<p>On a supplement question on the CSS Profile it asks you to list your primary two vehicles and the cost of those vehicles (sales price). It then asks you to list and additional car / vehicles that you own, however, it does not ask for the price/cost of the additional cars. If you have three cars but are only required to list the purchase price of two which would be the most beneficial to list: car x that you paid 24,000 for, car y that you paid 25,000 for, or car z that you paid 18,000 for?</p>
<p>Also they ask you to list the student's primary vehicle - as in our case many kids do not legally own their car - it is titled in the parents name and was paid for by said parents.<br>
My thought is to list it as one of our cars since it is legally our car.</p>
<p>These questions are only on the supplement section for certain colleges, we just seem to have hit one of them. Hope someone can offer some prior experience.</p>
<p>It seems as if you have saved and lived within your means you are penalized on the the CSS Profile. </p>
<p>I didn’t weigh out cost or $ owed, I just listed our two primary vehicles like the ? asked. I don’t think they put a lot of weight to the resale value. Perhaps they are seeing if you own a Tesla or a vintage Bentley.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t get too hung up on this question if I were in your shoes with your vehicle situation. I would guess that it might give pause to a finaid officer if a parent is applying for aid and driving around in a brand new $50,000 vehicle, the wife’s got a brand new $50,000 vehicle and the kid has a $25,000 vehicle. Leased or owned the example I posed is still pretty much a flashing light about how the fam spends it’s money.</p>
<p>How does it penalize you if you live within your means? Like momofthreeboys said, if they saw that a family was fiscally irresponsible to some extent with their lifestyle choices then it would only reflect negatively on them.</p>
<p>I think I have always viewed it as a life style choice question, I always answer it honestly and we don’t own any luxury vehicles. As my H always says “they are looking for Jags, Mercedes, Lexuses”… It might indicate to the FA Office where your priorities are. One school we are involved with asks this question but on their FA web pages state that they do not view cars as an asset. So to me that means life style choice question.</p>
<p>It appears from the questions of CSS profile, that if you played by the rules and stayed within your means, you are losing. Because If you have lot of liabilities (mortgage , car payment…) your net remaining income will below , so less EFC?</p>
<p>We said the kids had no primary vehicle.
This is a question, imo, about your disposable income. Presumably, you either paid cash or made monthly payments. Ie, that was extra money in your budget that you chose to use for 3 cars which cost 67k. Funds which the college may feel you could have used for college costs.<br>
It’s not unheard of that they could think a family would sell an extra asset to help pay for school. Or, rid themselves of that expense, to lighten the monthly budget.</p>
<p>We had room on the forms to detail the year purchased and year, make, model. If your cars are older and worth less, you could think about noting their present value, if you have that space. It’s not just a Mercedes that would look indulgent; it’s the idea you did have room in your budget for those particular purchases.</p>