Financial aid woes

Parents Forum
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<p>So last week I finally sat down with my dad and seriously discussed how much my parents will realistically be able to pay for college. It wasn't a fun conversation to have, but hearing the facts alleviated some of my anxiety (my dad's estimate ended up being very similar to mine, and I was guessing). So these are the numbers I'm working with:</p>

<p>My parents: $10,000/year
Swedish student aid: $15,000/year (that's a $13,000 low-interest loan and a $2,000 grant)</p>

<p>So that's $25,000/year that I don't have to worry about. Things could be much worse. Ideally, though, I'd need a $20,000/year grant from the college.</p>

<p>1) According to the</a> CollegeBoard EFC calculator, my family's EFC is just under $10,000/year for my parents and about $1,500 for me. That definitely sounds manageable, but the site uses American (domestic) methodology. Is the EFC calculated differently for internationals than for domestics? How likely am I to get a similar EFC when I apply for real next year?</p>

<p>2) My parents make $120,000/year, but pay almost 40% of that in income taxes alone... leaving us with $70,000/year, not even counting any of our other taxes (I've no idea how much those are, but Swedish taxes are ridiculously high in general). Colleges look at how much int'ls are taxed in their own countries, right? They're not just going to see the $120,000/year pre-tax and say, "sorry, no aid for this one"?</p>

<p>3) My family owns a small house and co-owns an even smaller summer house in Sweden. Together they're worth about $300,000; we have a ~$100,000 mortgage. We don't own anything here in DC. To what extent are such assets considered in the calculations?</p>

<p>4) We have no savings that I know of. If we do at all, it's <$30k for sure.</p>

<p>I know this is long-winded; I'm just trying to figure out if it's at all realistic to hope for a $15-20k/year grant considering my financial situation. I've looked at the CSS forms, but it's difficult to understand how things like "amount of money spent on clothes in the past year" will determine the final EFC...!</p>

<p>I know I'll have to work through college and have in fact applied for a job at a local Starbucks (actually, I'm supposed to hear from them today)... I'm just wondering if I'm setting myself up for disappointment, and if next April I'll end up with a pile of acceptances and no possible way to pay for any of them.</p>

<p>For what it's worth, schools I'm considering are Macalester, Reed, Grinnell, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, Carleton, Swarthmore, Amherst, University of Chicago, Brown, Stanford, and Yale. Possible majors are biology, chemistry, biochemistry, or neuroscience. As for me, I'm all colleges' least favorite applicant: a white international nonathlete nonlegacy who's applying for aid... but I'm fluent in three languages and passable in a fourth, so I'm kind of diverse, right? :p</p>

<p>So... am I kidding myself, or will this work?</p>

<p>As always, your help is much appreciated.</p>

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<p>IMO
$13,000 a year for college in loans is way too much
You don't want to leave school, looking at grad school with over $50,000 in loans</p>

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<p>I probably should've mentioned this in my original post: I'm not interested in professional school, and if I go to grad school it'll be in the sciences. So that's definitely one factor. $13,000/year is the limit of how much I can get directly from the Swedish government (student funds); it's basically a worst-case scenario. Ideally I won't have to borrow quite that much!</p>

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<p>Find a financial safety!!!!!! :)</p>

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<p>^UK schools. I don't really want to go to Europe, but if all else fails I get the EU citizenship discount.</p>

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<p>Very few colleges promise to meet full need for international students, and depending on your immigration status, you may not be eligible for federal student aid. Read these pages on the FAFSA site for more information:</p>

<p>"Eligible Noncitizen"
<a href="https://www.fafsa.ed.gov/fotw0304/help/fotw15a.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://www.fafsa.ed.gov/fotw0304/help/fotw15a.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>"Noneligible Noncitizen"
<a href="https://www.fafsa.ed.gov/fotw0304/help/ffdef05.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://www.fafsa.ed.gov/fotw0304/help/ffdef05.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Basically I think you need to research the financial aid policies of the colleges you are interested in, and/or look for colleges where you are likely to get strong merit aid. The colleges you have listed do not generally fit that definition, so you really need to broaden your college search.</p>

