<p>With a 1900 SAT, you won’t likely get into Cornell.</p>
<p>Since money is an issue, and your current scores are not high enough for the top schools that give the best aid, you need to carefully select schools that will be affordable.</p>
<p>It’s a sad fact that those with lowish incomes and good-but-not-stellar stats often don’t get the best FA packages because their stats aren’t high enough for a school to be that generous.</p>
<p>Be sure to apply to some schools where your stats will be considered high.</p>
<p>How are your parents paying for the house? Do they also have an account in that country that is paying for it? Is it rented out? What is the house worth? Do you own or rent here. These are relevant questions.</p>
<p>It’s not a house, it’s an apartment. It costs about 65k in our country and it’s all payed up. See, that country is not like America, we don’t have any accounts or anything. My grandparents pay $20 in taxes for it. No one is renting it.</p>
<p>So your parents have an additional $65K asset to report…it may not have a huge impact on your FAFSA EFC if they don’t have many other reportable assets because parents have an asset protection allowance based on the age of the older parent. Above that, parental assets are only assessed at 5.6%. So, for example, if your older parent is 48, they would have an asset protection allowance of $50,100 to offset the other house, leaving only around $840 ($14,900 x .056) to be added to your FAFSA EFC. Also, remember that when you fill out FAFSA it’s only the net asset value that is reported…so they would put the value of the apartment if they had to sell it immediately (not wait for higher offers) less any estimated repairs or selling costs that they would incur.</p>
<p>thank you for the info! I tried to find a copy of the FAFSA form (I don’t want to register yet, I probably should), how could I specify that the apartment is located outside of the U.S.?</p>
<p>sxe…it doesn’t matter where the apartment is located. It is an ASSET regardless of the location. There is no place to put the location because it simply doesn’t matter. An asset is an asset regardless of where it is located.</p>
<p>As noted…the value of that apartment IS an asset, but if it’s the only asset, it won’t affect your EFC per FAFSA by a huge amount. </p>
<p>You need to understand…there are thousands of college students who do NOT own an additional piece of real estate beside their primary residence (which can be owned OR rented). Your family has that asset. </p>
<p>If you go to the FAFSA.gov website, you can print out the FAFSA worksheet which has much of the information you will need to complete the FAFSA on it.</p>
<p>but how can I be sure that I show the correct value of the apartment? I mean, we bought it for 2k(the minimum price we can ask now established by the bank we bought the apartment from) in our country 7 years ago, now it’s much more than that. It would be foolish to sell it for 2k and we don’t have any inspectors that would evaluate the cost of the apartment. You sell the apartment for whatever amount of money people are going to buy it from you.</p>
<p>Not entirely true. My family is selling our house right now, and we can’t sell it for more than the appraised value. Banks will not give mortgages over the value of the house. Two people can’t get in a bidding war, unless they are personally just giving us cash or something.</p>
<p>yes, but our apartment is not in the U.S. and people basically pay cash in our country. I know, it probably sounds wild/crazy but it is the truth, it’s a developing country or I’d rather say a regressing country…</p>
<p>I mean, the cost has to be legally backed up, we can’t just write down our own estimate?</p>
<p>How did you come up with the $65K number? It’s customary to use an average selling price based on recent sales of comparable properties (similar neighborhoods, sizes, amenities)…they don’t have to be identical properties and, in the case of city apartments, it shouldn’t be that difficult to find information (realtors, public records, and newspapers usually list real estate transactions). Perhaps your grandparents could help. There is no “legal” requirements, afaik, just be prepared to support the number you use with some type of documentation if the school questions it!</p>
<p>that explains a lot! Thank you. I will post more questions if I come up with any.</p>