<p>I will be a senior next year at a small high school in Eastern Iowa. I will likely apply to several top-tier universities: Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Caltech, Princeton, and U of Chicago. I live on a family farm of about 300 acres, which my dad owns and operates. Our income is around $60,000, but there are several hundred thousand dollars of assets involved in the farm (land, buildings, equipment, etc.). How will this affect my financial aid at such universities? If I'm accepted, will attending them be financially feasible?</p>
<p>FAFSA has a family farm exclusion but the top schools tend to want PROFILE. For PROFILE, there is a small busines/farm supplement that has to be completed. How that affects financial aid, I do not know. Perhaps you can contact a few of these schools and ask for estimators that include the farm supplement, and also get some information on how a family farm is considered in terms of financial aid.</p>
<p>Since those schools use CSS Profile, it is doubtful that you would get much/any aid. </p>
<p>Another girl posted a few months ago that she had the same problem. Her family has a ranch in Texas and they don’t earn much, but the land had a high value…so no aid.</p>
<p>That said…you can apply to a few of these schools to see what will happen. </p>
<p>But…you absolutely need to protect yourself and apply to a few schools that will give you large merit scholarships for your stats. Since you have ivy-quality stats, you won’t have a hard time finding schools that will give you good scholarships.</p>
<p>I know it may not seem fair, but as far as the schools are concerned, your family has assets that have a high value that either could be sold or borrowed against…and most people don’t have such assets.</p>
<p>I have no idea how a family farm is treated by PROFILE most of the time. I do know that some small businesses are given a pass in terms of assets, and perhaps farms will be treated the same way. I do know families whose primary source of income is rental real estate do not get a pass on the market value of their holdings. The only way to know is to talk to someone knowledgeable in this area.</p>
<p>But getting into those schools the OP has listed is an issue in of itself. It’s fine to have them on your list, but it is wise to start your list with those schools you know will take you and that you know you can afford. With single figure acceptance rates and a dependence on how financial aid will view your family’s holding, those schools are not something anyone can count on it terms of acceptance and getting money for their high costs.</p>
<p>Wasn’t this the situation faced by curmudgeon’s daughter? Psychless, try searching for some of the early posts by the poster curmudgeon. His daughter is in medical school now, so the posts might be pretty old.</p>
<p>I looked and could not find any posts by curmudgeon on a similar situation.</p>
<p>Try this thread, started by Curmedeon on Jan 20, 2005:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/28384-efc-calculations-ed-considerations.html?highlight=farm[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/28384-efc-calculations-ed-considerations.html?highlight=farm</a></p>
<p>My D goes to a top LAC and I am a partner in a small business. It does not seem our assets were included in the calculations at some schools though I suspect ours are much smaller than farm assets.</p>
<p>The situation earlier this year with the rancher’s daughter had to do specifically with one university that couldn’t figure out what to make of her family’s financial records. I don’t recall her having any particular difficulty with any other institution. It was her “dream” school (of course) that was causing her trouble.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>While Rice was her dream school, I do not recall her mentioning that any other CSS profile school gave her any money. She had a low FAFSA EFC for FAFSA -only schools. Rice may have been the only CSS Profile school that she applied to.</p>
<p>She had a similar situation, land and expensive equipment. Land and equipment have significant value. In this cases…several hundred thousand.</p>
<p>Is the $60k income after-tax? Is that what your family lives on? And what about savings/investments?</p>
<p>The bottom line is…this student can apply to a few and find out …but he/she needs to also apply to some schools that will give big merit for stats.</p>
<p>And…yes…Curmudgeon faced this situation…he also mentions this in the Pre-med forum… His D got accepted to Yale, declined because of no aid, went to Rhodes on a big scholarship…she graduated…and is now at Yale Med school.</p>
<p>Thanks for the variety of perspectives. I think I have reason to be optimistic, but I’ll make sure to have a couple safeties I’ll be happy at.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids</p>
<p>I believe that income is before tax, but I’m not positive. I have about $10,000 set aside by a relative for college.</p>
<p>*Thanks for the variety of perspectives. I think I have reason to be optimistic, but I’ll make sure to have a couple safeties I’ll be happy at. *</p>
<p>What are your stats? Are you a likely NMF?</p>
<p>Again, since it sounds like you have ivy-quality stats, if you carefully choose, you should be able to have 2-3 schools that will give you huge scholarships in addition to your “financial reach” schools.</p>
