It appears this is a WA student shooting for UCs and T20s. The in-state WA schools should be affordable with the budget the OP has mentioned. As I understand it, the CA public universities will NOT provide significant FinAid. If I’m not mistaken, all the Reach private universities the OP mentioned will require the CSS Profile, which would require accounting for the $5M asset.
I agree with you about filing the appeal. You have a lot ( a LOT LOT) more experience than I, but I find it hard to imagine any school ignoring a $5M asset. Definitely file because … why not.
I would assume the family friend would have to pay the full cost if the OP was admitted to and enrolled in any of the listed reach schools except UW
I have not worked at a school known for meeting need, so I cannot speak to how they would treat the asset. I do know that the top meets-need schools have aid offices that have dealt with a lot of odd situations … I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them have experience with students who have assets in countries that seize assets. Whether or not an asset would be ignored by an individual school, we can’t say - but it’s always worth appealing. As for a school expecting someone who has been helping the family meet financial needs to pay for college, that would really surprise me. If the family is so poor that they need help to live, that is a family whose child would clearly benefit from financial aid to help lift the family from poverty. I guess it depends on how a school sees and acts upon its mission regarding financial aid.
I am not disagreeing but invariably all schools FA missions incorporate fairness as a goal. OP states a value of $5mm.
There is a huge difference between $5mm and $0. It is not plausible in the case that the parents won’t formally relinquish an ownership claim that an objective observer comes up with $0 regardless of income generation. To do so would be unfair to the comparable student whose family doesn’t have the “devalued” real estate claim.
If so it leaves people way to much room to massage real estate holdings such as sole purpose vacation homes and rental properties under going renovation, spec property under development, etc which don’t generate income but are of significant value. OP should talk to parents.
It’s not clear that this is the case though. Illegally occupied is not the same as state seizure (thinking of actual cases I am aware of) . Either way it sounds like this isn’t a cut-and-dried case for a meets need school.
I think valuation can be iffy too. I used to look at the calculator to estimate one of my houses, it’s much lower than the real valuation, and this is in USA. I think this student may not be aware of that. How does FA know that it’s really $5 million or much less.
Did you consider https://www.raise.me/ for scholarships? Not all colleges participate but you may be able to add a few schools based on if they offer raise me, to your college list
My issue with raiseme - is that what you earn will come off the scholarship - meaning if you’re getting $20K, you’re still getting $20K with raiseme in many cases.
I’ve looked twice for both my kids - personally, I saw no value in the program.