Everything is being discussed with my parents. Sorry for all the confusion. What are the exact questions that I need to answer?
No.
Yes.
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Really - they just need to do their best to determine need. That will help you and your sibling. Thatâs the ânextâ step. I know things are changing next year aid wise and if they do change, itâll be for worse, not better - so finding out now gives you at least a best case view.
If you were QB eligible four years ago, unless theyâve totally exploded income wise and hopefully they have, youâll likely have need.
Again, if it were me and others may disagree since itâs not the same schools, but Iâd find maybe three schools that do aid pre-reads and see what they say.
Ultimately - your list of where you can apply and ability to ED will be impacted by your need determination and how it aligns to help support your budget.
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Iâm not sure your plan should include apply early decision. You really want to apply to Cornell, and they wonât do a pre read for you. SoâŠyou can apply ED and see what happens. Or apply RD and see what happens.
If you do choose to apply ED, please please submit any applications that require an early deadline for merit scholarship consideration. If you get accepted ED with sufficient money, you can just withdraw those pending applications.
I do agreeâŠvisiting an ED school is important before applying. And with a climate so different than your home state, I hope you have visited in the dead of winter. Someplace in the northeast.
Get your application to Alabama submitted as soon as itâs released. You will receive an admission decision with aid in a very short time. Apply to their honors college tooâŠand for scholarships. None of this takes very long. And I believe itâs a sure thing for you. They have a great CS departmentâŠand this school will be affordable. There is as much partying at Auburn as at Alabama.
You can apply to Pitt early as wellâŠrolling admissions. Iâm not sure the school can reach your price point but you will know rather quickly.
As long as you are happy with your sure things, absolutely apply broadly. You might get accepted to one of your other choices with sufficient aid. We sure canât predict that. You have a lot of moving parts to your financial aid application.
Good luck to you and your sibling. And your parents. Itâs quite an investment to have two kids in college at the same time!
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My concern is whether the increase in income is stable.
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I thought that Cornell does not do merit.
22â income did drop a bit (~100k) compared to 21â.
@An_D can you look at your original list and revise it? Based on recommendations over the past week, have you added or removed any schools?
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You are misunderstanding me. I am sayingâŠif you DO choose to apply to Cornell early decisionâŠmake sure your other applications are submitted in time to meet merit aid application deadlines. Cornell doesnât give merit. Please read my post again.
If you get accepted ED to Cornell with sufficient financial aid, you can withdraw those other applications to other schools. But you donât want to miss other school deadlines for scholarship considerationâŠor honors colleges where that applies.
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Still working on it, trying to create a spreadsheet with a bunch of info on each college. I definitely am going to drop some of these and add more merit based safeties.
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Ok I understand now.
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And I agreeâŠplease give us a revised list. For exampleâŠwe all know the UCs wonât be affordable. They give no need based aid to OOS students and precious little merit aid. My opinionâŠdrop those!
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The colleges use a prior-prior year lookback for income. So if you are looking for need-based aid for academic year 24-25, the income they will be reviewing is for calendar year 2022. However, assets and the value of your parentsâ business will be evaluated as of the day you submit the financial aid forms (FAFSA and CSS Profile).
Some assets are exempt from being reported â that always includes assets in 401k plans and IRA plans . Some schools will also exempt the equity in your familyâs primary residence.
Some FAFSA-only schools will exempt financials for a family-owned business if it meets certain requirements as to size and number of employees. You can look at previous year blank FAFSA forms (google for them) to see what questions FAFSA asks. Many colleges are FAFSA-only â that means they donât use the CSS Profile at all. It is much harder to get a blank CSS Profile form, because each school individualizes the questions that they ask.
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This is a valid concern and kids might not understand. Hence, my comment to not strangle the family financially. Going to a Cornell or WUSTL vs. an Auburn or Iowa State or SUNY or wherever affordable is not a tradeoff even close to worth it in my opinion.
Editing to add that the older sibling might well have been questbridge eligible because they are a rising senior and with the two-year lookback, the QB assessment was likely based on 2018 income.
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If your older sibling is currently a senior in college and receiving aid/scholarship at a state university, it is almost certain your parents completed the FAFSA for that sibling. Ask your parents/sibling what the most recent FAFSA efc number is.
Once you know that, you can enter that efc into the calculators for the FAFSA only schools on your list and get a relatively accurate result from those schoolâs calculators.
You still will not have an realistically accurate guess at the CSS schools, but thatâs a step for another day.
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So using my college siblings Fafsa number (EFC) where would I plug it in?
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I agree. But the older sibling has the presidential scholarshipâŠI think itâs a full merit award.
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You canât âuseâ the EFC from past years to forecast future years. The suggestion to look at your sibling EFC from 2023-2024 academic year would be to get a ball park of what yours might be.
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They may or may not. For Alabama merit itâs not required. And Iâd assume other Alabama state schools would be similar.
They are pure auto merit.
Some publics do require FAFSA for merit though but sounds like this student is an in state auto merit and itâs not needed.
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