<p>I have some questions regarding household income?</p>
<p>1) In most applications, it is optional to include income, right?</p>
<p>2) If you do put in your income, and it happens to be very high (i.e. over $180,000) will selective colleges would that against you?</p>
<p>What kind of application are you talking about? If it is a financial aid application or a scholarship application for which financial need is a criteria, then there will be questions about income which must be answered or forms which must be filled out like FAFSA or CSS Profile. If it is for a scholarship which does not have financial need for a criteria, such questions are not asked. If it is an application to attend college, I haven't seen one that asked for household income. Often they do have a box to check if you want to be considered for financial aid, but you fill out the FAFSA or Profile separately.</p>
<p>Depends on what the application is for. For financial aid obviously income is not optional. For admissions - do they ask that? If so why would they hold it against you?</p>
<p>Let me rephrase my question:</p>
<p>I am assuming that students usually send in their financial aid application along with your college application, right?</p>
<p>My family income is too high that I will most likely not qualify for any financial aid. Will not applying for financial aid affect me in any way in competitive colleges?</p>
<p>Or will applying for financial aid and the college knowing my family has a high income, will that factor in the decision process?</p>
<p>EDIT: Well I've seen in the Common Application, for example, that there is a place to include your income. [though I'm not sure if putting it in is optional or not]</p>
<p>The Common Application does not ask for your household income. There is a section where you check off yes or no in response to the question, "Will you be a candidate for need-based financial aid?" </p>
<p>Now, so far as the mechanics of submitting a financial aid application: generally students do not include a financial aid form which is submitted right along with the application itself, as part of the application packet. Instead they fill out FAFSA and Profile, and the colleges use these for their FA decisions. Some colleges also have their own forms which they ask be filled out.</p>
<p>Some colleges are "need blind" in their application process. That means whether or not you intend to apply for FA will not weigh on their admissions decision. Others are "need aware." These schools will weigh a student's ability to pay when making their admissions decisions.</p>
<p>And in "need blind" admissions, it's kids that can't pay that suffer. You won't be affected. They WANT people that can pay their tuition, haha. The only way that high income can hurt you is if they want economic diversity- but schools care a lot less about that than you'd think...</p>
<p>The FAFSA and CSS Profile (if your school uses it) forms are completed on different sites than the application and sent in separately. You indicate which colleges should receive the information, similar to sending in SAT and ACT scores. Each school will indicate their deadlines for financial aid, they may differ for ED, EA, rolling, and RD admissions. You or your parents cannot file the FAFSA before January 1 anyway, as it requires end-of-year income information. It is a very good idea to look at the current forms to get an idea of the information they will request, and there are worksheets to estimate what the EFC number may be. Plan on filing as early as possible; note that you can amend FAFSA at least if the information changes.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>I am assuming that students usually send in their financial aid application along with your college application, right?>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>No...your college application will be sent to the office of admissions. You will either use the Common Application or the colleges's own applications. These can be submitted online.</p>
<p>Your financial aid applications will be the FAFSA and (if required) the CSS Profile. You can complete both of these online for submission to the financial aid office at your college(s). Some schools also have their own financial aid applications...these also get sent to the college financial aid office.</p>
<p>Now...some schools DO consider your financial aid situation when you are applying, but others do not. In other words, in some places, the admissions folks will be able to review your financial aid situation and this could affect admission. HOWEVER, in other places admissions never sees the financial aid applications (need blind) and this has no impact on your admissions.</p>
<p>If you can afford to pay the full tuition, I would say that is a plus for helping you get into the college of your dreams. If the college had to choose between two equally qualified students, I doubt they would turn down the student who could pay the tuition. If you do not check the box to apply for aid, you can not apply for it later that same year. You can however apply the next year (this is my understanding). </p>
<p>Often times scholarships require that you have a fafsa on file so I would at least do that even if you check the box "I do not plan to apply for aid".</p>
<p>friedrice</p>
<p>Get your parents to work through the FAFSA calculator and the "institutional method" calculator at FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans so that they can see what your family will be expected to pay for college. Then ask them where, exactly, that money is going to come from. The income that they have and that looks so big to you right now is also being used to pay for your family's living expenses, retirement savings plan, vacations, etc. etc. As a family, you may need to reorganize some of your current expenses in order to have the cash available to pay for a college education.</p>
<p>If you and your parents figure out that you won't be able to pay for all your college expenses out of their current income and your summer/school year earnings, then you need to talk with them about where you will find the money. Will you (or they) take out loans? Have they set up a college fund for you that they plan to tap?</p>
<p>Do yourself, and your parents, a big favor and insist on having this conversation NOW. A brief glance through the various boards here at cc will show you what happens to kids who don't talk with their parents about money, and with parents who don't think seriously about the money, until after they have bee accepted to colleges.</p>
<p>Wishing you and your family all the best in this coming year.</p>