<ol>
<li><p>Will colleges see which schools I send my CSS Profile to?</p></li>
<li><p>I am an international applicant, so I will not be filling out the FAFSA. My EFC will not be computed, so I'm not sure how much they'll expect me to pay. Our expenses are $1,000~ short of our family income. Assets are worth $230,000~. Current market value of house is $440,000~. I have 3 younger siblings. </p></li>
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<p>My parents say they can pay for $14,000~. But I think given the data I provided, the amount we can afford to pay will seem less? In cases like this, will colleges heed what I put down (pay $14,000) or will they award however much they deem I should receive? I ask because all the colleges I am applying for are need-aware, and if the FA office cannot meet my need, I will be rejected.</p>
<p>The colleges will award what THEY calculate you should receive. They might not “reject” you…but they might not give you sufficient aid to attend.</p>
<p>So if they calculate that the aid I should receive is greater than what I wrote I think I would need, they can give aid awards that would make the parent contribution less?</p>
<p>kaitlin…the schools will compute your family contribution and subtract that from the cost of attendance. They will then award you need based aid which follows their policies for awarding need based aid.</p>
<p>So…yes…if the school meets FULL need for all admitted students it is possible that they could award you aid that exceeds the amount you “said” you would be able to pay.</p>
<p>Keep in mind though that most of your families expenses will not be considered nor will any debt. Colleges do not expect families to pay totally out of current income. They expect them to have college savings and to be willing to borrow.</p>
<p>Most, Americans and internationals, are shocked by their EFC. It’s often much more than they feel they can afford. </p>
<p>If your house is paid off and your family has $230K in other assets, depending on your parents income and the college, that alone could add about $30K to your EFC. That would be just for assets, they would then add about one-quarter to one-third of your parents’ income to that.</p>
<p>@2college: $30K??? How does THAT work? And about the income, aren’t incomes below a certain amount protected? My parents don’t plan on paying for college through income; the expenses I listed were really just the necessities - the value for entertainment, etc. is like $200/year or something like that. We save whatever’s left and that goes to our savings. I realize the market value of the house is big (I don’t really understand how that happened but anyways…) how does the house factor in FA? Also, we do not have any debt.</p>
<p>I am so confused, will I be able to explain all these in the forms, or to the adcoms?</p>
<p>The value of your primary residence is used in varying ways by varying colleges. Your living expenses and consumer debt are not considered in the financial aid equation by ANY college.</p>
<p>The EFC is largely driven by income, but 5.6% of assets will typically be expected. Colleges each treat home equity differently. So if your family has $600K in assets (if they owned the home with no debt) that would add over $30K to the EFC at many schools.</p>
<p>No amount of income is protected. A few very top schools have a no tuition policy for people with an income below a threshold.</p>
<p>Colleges only care about your income, not your expenses. Everyone chooses to spend their money in different ways, it’s their choice and irrelevant to the schools. On the same income some of a house worth $200k and others $500k. Paying for and maintaing a better house is a choice.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it’s painful for most families to pay for college. Most have to reduce expenses and change the way they live to afford this huge new expense. This is an odd concept to many internationals as few countries charge anywhere near what we do for college.</p>
<p>When I asked, one school said they ignore the number the family said it could pay, for two reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Some low income families inflate that number because they are embarrassed to enter zero.</p></li>
<li><p>Some high income families enter zero.</p></li>
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