<p>What I mean by this is getting a court order to disassociate yourself from your parents. Do you think disassociating myself with my parents and setting my brother as my legal guardian would help in getting financial aid.</p>
<p>I would have no way to support my income and my brothers income is only 3000 a year. If i had no legal links to my parents would universities still ask?</p>
<p>yes they would because you are attempting to defraud the taxpayers.
To be declared independent you must fall under one of these categories in virtually all circumstances.
Age 24
have a dependent
married
Military veteran
Ward of state until age 18</p>
<p>Is the possibility of getting some financial aid really worth cutting all ties with your parents? :(</p>
<p>In most cases it will not work. It won't work for you at all because you are an international. Your parents make about 150 K/yr. In 90%+ cases even the domestic applicants end up paying full cost.</p>
<p>You are wasting your time by asking silly questions. The most productive use would be to sit down with your parents and get a clear understanding of how much they WILL pay.</p>
<p>BTW such a thing only works in movies.</p>
<p>Marry a girl in a similar situation. Problem solved. You can always get a divorce after college.</p>
<p>then OP just becomes an indenpendent international student with no $$ applying to american universities which the overwheliming majority are not need blind to international students. So this still does nothing for his situation (in fact it makes his financial situation life worse).</p>
<p>Well a bunch of top universities are Need Blind. I know for a fact that Harvard is. Thats not to say i'll make it.</p>
<p>When i went to princeton site and used their calculator and put in my finances, it said that i'd have to pay a full 50,000 USD a year just for tuition and expenses.</p>
<p>If however i had very little saved up and my parent earns only 40k a year, i get 45000 USD in aid. </p>
<p>I think its true what people say. When you're middle class you're stuck between two extremes. You're not poor enough to get enough aid and you're nto rich enough to pay for an ivy league universitiy.</p>
<p>If i get into an ivy league, i would be ****ed if i couldn't study there simply because i couldn't afford it. </p>
<p>Asking about divorcing your parents isn't such a stupid or silly question. If you got into an Ivy and couldn't afford it, would u be desperate? I think so.</p>
<p>I think right now, i'll have to look at private outside scholarships that i can apply for. Hopefully i'll get enough aid so i can study. But i simply can't afford 40-50k USD a year. Desperate times will call for desperate measures.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Well a bunch of top universities are Need Blind. I know for a fact that Harvard is. Thats not to say i'll make it.</p>
<p>When i went to princeton site and used their calculator and put in my finances, it said that i'd have to pay a full 50,000 USD a year just for tuition and expenses.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You are also talking about schools that will deny admissions to close to 90 % of the students that apply and are looking to yeild ~100 international students despite the fact that thousands will apply.</p>
<p>I recommend that you build your list using a bottoms up approach. </p>
<p>Find schools where your numbers are above the 75% threshold (and you are likely to be admitted), where you are a likely candidate to get aid in the form of merit or need based.</p>
<p>then craft a list of schools where you have a 50/50 chance of being admitted and a high chance of getting the aid you need.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the ivies are reaches for everyone and only HYP are need blind to international students (which will make them the furthest reach).</p>
<p>"If however i had very little saved up and my parent earns only 40k a year, i get 45000 USD in aid."</p>
<p>Your parents still come out ahead. 150 k -50k=100k.</p>
<p>They still have 60 k more than those who make 40 k/yr.</p>
<p>Once in a while I sense 'entitlement' mentality from the domestic kids, but this coming for an international student is truly amazing.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I would have no way to support my income and my brothers income is only 3000 a year. If i had no legal links to my parents would universities still ask?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>No one in their right mind is going to allow someone who earns 3k a year to be the guardian of anyone. </p>
<p>
[quote]
When i went to princeton site and used their calculator and put in my finances, it said that i'd have to pay a full 50,000 USD a year just for tuition and expenses.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>And this ^ would mean that your parents earn a really fair amount of money a year. You should be grateful for that. </p>
<p>You should just do as Sybbie says and focus on things honestly. </p>
<p>
[quote]
I recommend that you build your list using a bottoms up approach.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I am doing something very similar to that with my ever changing list of grad school options. It is not hard to do.</p>
<p>"Your parents still come out ahead. 150 k -50k=100k.</p>
<p>They still have 60 k more than those who make 40 k/yr.</p>
<p>Once in a while I sense 'entitlement' mentality from the domestic kids, but this coming for an international student is truly amazing."</p>
<hr>
<p>Actually its 130k adjusted for USD.</p>
<p>Then my parents pay 60k in tax.</p>
<p>This leaves us with 70k.</p>
<p>We support our grandparents which is 10k.</p>
<p>This leaves us with 60k. </p>
<p>My brother has to go to Uni and his expenses and stuff total to 10k.</p>
<p>This leaves us with 50k.</p>
<p>50k-50k = 0k</p>
<p>Do you still think that i can still pay 50k?</p>
<p><em>sarcasm</em> Yeah i think so, so long as my parents just live of 0 dollars and fall over and die.</p>
<p>Sure we have investments. But in a recent survey you need at least 80k USD as an individual to survive here in sydney. My dads been moving around a ton and if we sell our investments i don't know how my parents will survive in retirement. </p>
<p>While it may appear that we are well off, its not quite that. If i was a single child and we didn't have to support my grandparents and we lived in the states, then we'd be well off. But its just not the case.</p>
<hr>
<p>Realistically, i'm only going to look at the ivy leagues and equivalents. Quite frankly outside the ivy leagues and equivs, Australian universities are just as good if not better.</p>
<p>Congratulations, you are one of many kids who get into the Ivy-League university of their choice but cannot afford to go. Tough cookies. Lucky for you, there are thousands of other universities around the world that you can afford to go to. </p>
<p>Sorry. I know it hurts not to be able to afford something as major as this, but unfortunately, thats the way it is. Make the best of wherever you do go! Remember, university is about learning, not what's on that parchment paper!</p>
<p>you said your brother attends a university in the US and does not get any FA -- so where does he attend school in the US that only costs $10,000? </p>
<p>You can always appeal a FA decision -- but with significant assets, it might not help. </p>
<p>If you are coming up with an EFC for Princeton of $50,000 -- it won't be much different for any other school. If you appeal, based on support of your grandparents and brother in school, you might get $10,000 - $15,000 aid at best -- most likely a mix of loans and grants. If the school were to cost you $35,000 - $40,000 out of pocket, would you still go? </p>
<p>Outside scholarships would be great -- do they have them in Sydney and are they available for study in the US? Most scholarships in the US are for citizens and permanent residents and the funds are usually only for use in the US.</p>
<p>You can certainly apply for an Ivy -- maybe if you get in, you could take a gap year and work to earn money. I don't think you are going to find any Ivy willing to give you FA to attend. No matter how you rationalize your parents income, they make far more than the average and have assets in reserve -- a much better financial situation than 90% of the people on this planet.</p>
<p>BlankAudio,</p>
<p>If your parents have investments, I doubt they just started making that kind of money last year. Yes, they need to sell their investments. You are not entitled to a U.S. university. Frankly, even U.S. citizens are not 'entitled' to a university education here. They have to work and pay for it. Many, many people cannot afford private universities. Many take out loans and pay them for decades (even if they're attending state schools). At many private universities, the value of people's houses are taken into account and parents may have to spend down the equity in their <em>house</em>-- nevermind their investments. </p>
<p>Frankly, I doubt private universities in Australia would give you funding. If you can attend there for $10K a year, then go there. I don't think U.S. taxpayers should support your quest to take advantage of our financial aid policies to help poor and middle-class kids here.</p>