I am an international student in junior of high school right now, and am planning to apply to top liberal arts colleges. My parents have a fluctuating income of $100-130k. These are income from renting out properties and both of my parents are retired. However, my family’s total asset is higher than 3000k. Will this make me unable to get financial aid? So if we don’t get financial aid, are we supposed to sell a house, where the income is from, to pay for my tuition fees??? Has anyone had a situation like this before?
Do you mean that your assets are more than $3,000,000? Yes, that will make it very difficult to get need-based financial aid, especially as an international student. I’m fairly certain that these will count as investment assets. It ends up being like having a large portfolio of stocks that pays interest and dividends. You own the assets, and they expect you to sell something or borrow against it to pay for college.
Some schools may work with you. It will help a bit that your parents are retired (presumably they are older?) but you may be better off chasing merit. I’d love to hear what others have to say on this.
3000k… Is this $3 million?
If total family assets exceed $3 million, yes, this will probably make it unlikely for you to get need-based financial aid.
Either that, or borrow against the value of the property.
This has come up here before. Using rental properties as a retirement investment and retirement income tool is generally not compatible with qualifying for need-based financial aid at U.S. colleges.
You are an international student. You need to find out how much your parents can pay each year for your education. Most colleges and universities here do not have a lot of money for international students. If you can’t find any places that cost no more than what your parents can pay, you should study in your home country.
@happymomof1 I am applying to top LACs, so they do offer financial aid for internationals. My home country- I’ve got two but one of them is not in the right political situation right now. But it’s ok, thanks everyone for the help, my parents are still paying off an apartment in London and we don’t really need it so they might sell it later. 
An international student with family asset over 3 million and annual income over $100k, why do you still ask for NEED based aid? Was it an April fool joke?
@billcsho I am quite offended by your reply. We come from a traditional culture where my parents have to support both their parents (my grandparents) and also their older brothers/sisters (aunts, uncles). I have 8 aunts and uncles that are older than my parents, you see. More than 30k of our rental income is gone that way. They have been retired for 5 years now (by choice, not age). They have saved so much when they used to work and I don’t want to waste it on school fees. However I did talk to a college financial aid department and they recommended me to send in a form and also a letter.
So you should get need-based aid even though your family has high income and assets, while a student from a less wealthy family who doesn’t share your same “traditional culture” gets no need-based aid? Please explain to me how this makes sense.
I’m planning to apply to schools that cost 64k a year. If some of our properties don’t get rented out (which is happening a lot recently) or because my parents are nice and lower the rents for young people trying to start their own business then we would have a negative income I don’t want to see the burden on them, and they don’t want me to study in my home country either because of the political situation and because only one university in the whole place offers the course I want to study.
I’m just looking for scholarships now. Maybe music ones, because I already have a bachelor’s degree in music. I don’t think I can find any yet.
That may be, @klmelon, but you are asking US schools to pay your way, and in this culture and by financial aid regulations, those 8 sets of relatives and their costs aren’t considered dependents. We allow people to spend their money any way they want to, but it counts as income to the family.
@billcsho is just telling you how it is. If you get into a school that meets needs, they are going to consider you don’t have much need because your family has $3m and spends $30k per year on family support that could be used for tuition. Owning real estate for income is not treated favorably by financial aid officers. Yes, they expect you to sell one.
At a ‘regular’ school, just being in the $100-130k will take you out of the big financial aid recipient group. At the very generous schools like Ivies and the top LACs, second homes and assets are considered, even if they are income producing.
@BelknapPoint no one said that a less wealthy family shouldn’t get need-based aid. Your logic doesn’t really make sense, and it’s steering away from my question . The schools that I am applying to offer aid to two-thirds of its student population.
The purpose of need-based financial aid in the United States is not to allow a student’s parents to continue to support grandparents and multiple aunts and uncles, or to be able to provide below market rent in order to be nice to young people trying to start their own business. Your family, by any measure, is very well off. How your parents choose to spend their income and use their assets is up to them. But to expect a U.S. college to provide need-based aid to you because your parents choose not to spend a fair share of their income and assets on your education is folly.
@twoinanddone thanks, it seems that your comment is the only comment that actually answered my question. and no, billcsho did not tell me how it is, he just referred to this situation as a joke.
@BelknapPoint oh no, my parents said that it’s ok, I just don’t want to put any more burden on them. They’re already flying over to Scotland to see me three times a year already, it’s just a bit too much for them in my opinion…
That may be, but I can pretty much guarantee you that students from families with reportable assets of $3 million and annual income in the $100k to $130k range are not being offered need-based aid, and for good reason.
Your question was about financial aid problems. I submit that you don’t have a financial aid problem, you have a family resource allocation problem.
@BelknapPoint alright, thanks for giving me a straightforward answer. In where I live every decent 1000 sq-ft middle-class apartment costs 1 million, so I guess maybe these things in the US are different. Anyone who owns an apartment in my home city wouldn’t qualify I’ll just go look for scholarships
Will schools provide institutional grants for second-degree holders?
@purpleacorn I’m only a junior in high school. I only got that because I’m good at music??
Good question. From what OP has posted, he/she is a high school junior in Scotland with a bachelor’s degree in music, whose parents fly in to visit three times a year.