<p>Hello CC !
This is my first post, I was wondering where to post it whether in the financial aid section or in the international student section, I chose the later option because I think here I can find people who can understand my situation.
I am gonna apply to top schools, MIT, UPenn, Harvard, Notre Dame, UCLA, Rochester and Yale, maybe some other schools. I liked what these schools offer and I have done my college search and my post is about money not about qualification. All these schools give money to their students and meet 100% of their demonstrated need. I know that a year costs approximately 60k.<br>
I come from Tunisia (in north africa), our income is lower than the US income, here , a person who earns 15,000 $ a year is considered to be fortunate, (believe it or not, even engineers are not paid very well compared with people from europe and the US), nevertheless, our income is sufficient for living normally (eating, having a car, paying insurance, having a house).
so my situation is: my father is dead, he left two houses, one car, (for me and my mother) my mom has a car too. she also inherited from her dad and share the heritage with her siblings (meaning she cannot sell the heritage unless all of her siblings decide to sell). I don't have siblings, and my mom's total income (her salary plus what she earns from the heritage) is 16,000 $, she has approximately 40k in her bank account and she's wiling to give me 24k maximum for my education.
Given all this data, am I eligible for financial aid or do they require me to sell my house to afford the education (which is practically impossible because my mom doesn't want to), does the fact that I have all these properties affect on my aid decision? or should I give up on my dream of studying in the US ?
In their websites, the colleges don't give so much details, that's why I asked.
Thank you so much for understanding and answering ;)</p>
<p>Yes, financial aid calculations will most likely take two properties into consideration. Real estate beyond your (first) family home is usually considered an investment. University policies vary widely in what percentage of your parents’ investments they expect to be used for college payments. The good news is that colleges usually only expect a fraction of your parents’ assets to be used for college financing. (Parents do need to save for retirement, after all.) </p>
<p>Here’s one hypothetical example. University of Nowhere may consider the first $50,000 of your parents’ assets an “emergency reserve” that they don’t need to touch for college financing. They also decided not to touch your family home. Parents’ are expected to use 5% yearly of their assests beyond that to help with college expenses.</p>
<p>Let’s say for the sake of argument that your second house is worth $100,000. The calculation would go as follows:
- Total assets = $40,000 savings + $100,000 real estate = $140,000.
- Available assets = $140,000 - $50,000 = $90,000.
- Yearly contribution from assets = 5% * $90,000 = $4,500. </p>
<p>alright, thanks for the provided information, one last question that I have ?
Where do we get info about how do they calculate the need ? I looked to some of the college websites and I didn’t find precise information for international applicants :/</p>
<p>just type in google: EFC calculator for each schools.</p>
<p>Just remember that more students get rejected from those schools, and, for some reason, international students don’t believe that it can possibly apply to them. It does.</p>
<p>You also have to remember that most of the financial aid information, on university websites, is directed at students who are eligible for the FAFSA-US citizens. </p>
<p>International students have to assume they will be paying full fees. The colleges are expensive. There are thousands of US students who also don’t have the means to attend the universities. You have to have a back-up plan if you don’t get in. </p>
<p>^that’s why there are only 6 colleges that are need blind to int kids. </p>
<p>Many int kids are unfortunately unaware of schools that give automatic merit scholarship to OOS, even to int kids. U of Alabama does that. </p>