<p>I'm only a junior right now, but I figured I should take the initiative and look into financial aid at colleges and such now. My parents make about $35,000/year and they own their own nail salon business, but it isn't doing so well right now, considering the recession and all (people don't tend to pay for such luxuries during tough times!). I was just wondering what financial aid packages were like for people with family income brackets around mine at Northwestern U, UChicago, Dartmouth College, BrownU, and Vanderbilt. </p>
<p>Any information or help would be much appreciated. Thank you!</p>
<p>Very good at all. Though keep in mind that as small business owners, colleges will take a hard look at your parents’ tax returns and may well not allow many of their business deductions, making the income they base your EFC on higher.</p>
<p>Be careful about reading too much about where the loan caps are: the real issue is how a college calculates need. If college D caps home equity, for example, while college C does not… A lower income household that has some home equity, perhaps because of a divorce or death of a spouse, will receive differential grant aid packages. In addition, colleges calculate self-employed businesses differently. Just because the tax return reports ~$60k in income, does not mean that the Financial Aid officers will concur after all the add-backs. Some colleges are much more generous in such items and others are not-so-generous.</p>
<p>While I have no personal knowledge of Chicago, over the years the common refrain on cc is that Chicago is not on the generous side of top colleges.</p>
<p>And, yes I know that Dartmouth re-instituted loans, so I apologize for the poor grammar. Even with the loan packages, D is still generous. There, I (hopefully?) fixed it.</p>
<p>“Dartmouth is generous; Vandy is as well since it is no loan.”</p>