<p>Do look seriously at womens' colleges, such as Smith or Mt. Holyoke, as they are places where you can get an excellent education and may be more likely to get merit-based aid. Your interest in pursuing a science major is a plus, particularly at predominantly female LAC's.</p>

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<p>The value of a primary home is not considered by FAFSA, but is by Profile. The mortgage does not figure into either equation.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the suggestions. I have an A-1 (diplomatic) visa and don't qualify for federal aid. I will look at women's colleges, although I'd prefer not to go to one. Merit aid is a good idea, but it seems like most colleges don't offer it. Where do I even start looking?</p>

<p>What I'm still trying to figure out, though, is whether I'm likely to get enough need-based aid for college in the US to be financially viable. The calculator I linked to above gave us an EFC that would absolutely be feasible, I'm just wondering if the international student aid calculations will give us a wildly different result, or if we can expect an EFC in that general range ($10-12k).</p>

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<p>on the financial aid thread- I have posted a list of colleges who offer aid to international students</p>

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<p>I'll check it out. Thanks!</p>

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<p>Look at the University of Southern California.</p>

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<p>Colleges do offer merit aid. Just, typically, not the most competitive ones. If you are interested in, or willing to consider, lesser known, but still very good, colleges, you could get merit aid. For starters, check out this thread:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=143944%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=143944&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>There have been other threads on this topic, too, if memory serves.</p>

<p>I would think that a lot of colleges would consider your background and language skills to be of interest. </p>

<p>And always remember that your education depends far more on YOU than on your being at any particular college. You can get a good education at many, many places.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
And always remember that your education depends far more on YOU than on your being at any particular college. You can get a good education at many, many places.

[/quote]

Yes, but I don't want college to be like high school, where being intelligent is looked down upon and I'm accused of sucking up to teachers because I participate in class and care about what we're learning. I'm getting a wonderful education, and I'm grateful, but in all other respects I'm so unhappy. </p>

<p>I'm applying to competitive colleges because I don't want to be the token smart kid anymore. That's not something I'm willing to sacrifice; if that's what I have to settle for I'd actually rather go back to Europe.</p>

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<p>Sorry if I sound harsh, but it's something I feel strongly about. All I really want to know is if, based on the information I gave, I'm likely to get enough need-based aid from colleges to realistically be able to pay.</p>

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<p>When you said "Merit aid is a good idea, but it seems like most colleges don't offer it." you apparently meant "..but it seems like most colleges I am interested in don't offer it."</p>

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<p>You're right. Sorry I didn't clarify.</p>

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<p>OK. It is your life, and I regret coming across as telling you how to run it.</p>

<p>I wish I had some special insight for you, but I don't. You seem to have a good handle on the problem. </p>

<p>And, if I understand you correctly, you have a backup, or perhaps "safety", plan in mind. If the financials don't work out here, your plan is to go back to Europe rather than study here at a place where the financials might be good but the situation is in some other respect(s) unsatisfactory.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
OK. It is your life, and I regret coming across as telling you how to run it.

[/quote]

That's not how you came across at all! I appreciate the advice; I just shouldn't have been so vague about what I was looking for. :o

[quote]
And, if I understand you correctly, you have a backup, or perhaps "safety", plan in mind. If the financials don't work out here, your plan is to go back to Europe rather than study here at a place where the financials might be good but the situation is in some other respect(s) unsatisfactory.

[/quote]

I guess, yeah. I don't want to go back, but if nothing else comes through I guess I have no choice. There's always grad school, right?</p>

<p>Right now I'm reallydesperatelyhoping that something will work itself out. I'm just trying to evaluate to what extent that hope is unrealistic.</p>

<p>Thanks again for all your help. :)</p>

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<p>OK, but IMO it isn't entirely accurate to say that you would have "no choice".</p>

<p>If you have to make a suboptimal choice, the suboptimal alternatives appear to be 1. study in Europe, or 2. study at a merit-aid college in the United States (or Canada?).</p>

<p>If you have to pick one or the other of those two, realizing that neither is your first choice, which would you take--or, better, what are the considerations favoring the one or the other?</p>

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<p>Are you sure that EU citizenship will automatically give you home fees at UK Universities? I looked into this a while back for my DD and it appears that if you went to High School in the states, which I assume to be your case, you did not automatically get home fees.</p>