As I said up thread, finances are personal and private. Listen to your parents not strangers.
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None?
You said your parents own convenience stores.
Does this mean they are purchasing the buildings and land�
No assets? Does this mean they donât have ANY money in the bank? At all anywhere. Or money in a cookie jar at your house, or anywhere else?
Do your parents rent your primary residence or are they purchasing that also?
Swinging back to your original list (has that changed?). There are colleges on your safety and target list that do NOT guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students.
Have you had a chance to run the NPCs? I donât know how accurate they would be (they own convenience stores, they have no assets, etc) plus I donât think they are updated, but maybe thatâs a good place to begin (?).
Have not gotten the chance yet. Apparently they do not have the lasted 1040 yet.
I am in the process of making a spreadsheet of around 35 colleges that include the ones that I am interested in and the ones that were recommended to me. I have sections like merit or no, act percentile, and so on. After I am done with that I will analyze it and create a proper list.
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Probably because they are self employed and filed for the extension until October to complete their 2022 tax returnâŠwhich is what you need.
Iâm still having difficulty understanding how business owners who are paying for the land and buildings for convenience stores they own have NO assets.
I double checked with my parents and they are still saying no assets.
Well, itâs just one parent.
Iâll check with the other one as well.
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How about asking both of them together âis $91k per year for college ok?â?
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So I just triple checked with both them and they both confirmed that they own no assets. They pay rent on the building and land as it is being leased out to them.
Which school is 91k per year? Also is that a realistic price anymore. I know that we have figured out little but is leaning to the positive (low payment) side or the negative (high payment) side?
SoâŠthey rent the places where the convenience stores are located? Ok.
Do you also rent where you are living?
If what you are saying now is indeed trueâŠyou need a very different set of colleges to apply to. You can try for schools that meet full need for all. Some will not be favorable in terms of how they treat your family owned business.
You can try for very high merit awards. I think you should aim for those as your family finances are not a consideration.
But it sounds like you need as a LOT of aid to make college affordable. If your parents have NO assets, that means they have no savings for college for you eitherâŠthat would be an asset.
Do you qualify for the very generous award your older sibling got at the college where they are attending? I would suggest you look into that.
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House we are paying mortgage on.
House is bought but not paid off.
The equity in your home is not considered on the FAFSA but it IS considered by some of the schools you have listed as they use the CSS Profile. And that equity on the Profile IS an asset.
But some other private schools on your list are not too far away from that.
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Not that USC will be affordable but, in 2020, they eliminated home ownership from their financial aid calculation. I believe Stanford also stopped including home ownership around the same time.
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In the end, if you canât get a good sense from your folks - and they said $20k, you might apply in state, OOS with assured merit to get there - but know on those youâll need to keep a gpa to keep that level. But since you are anti in state, a couple assured OOS like Arizona, Iowa State etc and then take your shots where you want but are unsure of the aid. Note with those you add travel costs.
I hope your parents can figure out the finances though to fill out the forms. For many schools theyâll also have to provide tax returns and other items (IDOC - which is on top of css).
This way youâll have all aid angles covered - none or a lot.
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To clarify, your parents do not need their 2022 tax form for you to run NPCs. Unless their financial situation changed dramatically in 2022, you can use their 2021 information and get a reasonable estimate. At the worst, youâll have a much better idea of what the COA might be.
I do not think you should wait until October (or later) to try to ascertain what your potential COA might be. Use the 2021 tax return information for the calculators right now to get a rough idea. Then run it again in the fall after your parents complete their 2022 tax return.
Knowledge is power. No need to go through the next few months in the dark.
When/if you use their 2021 tax form to run the calculator(s), you donât need to tell us what the numbers are on your parentsâ tax forms. However, it would be helpful if we knew the calculator result(s), so the others can help recommend affordable options.
EDIT: However, if your parents are reticent to share their tax information with you AND they continue to say âour budget is $xâ, then there is not much you can do but trust them.
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