’ college expenses.

Normally, Students and parents will fill out FAFSA form in a hurry by using income and asset numbers on parents tax returns without knowing what are the income and asset limits. The tax return was not planned properly for financial aid. That’s the reason why a lot of students don’t get financial aid.

Our services including:

• Plan your income and asset according to income and asset limits on your tax returns one year before your kid goes to college.
  
  
• Make sure that your EFC (expected family contribution) is low by using our professional knowledge on tax planning and financial aid.
• Work with your CPA to plan your tax return legally, which meet IRS and financial aid rules.
  
  
• Fill out your Fafsa form on time for your kid.
  
  
• Work with school on verification process. Submit paperwork to school on time, and answer school’s questions correctly.
  
  
• Work and follow up with school on appeal process if your kid doesn’t the financial aid he/she deserves.
  
  
• We will cover all the work described above, so parents and students could relax.
  
  
• Our fee is 100% money back guaranteed.

Financial aid is based on the need of the family, which could be calculated by a formula:

Financial aid= Cost of attendance – EFC (Expected Family contribution)

EFC is an index number which could be calculated based on the information you fill in the FAFSA form. Our goal is to minimize your EFC so your kid will get maximum financial aid. It depends on 6 factors:

• Head of household’s age: the older, the smaller EFC, the more financial aid.
• The number of households: especially numbers in college. The more members in family, the less in EFC, the more Financial Aid.
• Family income: The higher the income, the larger the EFC, means less FA. There are ways to reduce your AGI (adjusted gross income) legally.
• Asset:
  • Cash in Saving: The more cash in saving, the larger the EFC, means less FA. There are ways to reduce your cash in saving legally.
  • Rental house equity asset: the higher the asset, the larger the EFC, the less the financial aid. We could help you to plan your rentals correctly, so it won’t reduce your kids’ financial aid, but increase your kids’ financial aid.

• Tax Planning: We could help you how to plan your tax legally so your kids will get maximum financial aid.

After knowing your family’s EFC, whether your child decides to go Private or public colleges, you only pay the EFC amount. For examples, if your EFC is 5,000,

• If your child goes to public college, such as UCs, CSUs. The cost of attendance of the colleges is $30,000. Your child will get $25,000 financial aid.
• If your child goes to community college and live at home to save money, your child will not get any financial aid because the cost of at college is below $5000.

In last few months, I have met many families who want to save money and decide to let their children stay home and attend community college even their kids had very good GPA and SAT scores. This decision will hurt your kids’ feeling after they really try hard for 12 years and you are actually spending more money to let them stay home. The correctly decision is to let us help your kid to go to their dream school with the least of your money.

• Choosing the right school is another important factor to get maximum financial aid.
  
  
• Most public schools such as UC, CSU follow EFC rules, and will finance 100% of the students’ need.
  
  
• Some famous private schools also follow EFC rule, and will finance 100% of students’ need because they have strong support from endowment funds. Some other private schools cannot finance 100% of student’ need because of their weak financial situation. The parents have to step in and pay the rest.
  
  
• Choosing the right private school is utmost important factor to get maximum financial aid.
  
  
• Don’t choose out of state public college because you will pay out of state tuition while losing Cal Grant.

• Both parents will make appointment to see us, and bring your last year’s income Tax return.
  
  
• Invite your child to join the meeting, so we could discuss with your child on school selection.
  
  
• We will use our tax planning knowledge to help your child in getting maximum financial he/she deserves.