<p>I don’t know what kind of aid the state of Iowa gives…so be careful about assuming that UI or ISU are financial safeties if your family cannot contribute much each year. </p>
<p>Be sure to apply to some schools where you know FOR SURE that all costs are covered by ASSURED scholarships, ASSURED grants, small federal loans, and/or family funds.</p>
<p>My PSAT scores are 80/80/78, confirmed by a 800R/790M/730W SAT score, so I’ll surely be a NMF. My ACTs are 36E/36M/36R/33S for a composite of 35. I’m taking the SAT II’s in June, expecting good scores. My school does not have a weighted GPA system, so I have a 4.0 GPA.</p>
<p>I’m really into math and science. I’ve done AP Calc BC, multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations (final on Wednesday). I’ve also done the AP Physics C test, filling out the college physics with Light and Heat + Modern Physics from EPGY. I took AP Chem this year as well. I’ll be progressing further along these lines next year (Modern Algebra, Real Analysis, and Intermediate Mechanics first sem.). I’ve done AMC/AIME/USAMTS contests, got a 7 on the AIME II and an honorable mention on the USAMTS this year. I’m Science Bowl team captain (top 8 at state - really good for size of school), and I’m active in Speech and a business organization at my school.</p>
<p>I’m looking for schools strong in math, physics, and computer science.</p>
<p>Awesome stats!</p>
<p>Since you may not qualify for enough need-based aid at CSS Profile schools…</p>
<p>You need to apply to some of the top schools that “might” award you a HUGE merit scholarship (however, these are highly competitive)…at schools like: WashU, USC, and Vandy. Hopefully, others can mention some other top schools that have a few large merit opportunities…of course, these are highly competitive and no one can expect to get one… </p>
<p>A potential problem is that these merit scholarships many not reduce cost enough for the schools to still be affordable. For instance, if you were given the NMF half tuition scholarship at USC, the remaining costs would be about $35k per year. Such a scholarship would reduce “need”…it wouldn’t reduce the “expected contribution” that the school might expect from your family…so that could be a problem. Even a full tuition scholarship could mean that your family would be expected to pay the remaining room, board, books, fees, travel…which can be as much as $16k+ per year. </p>
<p>Do you know how much your parents will pay each year towards your college costs? If they can’t pay much or anything, then again, you need back up situations. None of us will want to read posts from you next spring saying that you’ve been accepted to A, B, and C, but they all expect your parents to pay a lot more than they can afford to pay. </p>
<p>and, lastly, since you will be a NMF, apply to a couple of schools that will give you huge merit for that.</p>
<p>I know that it is very frustrating to think that with your great stats, that you might get accepted to top schools, but they may expect your family to pay too much (or they may expect your family to pay all costs). It may not seem fair.</p>
<p>Mom2collegekids. State aid in Iowa is pretty poor for university bound students (there are some new programs that help with 2years of cc for the poorest students). Darn little is available at the two big state schools. The third, UNI, does have some automatic merit. In-state direct costs, including room and board, run right around 20k. Not bad, but the project on student debt reports “average” debt for an ISU student at over 30k. I believe that organization also rates Iowa 4th highest in the nation for student debt.</p>
<p>Psych…check into University of Southern California. My son will start there this year in Computer Science. If you apply by December 1 you are considered for merit aid. Their top scholarship is Trustee Scholar, full tuition. All NMF are guaranteed the Presidential Scholarship, half tuition. Your scores should warrant an interview for Trustee.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say darn little is available at U of Iowa. A combination of their presidential scholarship, national merit award, and national scholars award would pay for all of my expenses there.</p>
<p>^^^
The post was talking about need-based aid from the STATE of Iowa. It wasn’t talking about merit aid given by either univ. A low income student with good, but not merit quality stats, wouldn’t get the money that he needed for college.</p>
<p>***State aid *in Iowa is pretty poor for university bound students</p>
<p>State need-based aid is VERY different from merit aid. State need-based aid is based on income, not stats. And…merit aid usually doesn’t come from tax-payers. </p>
<p>It sounds like UIowa can be one of your financial safety schools. In situations like yours, it’s good to have at least 3 financial safety schools…just in case your “financial reach” schools don’t work out money-wise or acceptance-wise. By having at least 3 such schools, you’ll still feel like you have a choice for college…otherwise, you may feel “railroaded” into UIowa…even tho it’s a good school. It’s always nice to have a choice…good for morale.</p>
<p>Yes, merit aid is available, but with only 20 presidential scholarships awarded each year, the phrase “don’t count your chickens” comes to mind.</p>