<p>Arrite you Parents out there, I need some help!</p>
<p>How exactly does the whole financial situations go when paying for you child to go to an Ivy League school or any other very expensive school?</p>
<p>Here's the breakdown of what I know my parent's make annually:
Only my dad works,and from what I know, his annual income is around $32,000 - $36,000. He owns a small gift shop in a tourist area, thus, the fluctuation between income. </p>
<p>Do most Ivy's and in specific, John Hopkins, provide financial aid for this level of income? I am no guru when it comes to finances, so if anyone could help me out in the process, I would be grateful.</p>
<p>If anything I said above (numbers)don't make sense, let me know and I'll double check.</p>
<p>Since your dad owns his own business, his “net income” will not be the income that is used to determine your aid. Some CSS schools will add back in some deductions.</p>
<p>So, I would not use the Net Price Calculator, correct? Also, what are “CSS” schools? So, if I shouldn’t use the Net Price Calculator, how would I go about finding a rough idea for tuition?</p>
<p>EDIT: Looking back on your response, I think I missed your point…If his “net income” is not going to determine the amount of financial aid, then what will?</p>
<p>Each college/university has a Net Price Calculator right on the website. Some are better than others at actually predicting how the financial aid will work out. They have only been around for one full admission cycle, so we don’t know yet which are really accurate and which are really bad. Generally speaking, the more questions the NPC asks, the greater the likelihood of accuracy.</p>
<p>The biggest difficulty is for small business owners. The final calculations used by the college/university often add back in some items that are subtracted from income for taxes. This means that you should run the NPCs, but not be surprised if the actual aid packages (especially at colleges and universities that will require the CSS Profile or their own financial aid paperwork in addition to the FAFSA) do not resemble the NPC results.</p>
<p>Talk with your parents about how they expect you to pay for your education. Work up a basic budget. Then make certain that at least one of the places you like and where you are dead-certain of admission is within that budget so that you have a safety in your pocket if nothing else ultimately proves to be affordable.</p>
<p>I would guess that the type of business your father owns does not have a lot of monetary assets attached (location is likely leased, inventory relatively small due to seasonal demands etc.) so the numbers you see as income will probably yield an EFC that is relatively close to what you will see from your colleges.</p>