<p>Well i'd like to know if I'd qualify for aid or not if my dad (only working parent) earns 100K/year (income earned abroad btw we don't live in the US). I really want to go to colleges like Georgetown, UVA (OOS - technically instate if we currently would have lived in the US) and Wellesley but they seem too expensive so I'm wondering whether I'd qualify for financial aid or would I need to apply for scholarships and what not? Btw i'm the eldest child and have 3 younger sibling, if it matters? </p>
<p><em>Btw if I don't qualify for need based aid, what sort of SAT score (got a 2050 on a official BB practice test w/o studying, hope to bump it up to the 2200-2300 range after studying- is that good enough?) should I aim for to get merit based aid at top universities? So far I've gotten all A/A</em>'s during freshman and sophomore year. </p>
<p>First, to see what kind of aid you will get go to those school’s web sites and look up their Net Price Calculator. It will give you a forecast of the FA you can expect. For merit aid look at the pinned threads at the top of this forum.</p>
<p>Um…the net price calculator probably won’t be accurate for these Profile Schools. This family should be filing a U.S. Tax return if they are expats. They get a foreign income exemption on that. This will bring their AGI down, I believe for FAFSA purposes,</p>
<p>BUT we do not know how Profile Schools will treat that same income. It is possible yah it might not be exempt.</p>
<p>Okay, I got my dad to put fill out the NPC’s of Wellesley, Georgetown, UVA, and Boston College and my family contribution came out to be around 7K/year at all of them. My dad put his exact details - he entered the same data that he put on the most recent tax form (1040), so all the details are accurate - keep in mind my dad has very few assets, no house, no investments, family of 6, no medical/dental expenses (have insurance covered by company) and average savings. Oh and my dad’s income is actually 70K/per not 100K/per, I converted between currencies incorrectly. Is something off? Because my dad can actually pay more out of his pocket - isn’t the calculator supposed to calculate the MAX amount your parents can contribute?? </p>
<p>@4kidsdad Yah my dad can easily pay $7000. That why I’m asking if something is off as I assume these calculators are supposed to tell you the maximum amount your parents are able to contribute? </p>
<p>These calculators estimate your net costs. </p>
<p>Someone here will correct me if I’m wrong…but your actual taxable income is likely very low as a worker overseas. Don’t expats have an exemption of a certain amount of their overseas incime for tax purposes? I’m not all that familiar, but does this exemption reduce the actual AGI?</p>
You’re US citizen, correct? If you are a U.S. citizen or a resident alien of the United States and you live abroad, you are taxed on your worldwide income. Also, many NPC do not account for the foreign earned income exclusion, the foreign housing exclusion, and the foreign housing deduction. You should contact the schools.</p>
<p>@thumper1 Of course, my dad’s been filing taxes ever since he moved abroad. As I mentioned above my dad filled out the calculator using the data he put into the most recent tax form (form 1040). </p>
<p>@4kidsdad Thanks for the explanation. House exclusion/deduction? What is that? Excluding housing costs? Sorry for sounding so ignorant - I’ve never come across these terms before. </p>
<p>@pink997 There are certain deductions people can take when they file income tax (housing may be one) which reduces the amount they owe in income taxes. However, colleges can add many of those deductions back in which increases the total income. If your dad wrote 70k after subtracting $30k worth of exclusions, for example, colleges will count his income as $100k, not $70k. If the income is high enough, it will increase the amount they expect the family to contribute to your education.</p>
<p>Many overseas jobs also include housing, utilities, private school tuition for children, and annual travel benefits which may influence The EFC in the end. </p>
<p>@austinmshauri I don’t think my dad made any deductions as he told me he claims standard deductions (so 0) and no itemized deductions. Nope, my dad included all our expenses (dad to day living cost, the share of rent/school fees he pays etc) but he counted out the expenses the company pays for but are you saying that they should be included? Why would colleges add that on? My dad doesn’t pay that and nor could he afford to with his income as our school fees alone count for 80% of my dad’s income if what the company pays for is included! Could you clarify what you mean’t? </p>
<p>@NorthernMom61 My dad’s jobs includes all the benefits you mentioned (minus utilities) but he pays part of the expenses too. So it will increase the EFC since you have less expenses, right? </p>