I have received a few PMs from different posters recently regarding ownership of assets abroad. These have included real estate, money, bank accounts.
Since I don’t want to publicly respond to a PM, I decided to start this thread to answer these questions.
- You need to provide accurate and honest answers on ALL of your financial aid application forms.
- There are NO optional questions on the Profile. In other words, you can’t just decide to put $0 as a value for something you really have and say “it was optional”. It’s not.
- Foreign held assets MUST be included as well as ones held and owned in this country. So...if your family has a foreign bank account or owns property in another country...or earns income in another country...you are REQUIRED to include these amounts on your financial aid forms. No choice.
- If your family has the money...and hasn’t spent it or given it away...it MUST be declared as an asset. Even if you have bills buried in your backyard, or convinced NASA to send your money up in a rocket...if it’s yours...it’s YOURS and must be included.
- It is considered FRAUD to gain financial aid by knowingly not including financial information on your financial aid forms. FRAUD. That is a crime. You could lose not only the financial aid you were wrongfully awarded, but also your offer of admission.
In addition, schools here frown on dishonesty.
So…please be honest when you are completing these forms. Really, these are STUDENT forms which use parent info. You don’t want to sign something with dishonest responses.
Oh…and YES…colleges can and do find out about foreign held assets.